Niger Delta Human Development Report - UNDP Nigeria - United ...

to people at all levels of development.
With few exceptions, the Niger Delta states
appear to be better off on most human
development indices than Nigeria as a
whole, although not in the case of such
states as Lagos, Kaduna and the Federal
Capital Territory, which have clearly benefited
from infrastructure paid for by oil.
While the gap between the Niger Delta
states and the rest of the country has narrowed
progressively over the years, this is
only because the indices for the rest of
the country have risen, while those for the
delta region have remained virtually unchanged.
This lends credence to the general
belief in the Niger Delta of neglect
by successive national administrations, and
underscores the failure of state and local
governments and development agencies to
address developmental problems. The lack
of progress is patently unacceptable given
the resources generated from the region.
Spatial disparities in human development
are blurred at the state level, but they become
pronounced at the local level. In
general, local governments in the drier interior
parts of the region are better off
than those in the swamp zone, which
clearly shows the adverse effect of the
difficult core Niger Delta environment on
physical and socio-economic development.
While some local governments in difficult
places that have oil wells or facilities appear
to have performed much better on
the HDI than those without oil operations,
this performance fizzles on poverty measures.
Some local governments with oil
facilities also perform poorly on overall
life expectancy, education and equally distributed
life expectancy. It is sad that the
oil industry appears to have such a limited
impact. Local frustration with the industry
and governments in general is understandable.
In a situation of general socio-economic
deprivation such as the one in the Niger
Delta region, minority or underprivileged
groups such as youths and women suffer
more than others. The foregoing discussions
have highlighted some of the problems
from gender disparities. Youth restiveness
is discussed in subsequent chapters
of this report. Both issues must be
addressed in any human development
agenda for the region.
72 NIGER DELTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT