Okonjo-Iweala Urges NDDC to Tackle Niger Delta’s Environmental and Economic Crisis, Warns Region’s Stability at Risk

The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to provide sustainable solutions to the economic challenges currently confronting the Niger Delta region.

Her appeal comes amid worsening environmental degradation in the oil-producing region, resulting from decades of oil and gas exploration.

Okonjo-Iweala, speaking during the NDDC’s 25th anniversary celebration on Saturday, was pointed in her remarks, emphasizing that long-standing neglect of the region’s socio-economic needs has sparked widespread frustration and restiveness among its people.

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She called on the NDDC to prioritize economic development in the region.

“Let me first congratulate the NDDC for the work it has carried out for the people of the Niger Delta,” she said. “If I’m a bit critical in my speech, you know me—I mean it for good, because I think you have done a lot, but you still have a lot to do.”

She recounted that the NDDC was established in 2000 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, succeeding the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), which was created under the military government in response to calls from the Niger Delta for greater inclusion and development.

“Oil and gas exploration, by its nature, often poses challenges to its environment in the form of pollution of land and waters. Gas flaring is another hazard that the people in the environment have had to deal with,” she noted.

“These challenges were backed up by the government with the setting up of the NDDC. You, the NDDC, cannot afford to fail.”

Okonjo-Iweala stressed the critical role the region plays in Nigeria’s economy.

“As you well know, oil and gas account for 90 percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange and 70 percent of its fiscal revenue. It is regarded as the lifeblood of the economy. The people of the region must be carried along so that they can feel their concerns are being addressed.”

She emphasized the need to ensure peace in the area through infrastructure and social services, warning that failure to do so would impact national prosperity.

“The goose that lays the golden egg deserves attention,” she said. “The purpose of the federal government was to use the NDDC as a vehicle to address some of the challenges the oil communities were facing, including the environmental degradation from oil and gas exploration as it affects oil and fishing activities, infrastructure, and the general absence of economic opportunities.”

“These issues have caused significant frustration, disrupted oil operations, and now threaten the country’s prosperity,” she added.

According to Okonjo-Iweala, the NDDC bears a vital responsibility—to improve the lives of the region’s people and to ensure their contentment, which in turn enables the federal government to maintain revenue generation from the region.

“The NDDC has a lofty goal of transforming the region,” she said. “It is to offer a lasting solution to the socio-economic difficulties of the Niger Delta region.”

Environmental damage in the Niger Delta is among the most severe in the world. Unprecedented oil spills over the past five decades have heavily polluted the air, land, and water with toxic chemicals—an example often cited as ecocide.

While the European Union experienced just 10 oil spill incidents in 40 years, Nigeria recorded 9,343 cases in only 10 years.

The environmental degradation—caused by gas flaring, river dredging, oil spills, and land reclamation for extraction—costs the region an estimated $758 million annually. Alarmingly, 75% of that cost is borne by local communities through contaminated water, infertile soil, and loss of biodiversity.

Experts have warned that, due to extensive dam construction, the region could lose up to 40% of its habitable land over the next 30 years.