Cross River vs. Akwa Ibom: Assignment for Tinubu

Reuben ABATI

By Reuben Abati

There is an urgent assignment for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is the need to intervene and seek to resolve the festering conflict between Cross Rivers State and its neighbouring Akwa Ibom State, both once together as a community, until State creation in 1987, and now the politics of oil, the fight over 76 oil wells has driven them apart. The number of oil wells has since increased to 238, the reason the fight is threatening to become messy. Section 44(3) of the 1999 Constitution, the Minerals and Mining Act 2007, and Item 39, Schedule II of the Exclusive Legislative List vest the ownership, control and management of all mineral resources, including oil and gas in the Federal Government. The States gain through derivation (at 13%), and with oil as the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, it is not a source of revenue that any State would be willing to play around with. Most of the 36 States are unproductive. Every month, they wait for either Federal Allocation, or their share of oil proceeds. With the Federal Government now invoking the spirit of Section 162 and the Executive Order No. 9 of 2026 which require all oil and gas revenues, including royalties, taxes and profits to be paid directly into the Federation Account, it means there will be more money for the States to share. No State wants to lose whatever it thinks belongs to its people. The Tinubu administration also has a responsibility to forestall the possibility of border clashes, and communal conflicts or militancy between the brotherly people of Akwa Ibom and Cross River. 

Oil, the black gold, beneath our soil also divides us as we have seen in the bitter, prolonged fight between Egweama, Nembe and Elepa communities in Bayelsa over the ownership of Elepa 1 and 2 oil wells, which has now been peacefully resolved, or the boundary disputes over ten oil wells in the Anambra River Basin between Anambra and Delta States, the brewing conflict between Ogun and Ondo States over the ownership of the oil wells in Eba island, and the controversy over the Soku oil wells between Rivers and Bayelsa States.  The key thing in the matter between Cross River and Akwa Ibom is that 76 oil wells were ceded to Akwa Ibom following the 2002 loss of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which rendered Cross River, a non-littoral State, and made it ineligible for derivation revenue. In two different, but related, decisions the Supreme Court of Nigeria since 2012, has consistently affirmed that the 76 oil wells belong to Akwa Ibom State. Cross River, 14 years later, has returned to the same issue to argue that the Supreme Court was wrong, having been fed with wrong information. The question is why has it taken Cross River State this long to suddenly wake up and re-open the matter?

Akwa Ibom is also adamant insisting that no agency, no individual, no committee can overrule the Supreme Court, which has ruled in favour of Akwa Ibom twice.  Governor Umo Eno is on record as having said: “We are not sharing maritime boundaries with Cross River State, but with the Republic of Cameroon, and the Nigerian Supreme Court has said so twice to establish this fact.” Governor Eno advises his brothers in Cross River State to avoid emotions, sentiments and propaganda. Meanwhile, Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River State argues that Akwa Ibom has no boundary with Cameroon, it is in fact 28 nautical miles away from the coast, and that based on new mapping, and coordinates, Cross River is indeed a littoral State, the only navigational entry into Nigeria is through the Calabar estuary, and that the 200 metres isobath, as well as the outward seabound extension of the Continental shelf is in Cross River State.  To say otherwise is to turn Cross River into a landlocked State which it is not. The government of Cross River State insists that the Supreme Court was misled because the ICJ never said Cross Rivers is not a littoral State, nor does the Green Tree agreement so indicate. Besides, in mapping out actual boundary line of the territories belonging to Nigeria in August 2008, the National Boundary Commission applied a “Technical Option” instead of the “Historic Title Option” and awarded the 76 oil wells in Western Bakassi to Akwa Ibom in error.

Gladiators have been lined up on both sides, lawyers, cartographers and surveyors are all at work. The Cross River State government argues that there is in fact an inter-agency report, presenting fresh facts, which the Federal Government has an obligation to exhume and implement. The Cross River and Akwa Ibom elites are divided. They belong to the same political party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), but nobody wants to be remembered as the person who negotiated away 76 oil wells. There is ego involved, there is greed also. And there is politics. When they meet in public, they show much amity, and say the right things, but there is oil in their eyes! Governor Bassey Otu is seeking a second term in office in 2027. He wants justice for his people. He is of the firm opinion that the loss of Bakassi should not have resulted in the loss of oil wells.  He does not want Cross River to be cheated. He has his people’s support. If he succeeds in retrieving the 76 oil wells, he will become the people’s hero and raise questions about the commitment of his predecessors in that office. As he puts it, “the ceding of part of Bakassi was for Nigeria’s peace; it was not for Cross River State to forfeit its oil wells. Enough of Nonsense. Cross River State cannot take rubbish anymore. What is our right is our right. We are full-fledged Nigerians, and nobody can deny us.” He calls on the people of Cross River to remain optimistic.  Governor Eno is also just as assertive: “We are also in APC. We shall enter wherever they enter; we shall go to any extent to protect our resources”.

This has become a very oily matter that should not be left in the hands of militants. It should be phrased as a public policy issue. There should be honest conversations among the stakeholders to make a peaceful resolution easy, without greed on both sides. The bond of brotherhood between the people of Akwa Ibom and Cross River must not be broken. The Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) had asked the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to establish the exact locations of new and disputed oil wells. Where is the report of the inter-agency committee of the NUPRC, the office of the Surveyor-General and the National Boundary Commission put together by RMAFC?  Coordinates do not lie. Where are the coordinates? Which State owns what? And where? What is the truth? Where is the maritime boundary of Cross River State? Cross River alleges that the oil wells in OML 114 and OML 123 oil fields – 67 in total are within its boundary, based on the Nation’s Administrative Map 11th edition and the 2004 well dichotomy study map. Ultimately the matter would have to go back to the Supreme Court and both parties should have an open mind. In the face of fresh facts and information, the Supreme Court can arrive at a different conclusion but let it be on record that justice is done. Only the Supreme Court has the power to overrule itself.

Meanwhile, this presents the President an opportunity to change Nigeria’s energy sector and ensure efficiency. More than 17 years after Southern Bakassi was handed over to Cameroon, the joint mixed commission has not resolved the maritime boundary demarcation between Nigeria and Cameroon. There are ungoverned spaces on the high seas between both countries, which have now become a playing field for illegal drilling, and oil theft. Pirates from as far away as China and Somalia are operating freely in the Gulf of Guinea and Nigerian waters, stealing profits and resources that are meant for the country. These oil thieves probably have Nigerian collaborators, collecting rent on our behalf. The Federal Government is looking for revenue, and yet we have oil wells that are being compromised. The subject therefore goes beyond the dispute between two States. Nigeria can benefit more by learning to manage its resources below and above the sea, more efficiently. 

II.

OPL 245: Tinubu’s Pragmatism

On March 5, 2026, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu brought the nightmare over OPL 245 to an end by resolving the conflicts among parties that had become a subject of international arbitration at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). OPL 245 has now been converted into two development licences: PML 102 and 103, and two exploration licenses, PML 2011 and PML 2012, bringing much relief to the partners, Agip/Eni, NNPC and Shell Exploration and Production Company Ltd.  OPL 245 is a deep-water offshore area, approximately 150 km off the Niger Delta, considered to be a prolific asset holding nine billion barrels of crude. Due to legal issues, conflicts, investigations, disagreements and court cases across the world – Italy, United Kingdom, Nigeria, the Netherlands and the United States, no oil barrel has been drilled from the acreage.

For more than 15 years, there have been disputes, involving the oil companies, Malabu Oil and Gas, the Federal Government, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). An oil block which could have brought significant economic and social benefits to the Nigerian people, was delayed by politics.  Nigeria acted in public interest in 2011 by signing the Resolution Agreement of April 2011. The story is told at great length in a book by Mohammed Bello Adoke, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice titled: OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3bn Nigerian Oil Block (Conrad Press, 2025, 271pp.)

The historic settlement agreement that President Tinubu has presided over shows courage and pragmatism. It will pave the way for activities to commence at the commercially viable asset. It also sends a clear signal to investors that Nigerian is ready for business and legacy issues are considered important. There may be no production in any of the four blocks in the next four years, considering the scope of efforts required, but the current outcome is a major turning point in the OPL 245 saga. What President Tinubu has done is to take a pragmatic view of the matter. Why should Nigeria continue to lose the many opportunities it could gain from the development of OPL 245?

The current Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi SAN says the resolution of the OPL 245 dispute will “reposition Nigeria’s economy”. BusinessDay newspaper reports that “Tinubu’s economic diplomacy could generate $41 billion, and create 200,000 jobs”, boost oil production and revenue. The NNPCL is excited that this would also allow for the development of the Zabazaba-Etan deepwater project of about 150,000 barrels per day. It is all well and good. We urge President Tinubu to extend the same pragmatism to other projects as well: the Mambilla Hydro project, OPL 231 (with the Koreans), Aluminium Smelter Company (with the Russians) and the Lagos-Kano Railway Project (with the Chinese). More importantly, President Tinubu has corrected the error of the Buhari years.  President Buhari scandalised the OPL 245 Resolution Agreement of 2011. He claimed government money was missing. For years, persons were hounded, driven into exile, harassed. But it turned out no government money was missing. Mohammed Adoke who gives a harrowing account of victimisation, intrigues, trials and eventual triumph in his book has been vindicated yet again. Eni and Shell too. For more than six years, Adoke was mentioned in one court or the other in three continents. He lived in exile for safety reasons. What if he had died for doing nothing wrong? Who will fight for his family? The Federal Government owes him an apology.