The lingering Niger Delta crisis has been blamed on past administrations that were concerned for their own economic gains and not the citizenship rights or the refusal of oil companies to give fair and equitable treatment to the demands of the Niger Delta people.

The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, who disclosed this in his speech that marked the 48th Nigerian Independence Day Anniversary in Uyo, said the country had left other areas of the economy to focus on oil in the Niger Delta.

"In the last 48 years, oil companies have failed to form strategic partnership with host communities which would involve not only developmental ventures but also healthy environmental practices," Chief Akpabio lamented.

According to him, "The problem has escalated and as we celebrate this anniversary, the Niger Delta militancy haunts all aspects of our nation's economy".

He commended President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua for creating a separate Ministry in charge of Niger Delta affairs at the Federal level and hoped that the much expected development of the region would come to pass".

He thanked God for seeing the Country through as an independent, indivisible nation, regretting that "though we have come a long way and surmounted many obstacles, we are still far from where we ought to be.

"Our ancestors did not fight for our independence so that we could run our country on tribal lines and institutionalised corruption. They had a dream of a land that would be born in freedom, brewed in unity and made the pride of not only Africa , but the entire black race," Akpabio reminisced.

The governor further bemoaned that 48 years after Nigeria's political Independence , Nigeria was yet to gain economic independence, citing that in 2005, Nigeria 's per capita income was rated among the lowest in the world.