Petrol Tanker Disaster, Pipeline Vandalization and Impacts on Regional Development in Nigeria.docVIP

Petrol Tanker Disaster, Pipeline Vandalization and Impacts on Regional Development in Nigeria 　　[a] Department of Geography and Planning Science， Faculty of the Social Sciences， Ekiti State University， Ado-Ekiti， Nigeria. 　　*Corresponding author. 　　Received 16 June 2013； accepted 10 August 2013. 　　Abstract 　　For many years， the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation， NNPC depots at different locations around the country have suffered severe product shortages due to the nefarious activities of the vandals， who destroy the pipelines feeding the facilities， however， frequent petrol tanker explosion in the recent times， has adversely affected the supply of the products. Apart from the loss of lives and property and its negative effects on ecosystem， the two activities have made the consumption of the products almost impossible. The study looks into petrol tanker disaster and pipeline vandalization and their impacts on regional development. It employs social learning theory as basis of its theoretical underpinnings. The study examines the causes and consequences of the activities and finds out that the activities have negative effects on development. It therefore recommends appropriate suggestions for its remedies. The study will be of great help to researchers and government agencies. 　　Key words： Tanker disaster； Pipeline vandalisation； Conceptualization and development 　　GENERAL INTRODUCTION： MEANING AND CONCEPTS Disaster from the etymological perspectives is derived from middle French “disastre” and from Old Italian“disastro” which is turn comes from the Greek pejorative prefix “（dis）” “bad and （aster） “star”， that is disaster meaning “bad star”. The Ancient Greek used to refer to the destruction or reinstruction of a star as a disaster（Korstanje， 2011）. 　　A disaster is a natural or man-made （or technological） hazard resulting in an event or substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction， loss of life， or drastic change to the envir