Regional development planning/management responds to needs for preventing inequality among regions
within nations characterised by multi-culturality and variation among regions, through the planning/management
of appropriate programmes and policies. This paper examines inequality in the development of two of Nigeria’s
states in the geographical South-East and the political South-South. Among other issues, historical conflicts
among various ethno-cultural groups constituting Nigeria and culminating in violence (e.g. the 1967–1970 civil war
fought against the programme of Ibo (a socio-cultural group) seceding from Nigeria’s federation to found Biafra)
are reviewed. Despite Nigeria’s tragic civil war, inequality persists. We examine inequality resulting from systematic
implementation of policies/programmes of Nigeria’s federal government institutions that marginalise Cross
River State. Using the methods of comparative analysis and a descriptive case study, we show the consequences of
marginalisation policies implemented by the federal government alone or in collaboration with (i.e. in support of)
Akwa Ibom State for the development of human capital in Cross River State. The specific acts of marginalisation
referred to here include: the ceding of the Bakassi Peninsula – a part of Cross River State – to the Republic of Cameroon
in 2005, and more recently (2009) another ceding of 76 oil wells, hitherto the property of Cross River State,
to Akwa Ibom State. We argue that, strengthened by marginalising/polarising policies (higher revenue allocation
based on derivation principle of oil production), Akwa Ibom’s ongoing implementation of free education policypromises to facilitate its achievement of millennium development goals in basic education by 2015, beyond which
it might reach disproportionately higher levels of tertiary educational attainment by 2024 and after. By contrast,
the contrived dwindling of oil revenue accruing to Cross River State deprives it of funding for competitive human
capital development programme(s). We recommend that Cross River State employs serious monitoring of marginalising
schemes against its people considering recent traumatising experience, and plan/implement human capital
development programmes aimed to improve its competitiveness under the context of intra-regional inequality.