Oil, militancy and political opportunities in the Niger delta

This book dwells on the burning issue of Oil and militancy in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Whereas oil is the livewire of the Nigerian economy, and the oil that sustains the nation’s economy is produced in the Niger Delta, located in southern Nigeria. The Nigerian state is populated by over 250 ethnic groups, and the dominant among them are the Hausa/Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba. Despite the huge oil revenue derived from the region, the ethnic minorities populated Niger Delta which bear the burden of oil and gas production, paradoxically remains a convergence of squalor in abundance. The area suffers from gross environmental degradation, neglect and endemic poverty despite decades of protests to change the status quo by the people of the region. The initial protests in the region were peaceful, but due to continuous repression of peaceful agitations and the absence of development in the region, the agitations turned violent with the historic Kaiama Declaration in 1998, hence the spate of violent militant agitations that presently characterize the region. Against this background, this study accentuates the nexus between oil, militancy and political opportunities in the Niger Delta