Civil society, oil and conflict in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria: ramifications of civil society for a regional resource struggle

2001 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustine Ikelegbe
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Delta Region ◽  
Environmental Rights ◽  
Niger Delta Region

Civil society has been associated with challenges and popular struggles for state and democratic reforms. Though these may relate to the articulation of substantive ethnic, regional and communal demands, few studies have addressed the dynamics and ramifications of their engagement in struggles other than democratisation. This study focuses on the ramifications of the entrance of civil society into a regional resource agitation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The study finds that civil society has flowered, taken over and escalated the struggle and constructed itself into a solid formation of regional resistance. Civil groups have reconstructed the agitation into a broad, participatory, highly mobilised and coordinated struggle and redirected it into a struggle for self-determination, equity and civil and environmental rights. The study denotes the roles that civil society can play in the sociopolitical process and reveals the dynamics of their encounters with the state and multinational corporations.

When the blessing resource ‘oil’ curses

2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Keyword(s):  
Niger Delta ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Delta Region ◽  
Environmental Rights ◽  
Niger Delta Region ◽  
Oil Corporations ◽  
History Of

Oil industry has impacted both economy and ecology of oil-producing states in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria. The environmental detriments caused by gas flaring and oil spills develop violent ethnic agitations, through long lasting history area of conflicts, for economic, social, political, and environmental rights. This paper examines the history of oil and gas exploitation, in Niger Delta region, and its role to cause environmental degradations in the region. The study argued that multinational oil corporations’ activities were the first intriguing violence in local communities based on environmental approach. Also, the paper indicates that the conflict had many drivers related to different components of indigenous people. The tendency of violence escalated over time, in strength of acts from demonstrations and grievances to militant operations, and demands from self determination to justice, revenues equity and environmental rights, in order to reshape oil-bearing communities’ old motivations about self-governance.

Exploring Sport As Effective Engagement Mechanism For Youth Empowerment And Youth Development In Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-182
Author(s):  
Douglas O. Nwaokugha
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Youth Empowerment ◽  
Philosophical Method ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
Delta Region ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Niger Delta Region ◽  
Sustainable Peace

The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is synonymous with crisis occasioned by militancy, agitations and insurgency from the youth, who in recent times have become aware of the neglect, marginalization, human rights abuses, environmental degradation etc, people of the region suffer in the hands of the Nigerian government and Multinational Corporations that explore and exploit the Niger Delta environment for its rich natural resources. Investing time in militancy, agitations and insurgency as presently spearheaded by youth in the region has created more problems than solve the Niger Delta crises. Using the philosophical method, this paper makes a case on how sport can be an effective engagement mechanism for youth engagement and youth empowerment. The paper sees sport as a human engagement whose effective exploration and utilization can lead to the empowerment of youth in Nigeria’s Niger Delta and consequently recommends that states intervention agencies, politicians and philanthropists should make the provision of sport infrastructure a topmost priority for youth development and empowerment. The paper strongly maintains that policies that target youth empowerment in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria will surely be a foundation for sustainable peace and stability not only in Nigeria but across the globe.

The arguments for environmental rights in Niger Delta: a theoretical framework

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Samy ◽  
Heineken Lokpobiri ◽  
Ade Dawodu
Keyword(s):  
Niger Delta ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Polluted Water ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Delta Region ◽  
Environmental Rights ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Niger Delta Region

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the extent to which environmental rights enforcement is currently practiced in Nigeria and the relevant characteristics for the development of a legal framework for the practice of environmental rights enforcement in Nigeria, particularly in the interest of the Niger Delta region of the country. The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is rich with abundant hydrocarbon resources and plays host to numerous multinational oil companies. For over five decades, oil spills and gas flaring from the operations of these companies have polluted water bodies and degraded farmlands on which the inhabitants depend for their livelihood. However, the absence of a legal regime of environmental rights has made it difficult for inhabitants of the region to seek legal remedy against these companies. Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines the extent to which environmental rights enforcement is currently practiced in Nigeria and the relevant characteristics for the development of a legal framework for the practice of environmental rights enforcement in Nigeria, particularly in the interest of the Niger Delta region of the country. Findings – Nigeria does not have constitutional environmental rights. The legal implication of this provision is that it is not justiciable as such no court of law can exercise jurisdiction to hear any matter that is connected with the provisions of that chapter. In other words, even the government’s “constitutional” responsibility to protect the environment cannot be judicially enforced, let alone environmental rights for victims of environmental damage. Originality/value – The original and significant contribution of this paper is to highlight the real issues and address them through substantive and procedural environmental rights provisions either in the constitution or positive legislations.

Engendering civil society: oil, women groups and resource conflicts in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria

2005 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustine Ikelegbe
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Delta Region ◽  
Resource Conflicts ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Niger Delta Region ◽  
Women Groups ◽  
Central Argument

Civil society has been an active mobilisational and agitational force in the resource conflicts of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria. The paper examines the gender segment of civil society and its character, forms and roles in these conflicts. The central argument is that marginality can be a basis of gendered movements and their engagement in struggles for justice, accommodation and fair access to benefits. Utilising secondary data and primary data elicited from oral interviews, the study identifies and categorises women groupings and identifies their roles and engagements in the oil economy. It finds that community women organisations (CWOs), with the support of numerous grass-roots women organisations, are the most active and frequently engaged in the local oil economies, where they have constructed and appropriated traditional women protests as an instrument of engagement. The paper notes the implications of women protest engagements and particularly their exasperation with previous engagements, the depth of their commitments, and the extension of the struggle beyond the threshold of normal social behaviour.

scholarly journals RIGHTS TO OIL THEFT AND ILLEGAL REFINERY IN NIGERIA

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
C.O Okwelum
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Delta Region ◽  
Analytical Methodology ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Niger Delta Region ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social

The reactions of the ethnic communities which have morphed into violent militant groups and ganglands in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria to State and industry control of land and mineral resources require a very close study. A comparative analysis of the current situation in Nigeria with what is obtained in the early days of the European civilization when the challenges of governance and economic crimes were emerging from the womb of the industrial revolution is equally of importance. If sovereignty resides ultimately with the people and the State governs with the consent of the citizens and the ultimate responsibility of the State and business is the welfare of the citizens, a fundamental breach of the social contract leaves the people with the right not only to abolish the State but to sabotage business in social banditry. This paper tries to apply the general principles of the theories of social banditry and social contract to the phenomenon of oil theft and illegal refineries in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It employs the comparative, historical and analytical methodology in presentation while relying on secondary materials and doctrinal research method. It argues that the crimes of oil theft and illegal refineries have arisen from the lack of the development of the Niger Delta by both the State and the multinational oil companies and that they are an expression of the rights to resource control by indigenous communities after 50 years of State and industry control of same have failed to yield development on the ticket of the United Nation’s Resolution 1803 of 1962 guaranteeing national sovereignty over natural resources. It finds that they fall within Hobsbawm’s social banditry thesis and that the basic conditions for the abolition of the State under the social contract thesis have been largely met by the economic and socio-legal contexts prevailing in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

scholarly journals Social and Environmental Drivers of Climate Change Vulnerability in the Niger Delta region, Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Authority Benson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
The State ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Delta Region ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Climate Change Vulnerability ◽  
Niger Delta Region ◽  
Adaptation And Mitigation

Studies have revealed that the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is only three meter above mean sea level and their coastline is dynamic in nature which renders hundreds of coastal communities exposed and vulnerable to climate change risk and hazards. The region is faced with seasonal flooding, increase in temperature, high precipitation, erosion, river salinization, ocean surges and siltation. In this paper, we reviewed over 80 publications on related subjects of social, economic and environmental drivers of climate change vulnerability in the Niger Delta and their recurring and predicted impacts. Lack of empirical baseline data on climate change, inadequate enforcement of environmental laws, insignificant state fiscal budget on climate change, lack of political will and low interest of political leadership, absence of state policies aimed to enhance climate change adaptation and mitigation, persistent cases of oil spills and gas flaring by multinational oil companies, low public awareness and inadequate technical capacity were identified and analyzed as multidimensional factors militating against local effort for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the Niger Delta region. The state governments, multinational oil companies, intervention agencies, research institutions and critical community stakeholders especially in coastal areas in the Niger Delta should work together to achieve a systematic integrated plan for long term risk prevention and impact reduction through adaptation and mitigation approaches. Furthermore, strategic local solutions should include the assessment of impacts of climate change on social, environmental, and economic sector at the state, local government and community level. This should be accompanied with smart green policy measures and implementation of elaborate regional climate change education programs, development of skill sets for green entrepreneurship among youths and established framework of sustainable economic development in the region.

The Rise and Decline (and Rise) of the Niger Delta Rebellion

2018 ◽  
pp. 635-651
Author(s):  
Omolade Adunbi
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Environmental Rights ◽  
Defining Moments ◽  
Oil Resources ◽  
Oil Corporations ◽  
Political Organizing ◽  
Alternative Means

In the last two decades, the struggles to control the oil resources of the Niger Delta have continued to be defining moments of political organizing in Nigeria. Multinational corporations such as Chevron, Shell, and Mobil, as well as the Nigerian state, engage in practices that result in the production of centralized power to strengthen the state’s hold on oil resources. However, local-level citizens and groups increasingly challenge the marginalization of their oil-producing communities. As their human and environmental rights are suppressed, they adopt alternative means of negotiating survival and other forms of power to assert communal control of their land and resources. This chapter argues that an oil economy and practices associated with it have produced three interrelated moments for Nigeria and the Niger Delta that are rooted in an extractive practice that privileges the state and multinational oil corporations and puts communities where the oil is located at a disadvantage.

scholarly journals Corporate Social Responsibility and Insecurity in the Host Communities of the Niger Delta, Nigeria

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Rebecca Oliver Enuoh
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Delta Region ◽  
Niger Delta Region ◽  
Csr Strategy ◽  
Corporate Social

<p>This study investigates the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy by multinational corporations (MNCs) in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The goal of CSR is to encourage a positive impact through its activities with the stakeholders, the environment and the general public. CSR also focuses on how businesses would proactively support the public interest by encouraging community growth and development. The problem of insecurity in the Niger Delta region is attributed to the feeling of anger and frustration by host communities due to perceived negligence of CSR initiatives by the MNCs. This has resulted in crude oil theft, vandalization of oil pipelines, general insecurity and actions that have negatively affected the activities of the MNCs as well as the federal government who depend on the oil revenue for its national budgets. This paper considers the CSR initiatives of the MNCs and the underpinnings of security challenges in this region. This is an empirical paper based on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted in the host communities of the Niger Delta region. Using the stakeholder theory, the paper maintains that initiating and implementing the right CSR strategy would help to reduce the crisis in this region and enhance the peaceful operations of the MNCs. It contributes to emerging discourse in CSR on how desired positive impact can be made through effective CSR.</p>

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