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The Nigerian Niger Delta

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Political Violence and Oil in Africa

Abstract

This chapter concentrates the discussion on the Nigerian Niger Delta. It outlines the environmental, socio-economic and political issues at the centre of the contestations and sets the backdrop for the strategic choices of violence and nonviolence in the Niger Delta conflicts, in addition to arguing why a different focus on the conflicts is important. Firstly, the environment marks the context within which the complexity of the Niger Delta has been established. Secondly, state failure is regarded within the context of socio-economic factors, especially in explaining why development is not commensurate to what is expected in spite of the abundance of resources in the region. Thirdly, the role of political factors interlinked with state policies responsible for the polarisation of groups accounts for the snowballing of ethnic and communal conflicts from nonviolence as seen in the Ogoni movement to violence of the Ijaw movement.

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  1. Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, Coventry, UK

    Zainab Ladan Mai-Bornu

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Mai-Bornu, Z.L. (2020). The Nigerian Niger Delta. In: Political Violence and Oil in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45525-5_3

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