OIL POLITICS AND THE ARGITATION FOR RESOURCE CONTROL BY OIL- BEARING COMMUNITIES OF THE NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA
Abstract
The Niger Delta region of Nigeria has been a theatre of internal imperialism and neocolonialism since the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in 1957 in Oloibiri, the present day Bayelsa State. The Niger Delta region is regarded as a geopolitical territory of juicy providence as a result of the huge deposit of the black gold. Deadly uprisings by different mititia groups in the Niger Delta region over the years have been a resultant effect of economic deprivation and ecological devastation by several multinational companies who are cronies of imperial powers as well as the federal government of Nigeria. The agitation of these militant groups from different oil-bearing communities centres on the campaign for economic restitution and ecological rehabilitation of all the communities that harbor crude oil and natural gas. This paper therefore is exploratory and theoretical in a manner that it sets out to unravel the reason Nigeria’s crude oil wealth has paradoxically become an impediment to economic advancement of the oil-bearing communities of the Niger Delta. This paper adopts the historical research method and content analysis for the dual purposes of data gathering and data analysis while the Conflict theory is employed as the theoretical framework to give direction to the entire research process. The paper therefore recommends among other things that the federal government of Nigeria should increase the percentage of the revenue allocation that accrues to the oil-producing states of the Niger Delta.
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