The thesis focuses on the protracted tripartite conflict within and between local oilbearing
communities of the Niger Delta on the one hand, and between them, the state and
foreign oil multinationals in the region, on the other hand. The focus also centers around
how this has attracted international attention and the impact of internationalization on the
conflict itself. The series of crises have been underpinned by tortuous issues on the
ground for over four decades. There was a new dimension to the struggle in the early
1990s, which redefined the focus of the crises, when organized pressure groups protested
against the inhuman and environmental hazards in the region. The thesis therefore
examines the interest(s) of the main actors involved in the crisis in the period between
1993 and 2003 in order to establish the issues that accounted for the involvement of the
international civil societies.
The thesis makes three significant arguments: one, that the differences in interests among
the actors in relation to the issue of oil production and its impact on the local people laid
the basis for the persistent struggle between the social movements/militant youths on one
side and the state and oil multinationals operating in the region on the other.
The second argument the thesis advances is that the age-long crisis in the region became
an agenda for the international community in the 1990s because of the trend and impact
of globalization This invariably allowed international Non-Governmental Organizations
to intervene in exerting pressures on oil companies and the state to re-examine their
policies in the region.
Finally, the recent internationalization of the crisis has not impacted enough to
significantly address the demands of the people with the locally based pressure and, later,
INGOs. This approach is intended to establish a pattern of alliances in the Niger Delta
crisis. It might be healthy to state, ab initio, that there was a convergence of interests
between the state and MNOCs on the one hand and between the social movements, local
NGOs and INGOs on the other hand.
The thesis employed a multivariate form of data collection from primary sources like
Multinational Oil Companies in the area especially, Shell Petroleum Development
Company (SPDC), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), interviews with local people, NGOs and some
government officials, with extensive use of secondary data on the Niger Delta.
The study’s findings suggest that the internationalization of the crisis has engendered new
approaches and attitudes on the part of the key actors in the Niger Delta. For its part, the
state has adopted the agency approach in dealing with the issues confronting the region.
Shell has increased its direct intervention efforts in addressing the demands of the local
communities. However, these new approaches and attitudes have yielded minimal results
in view of the militarization of the Niger Delta through the continuous deployment of
troops by the state and the oil multinationals under the guise of security imperatives in
response to the people’s agitations, which are poverty driven.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/5883 |
| Date | 10 December 2008 |
| Creators | Ojakorotu, Victor |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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