Nigeria: In Search of Sustainable Peace in the Niger Delta through the Amnesty Programme (original) (raw)
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International Journal in Management and Social Science, 2018
Niger Delta region of Nigeria is an area where crude oil which is the mainstay of Nigeria economy is being produced. In the process of producing crude, their environment has been violated, and the region has faced and is still facing neglect. Development i s at low ebb in the region culminating in the frustrated locals resorting to militancy and engaging in armed struggle including vandalisation of oil pipelines, kidnapping of oil workers and expatriates, etc. As a way of restoring peace to the area, the federal government of Nigeria introduced an amnesty programme that was meant to reintegrate the disarmed restive youths into the society and clean up the environment in an attempt to bring forth sustainable development of the neglected area. To achieve sustainable development, there must be economic development, social development and environmental protection and stability. This is achievable only through integration and acknowledgement of economic, environmental and social concerns. Amnesty programme falls under social and economic concerns. This paper is of the view that sustainable development of the Niger Delta of Nigeria requires sustainability of Amnesty programme as part of fulfillment of the social and economic concerns without losing sight of environmental concern.
Amnesty Initiative and the Dilemma of Sustainable Development in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria
Many decades of exploration and exploitation of petroleum resources have adversely affected the host communities in the Niger Delta. Environmental degradation, loss of means of livelihood, unemployment, poverty, loss of lives and general underdevelopment characterized the region. These formidable odds that threaten the survival of the Niger Delta people triggered off various shades of interminable violent agitations by militants that involved hostage taking and attacks on oil installations. These agitations, no doubt, reduced crude oil production and had adverse effect on the national economy. This prompted the Nigerian state to intermittently launch attacks on the militants. In spite of the bombardments by the military Joint Task Force, the militants remain resolute in their agitations. Disturbed by the security and economic challenges, the Nigerian state came out with the amnesty initiative. The initiative was designed for the militants to surrender their arms, renounce militancy and also create a favourable atmosphere for the sustainable development of the region. This paper is geared towards examining theoretically, the efficacy of the amnesty initiative in finding solution to the general problem of underdevelopment in the Niger Delta. Situating the discourse within economic integration framework, the paper argues succinctly that the amnesty initiative is intentionally designed to deceitfully disarm the militants and create an enabling environment for the multinational oil companies to operate unhindered while ignoring the burning issues of underdevelopment that triggered the violent agitations in the first place. In order to avert a relapse into militancy, the Nigerian state must develop a credible rehabilitation package for the ex-militants and a holistic framework that can adequately address the problem of underdevelopment in the Niger Delta.
The Niger Delta Crisis in Nigeria: Pre and Post Amnesty Situation
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2013
The emergence of militancy in the Niger Delta region led to problems of insecurity, pipeline vandalisation, disruption of oil output and revenues to the Nigerian government. Against this background the Federal Government initiated an Amnesty programme in 2009. The highly descriptive nature of the study necessitated the adoption of extensive desk research. This study examines critically the pre and post amnesty situation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The findings show that the Amnesty extended to the militants in the area was one of the necessary steps towards resolving the restiveness in the region. In it we recommended that, it is important for government to look beyond the amnesty to address the key issues of underdevelopment (such as widespread poverty, high level of unemployment and lack of basic infrastructure and amenities and environmental degradation) in the region.
SOCIO-POLITICAL IMPACT OF AMNESTY PROGRAMME ON THE NIGER DELTA AREA IN NIGERIAN STATE.
Abstract The Niger delta region of Nigeria, reputed to be one of the most richly endowed delta’s inthe world, contributes about 80% of Nigeria’s national wealth. Years of political andeconomic marginalization, environmental degradation, bad governance and policyinconsistency by the government, and the divide and rule policy of the oil companies ledto emergence of militancy in the Niger delta in the early 2006. The various activities ofmilitants have created a state of general insecurity in the region. The persistent neglect was to result in unrests by thepeople of the area, which eventually almost got out of hand. Long years of neglect and conflict have promoted,especially among youths a feeling of a bleak future, and thus see conflict as a stratagem to escape deprivation. The paper argues that themethods of operation of the militants, which includes kidnapping and hostage taking, blowing/shutting down of oil installationsand facilities, setting off of car bombs, and illegal oil bunkering has negatively impacted Nigeria’s economic development. The government not able to bear the embarrassment and the drop in daily oil production, coupled with the substantial loss of revenues devised the amnesty programme in 2009 as solution to the quagmire. The paper is aimed at examining the circumstances causing the crisis situation in the area, and the attendant consequences to the people of the areas and to the global community, the various effort and programmes of the government in curbing the situation, it attempt the critical analysis of the amnesty programme initiated by the Federal government, its impact at ensuring and restoring durable peace back to the region, it discusses some of the challenges to amnesty programme, it drives out appropriate recommendations as to how the crisis will be given a permanent rest and peace be fully restored to the region of Niger Delta. The study adopted the Marxian political economy approach as its theoretical construct, and used it, in the content analysis of the secondary data on the subject matter. Materials for this paper has been drawn mainly from secondary sources found in libraries and archives in Nigeria, in general and in the Niger Delta in particular; academic and other resources available in the internet, local and international publications. Keywords: amnesty, Niger delta, Oil exploration, pollution, Multinational Corporation, Derivation, Militancy, impact, insecurity, Nigeria.
How Fragile a Peace? Analysing the 2009 Amnesty in the Niger Delta
The Niger Delta has some of the largest oil fields in the world. It is a dangerous place often associated with guns and the kidnapping of foreign nationals. It is also devastatingly underdeveloped, and suffers from heavy pollution from 50 years of living with the oil industry. The presence of Multinational oil corporations has provoked contention for decades but the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine in 1995 drew the plight of the region into the international spotlight. In recent years, the region hit headlines again with the emergence of the militant group the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) which launched attacks on oil installations and kidnapped oil expatriates. This insurgency reached its height in 2009 and it was in the midst of this national emergency that President Yar’adua introduced the Niger Delta amnesty programme. Since implementation the region has witnessed relative peace; however, with the programme due to end in December this year, the chance of this peace enduring is uncertain. This paper offers a critical analysis of the programme arguing that, because it failed to address the environmental degradation of the region, it is probable that the Niger Delta will witness renewed violence.
There is no gainsaying that the Niger Delta region has been a theatre of conflicts since the discovery of petroleum resources in commercial quantities in the area. It has been an unbroken chain of layers of conflicts. What took place in the region at the discovery of oil was akin to the scramble for Africa by European powers. Like in the scramble for Africa, the emphasis was on the control of resources. The control of resources has always been at the center of imperialism and its attendant conflicts. Ontologically, resources are scarce and will always be scarce. It is an existential fact that the scarcity of resources always induces conflicts. But needs are infinite. Oil is auniversally daily needed natural resource. As important as it is, it is not evenly globally distributed. The abundance of oil deposits in the Niger Delta ipso facto makes it a center of multinational economic interest. Naturally, the hawks, economic predators of all shades and hues did swoop in on the region. In the multinational quest for the controlof the petroleum resources in the Niger Delta region, different theories of ownership were advanced. The refusal to be bystanders in the control of the oil resources domiciled in their region and the pains caused by the environmental degradation occasioned by oil exploration and exploitation led to series of confrontations that have culminated in a protracted unrest in the Niger Delta region. The introduction of the amnesty program to the region proved to be a game changer. This work critiques the impacts of the presidential amnesty program on the unrest.
NIGER DELTA CONFLICTS AND THE GRANTING OF AMNESTY: AN APPRAISAL
Lapai International Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 2011
The history of the Niger Delta has been the history of pains and gains; it has been the history of dispossession and contention specifically necessitated by the quest for crude oil hegemony. This chequered history has been characterised by rape, plunder, militarization, and exclusion of one set of people by another, a situation which is carefully midwifed by the activities of some vampire oil multinationals whose ownership and control are largely alien. A significant fallout of this situation has been militancy or armed insurgency spearheaded by the local people themselves essentially aimed at liberating their environment from the pillaging practices of these MNCs, practices which are fully given legitimation by certain laws of the Nigerian state. The socioeconomic cost of this militant uprising in the Niger Delta is better measured by the losses incurred in the number of oil barrels produced per production period; in the number of oil workers kidnapped or people kidnapped for oil-related reasons, and in the number of oil platforms which have been disrupted either by outright bombings or bizarre dimensions of sporadic shootings. As a result of this development the Federal Government has issued an amnesty offer to the militants. It is in the light of this development that this research work seeks to do a study of the causes (as well as the effects) of militant armed struggle in the Niger Delta with a view to understanding whether or not the Federal Government's amnesty programmes have the strength of serving as a permanent solution to the Niger Delta question or could just act as a mere interval of inaction. In this regard, the work shall inquire into whether or not the militant conquest could still in the future rear its head again, in what dimensions and how. The researchers shall rely largely on various committees' reports on the Niger Delta challenge, as well as on interviews with some expert bodies and local persons. But, first, it raises the question: who should be granted amnesty offer, and by whom?
Beyond Amnesty: Rethinking Government's Stabilisation Efforts in the Niger Delta
Cogent Arts and Humanities , 2023
In 2009, President Umaru Yar'Adua granted amnesty to militant groups in the Niger Delta. This came after a decade of insurgency within Nigeria's oil-rich region. Amnesty was strategically designed to deescalate further confrontation with militants, curb the proliferation of small arms, stop kidnapping and limit the destruction of oil and gas installations. Amnesty was also aimed at disarming, demobilising and reintegration militants into civil society. To what extent has amnesty shaped the region and of what consequence? This study examined the multi-layered drivers of crisis within the Niger-Delta. It then investigated the appropriateness of amnesty in the region using semi-structured interviews. As its main finding, deplorable conditions that sparked unrest in the region still persist, evoking growing discontent in several communities. The paper recommends sustainable policies and programs through which communities, oil companies and the region at large can benefit immensely.
2010
This policy research monograph is part of the ongoing research of the Centre for Population and Environmental Development (CPED) on the research theme titled "Conflict and Development in Nigeria's Niger Delta region" in the current strategic plan (2010-2014) of the Centre. The region has been immersed in agitation, protests and struggles against perceived injustice, inequality, disinheritance, marginalization and neglect. The protests have been so broad, intense and militant that in 1966 and between 1998 and 2009, the region slipped into periodic insurrection and insurgency. Unfortunately, the federal governments' law and order and therefore securitization of its approach and management of the struggles, largely militarized the region, turned it into a huge garrisoned command, and made it the scene of the most large-scale and prolonged military operation since the Nigerian civil war. Intense conflicts and confrontations between the Nigerian state and the transnational oil companies on the one hand and the communities, civil groups, militant movements and militias as well as conflicts between communities, ethnic groups, militias and cults have turned the region into a huge melting pot of pervasive unrests, violence, crimes, local wars and insecurity. The conflicts constituted an immense threat to the oil infrastructure, the economy, national stability and security survival, the nation project and human security. These conflicts and their devastating consequences persisted in spite of several commissions that were set up, efforts at pacification and development interventions until 2009. However, in 2009, the federal government quite unusually and contrary to its securitization of the conflict embarked on an amnesty programme. The programme entailed a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of former militants and some promises of a post amnesty programme for the resolution of the conflicts. The programme has raised considerable interests, has been held as a major effort at resolving the conflict and was presented as one of the most remarkable achievements of the late President, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. The amnesty proclamation is now almost a year old and can be critically interrogated in terms of its objectives, content, implementation, performance, problems and prospects particularly against the background of what it held out in relation to the resolution of the conflicts and peace building in the region. This study critically examines the amnesty, the DDR programme and the post conflict transition efforts thus far, in the light of lessons and insights drawn from the literature and experiences elsewhere. We are particularly grateful to the Think Tank Initiative for the Institutional support provided for CPED which has enabled the Centre to carry out the study that led to publication of this policy monograph. pg. 1 C P E D M o n o g r a p h S e r i e s N o 3 CHAPTER ONE Peace and Peace Building Though peace refers to a relative state of being, tranquility, wholeness and harmony, in conflict studies it denotes the absence of threats, fear, intimidation, brutality and harm. It further denotes the absence of pg. 6 C P E D M o n o g r a p h S e r i e s N o 3 Address issues of equity and justice between MNOCs & OPCs, between communities & groups.
This paper intends to examine peace building efforts in post-conflict Niger Delta. The conflict which has affected oil production in Nigeria. This is also because oil is the main stay and a major source of energy in Nigeria. The study tends to look at the method, causes and assessment of the amnesty programme. The study covers a time frame between 2009 to 2015. The qualitative method is adopted and the use of secondary data will be employed for data generation and analysis as well. This study will reveal individual or group involved in the conflict. It will further proved that persistent neglect, deprivation and marginalization without development or compensation, high level of unemployment, environment degradation, uneven resource distribution and lack of basic amnesty. It was these problems that led to the emergence of militancy in the region for the past years. The study also reveal an attempt made by successive Nigeria Government to establish different commission to look into the Niger Delta issue, the DDR programme, security implications and its challenges in the Niger Delta clearly indicate that until the root cause of the region is achieved there will not be enduring peace, security and stability in the environment.