Hey folks,
Oil was discovered in 1956, in Oloibiri, Bayelsa State, in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. The 2006 population census indicates that about 30 million of Nigeria’s population of 140 million citizens lives in the region (National Population Commission, Nigeria). Since the 1970’s, oil revenue has been the backbone of the economy, accounting for about 65 percent of budgetary revenue (OPEC), which is largely derived from nine Niger Delta states. The largest ethnic groups in the region include the Ijaw, Ogoni, Efik, Isoko, and Urhobo, to name a few. Economic marginalization of indigenes is the main basis for agitation in the region. Oil revenue has done very little for development, but pollution and environmental degradation is rife. The Niger Delta crisis has been described as the greatest challenge facing the Nigerian state since the onset of democratic rule in May 1999. The crisis has led to the emergence of numerous protest movements, such as the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Ijaw Council for Human Rights (ICHR), Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), the Niger Delta Focus (NDF), and the Women Initiatives Network (WINET). I argue that these protest movements have not been successful due to apathy that is the result of class relations, ethnicism, violent state repression, and alienation.
I've been away for a minute, still finishing up my summer semester. Here's a paper I wrote for my social movements class. It's about the Niger Delta, and I'm posting only an introduction and the rest of the paper links to Google Docs. The rest of the paper can be viewed here
