SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: Religion And Human Relations

CONTRIBUTORS:

Abalogu M. Divine,
Uche O.O.C Uche

ABSTRACT:

Insurgency and its consequent security challenges in the Niger Delta region have became a matter of global concern. This insurgency is traceable to the nature and activities of the oil companies operating in the region. This has badly affected the economy of Nigeria as the Niger Delta people, mostly the youths, have resorted to both conventional and non conventional approaches to express their frustrations. Illegal oil bunkering, kidnapping of expatriates, pipe line vandalization and so on, have become regular issues in the Niger Delta region. Several attempts by the federal government to address the issue of insurgency in the Niger Delta Region not only have not yielded any positive result but appear to have aggravated the situation. This is particularly so as the Niger Delta people claimed that not only that the federal government have failed to address the problem of poverty, environmental degradation, unemployment and marginalization resulting from the activities of the oil companies in the region, but also have resorted to military expeditions to suppress and intimidate the people. The study adopts Karl Marx’s theory of social conflict, which emphasizes class distinction in the society and which is possibly a major cause of insurgency in the Niger Delta region, and frustration aggression theory which looked at Niger Delta insurgency as emanating from the feeling of frustration by the people. This study discovered that insurgency in Niger Delta persisted most probably because approaches adopted earlier to address the issues were inappropriate which often lead to more conflicts. The study, therefore, recommended Mahatma Ghandi’s non-violence approach in which the government, oil companies and Niger Delta people will engage on a sincerely tripartite dialogue with the hope to engender infrastructural development, employment, peace and sustainable development in the region. The study employed both secondary and primary method of data collection. The data employed were analyzed using phenomelogical approach.