Oil Exploration and Its Socio-Political Economic Impacts in the Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue VI, June 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Oil Exploration and Its Socio-Political Economic Impacts in the Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region

Oluwasuji C. Olawole, PhD

Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, Political Science and Public Administration Department,
Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeriaa

Abstract: – Oil exploration and its socio-political economic impacts in the Nigeria’s Niger Delta region: Since the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the late 1950s, the Niger Delta has become the cynosure of both national and international oil interests. The reason for this development is not difficult to fathom. The Niger Delta region accounts for 80% of Nigeria’s oil industry. Apart from oil wealth, the Niger Delta is described as fragile and complex. This is due partly to its “vast interface between land and water”, (World Bank Report, 1995: 436). It records very high rainfall annually and river flooding occurs intermittently, particularly during the raining seasons. When this is combined with the low, flat terrain and poor drained soil, the resultant flooding and erosion make land and land scarcity a vexed issue. The fragility and complexity of the geopolitical structure of the Niger Delta region has over the years been compounded by environmental degradation, particularly oil pollution attendant on oil exploitation that has rendered the region a wasteland. In the recent times, oil pollution has become an issue of serious concern to oil producing communities due to its deleterious effects on human and material resources of the people. In spite of the rich potential and abundant wealth the region is blessed with good agricultural land, fertile forest, excellent fisheries, as well as a rich reservoir of oil and other materials. Its future is however threatened by deteriorating ecological conditions that are not addressed by present policies and actions. This paper however made use of primary source of data collection and chi square in its analysis. It is observed that the socio-political economic impact of oil exploration is more that can be imagined, hence the need for proactive policy decisions/policies to tame the tide. An urgent and wholesome clean-up of the entire Niger Delta area where oil spillage has affected should be done without further delay. The paper also suggests that the oil producing companies should be made to be more responsible to their community social responsibilities to their host communities. They should as a matter of urgency made to curtail the present rate of oil spill and gas flare among others.

I. INTRODUCTION

Niger Delta is defined politically, administratively, functionally, geographically, ethnologically linguistically and culturally. Niger Delta is the largest wetland in Africa, and the second in the world. It covers an area of 70,000km square and consists of a number of ecological zones – sandy, coastal ridge barrier, brackfish or saline mangroves, freshwater, permanent and seasonal swamp forests and lowland rain forests.

Read More