Paying for Peace: The Impact and Limitation of Amnesty for Militants and Averting Further Conflict in Niger Delta, Nigeria
- March 8, 2021
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: IJRISS, International Relations
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue I, January 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186
Deji Kalejaiye Omoshola, Norafidah Ismail, Ummu Atiyah Ahmad Zakuan
School of International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, 06010, Kedah, Malaysia
Abstract: From early 1990 to 2009, Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region was engulfed in conflict between multinational corporations (MNCs) and restive youths (popularly called militants) over the adverse effects ofoil pollution on their environment, live and economy. To curtail the conflict, Nigerian government initiated an amnesty programme for the militants in June 2009. This paper examined the impact and limitation of the programme, and measures to avert further conflict. The study was conducted via content analysis of books, articles in journals, editorials, and in-depth interviews conducted in the Niger Delta region between December 2018 and June 2019. This paper detected that the amnesty programme has brought about fragile peace, but the propensity of violence resurging is high, because the prime issues that triggered the conflict remain unaddressed. To forstall further conflict, Nigerian government and the oil MNCs must eradicate environmental degradation and invest in human and community development. Should conflict such as the one discoursed in this paper occur in the future, Nigerian government may grant amnesty, but must avoid ‘paying for peace’ as such approach is unsustainable. Rather than spend to lure people away from violence, the root cause of the conflict should be addressed.
Keywords: Conflict; peace; multinational corporations; amnesty; oil; Niger Delta; Nigeria
I. INTRODUCTION
Nigeria’s oil wealth, located in the Niger Delta region of the country, has been a major cause of conflict between oil multinational corporations (MNCs) and their host communities for over six decades. Since Shell D’Arcy (the precursor of the present Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria) discovered oil in Oloibiri in 1956, (Ogoniland in 1958, and in other communities afterwards), the drivers of conflict in the Niger Delta has ranged from resistance to land grabbing, environmental degradation, destruction of local livelihoods, inadequate compensation, and underdevelopment (Saro-Wiwa, 1994; Douglas et al, 2003; Watts 2004; Emuedo, 2010; Mai-Bornu and Ladan, 2020). On each of these issues of conflict, Nigerian government has mainly taken side with the oil MNCs as against the people. Government’s protection of the oil MNCs operation was so fierce that the military was deployed to crush non-violent protesters in Ogoniland in the early 1990s.
