Intervening Factors in Conflicts between Oil Companies and Host Communities in Nigeria's Niger Delta Region
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The degree of violence in the Niger Delta has become endemic,
characterized by 33 cases of kidnapping recorded between January 2006
and February 2007, with more than 200 victims, mostly expatriate oil
workers. There were also about 12,770 cases of vandalism, particularly of
pipelines and installations, recorded between 2000 and 2007, with most of
them occurring in the Niger Delta. The implications of the Niger Delta
crises are too far-reaching to be ignored. For the inhabitants of the area,
there are constant environmental hazards and security threats, while for the
Nigerian government, over Wl50.5bn in revenue was lost in eight years;
there was also a drop of more than 20% in oil exports between April 2006
and October 2007. The concern of the study was to investigate the
intervening factors in the conflicts between oil companies and host
communities in the Niger Delta. The population for this study comprised
indigenes of Omoku and Obrikom communities in Rivers State and
Eruemukohwarien, Tisun and Kolokolo communities in Delta State. Both
quantitative (survey) and qualitative (focus group discussion) methods of
data collection were employed. The findings revealed that not all the
communities studied were involved in company-community conflicts. The
study also shows several factors that determined whether or not there were
conflicts in the communities, such as the oil companies being perceived as
representing the government, political undertone and the communities' bid
to attract attention among others.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General)