OIL PRODUCTION AND THE HUMAN SECURITY IMPLICATIONS IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper establishes the interconnectedness of the environmental resource, oil production and the accompanying security threats in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. While the exploration activities of oil have been classified as a major resource for the development of Nigeria's economy, it has also become a source of conflicts and perpetuation of environmental damage in the Niger Delta region. With the oil companies' operation taking up over 60% of scarce land mass in the region, there are resulting consequences of environmental despoliation and human rights violations that threaten the existence of the indigenous people and the economy of Nigeria at large. Approximately 8,879 was the recorded number of spill incidents between 1976 and 2008, in which many lives of the indigenous people have been lost or threatened as a result. Thus, environmental degradation could be said to be one of the remote causes of militant violence in the Niger Delta. This paper, therefore, examines the link between oil production and militancy, and its effects on indigenous people of the Niger Delta. This study adopts a qualitative approach for data collection, relying on secondary sources, which include scholarly articles and books that
engage with the strands of literature.