The Niger Delta Environmental Crisis in Nigeria: A Perspective Analysis

Abstract

This study gives a perspective analysis of the Niger Delta Environmental Crisis in Nigeria. Right from the time the first oil well was struck in 1956 in Oloibiri, an Ijaw town in the present day Bayelsa State, till now, oil has become the mainstay of the Nigerian economy accounting for about 98% of her annual earnings; while numerous multinational oil companies have been attracted to the region to exploit oil with reckless abandon regardless of its impacts on the inhabitants of the region. The constant environmental disarticulation occasioned by oil exploration has resulted in widespread indignation and youth restiveness in the region. Behavioural proclivities associated with oil exploration include sealing of production sites, vandalising oil installations including pipelines and hostage taking and demand for ransom. This erratic behaviour has negative impact on the production of oil and constitutes a serious liquidity problem to all levels of government as it interrupts the steady flow of capital to the national treasury and constitutes a security threat to governance at all levels. The paper is rounded off with recommendations tailored towards combating the imbroglio and the conclusion.

Keywords: Environmental, Crisis, Oil Spillage, Gas Flaring, Amnesty