Niger Delta communities as the postcolonial precariat Cushioning the impact of the resource curse through human capital development and the provision of basic amenities

Abstract

This essay proposes the development of human capital as an effective means of mitigating the deleterious effects of the resource curse on the Niger Delta and its people. Decades of reckless and relentless exploitation of oil in the Niger Delta perpetuated by obnoxious petroleum and land use legislation have brought about monumental environmental devastation, with all its attendant economic deprivation, extreme poverty and social exclusion in the region. These problems, which have festered for decades, have been exacerbated by years of militarisation of the region, mismanagement of oil revenue allocation, and privatisation of public funds by the political elite, government officials and other public office-holders, to the detriment of the Niger Delta communities. Thus, oil affluence has paradoxically become an affliction for the communities whose rich petroleum endowment contributes enormously to national wealth. The resource curse theory will be explored to demonstrate that some factors associated with the resource curse exist in the Niger Delta. The natural law theory of development will be employed as the philosophical base for the case for human capital formation in the region. The conclusion arrived at is that the development of human potential and enterprise through human capital formation and the provision of basic amenities will help cushion the impact of the resource curse on the host communities and improve their overall well-being.