Multinational Oil Corporations and Governance in Nigeria’s Niger Delta in the era of the Resource Control Agitations, 1994-2004

Abstract

This paper is a critique of the activities of multinational oil corporations and their cronies on matters concerning Nigeria’s oil producing areas between 1994 and 2004. Their activities which have come under the radar include the supply of arms to Nigeria’s Armed Forces and the Polic;, the detention, trial and execution of a popular Niger Delta activist, Ken Saro Wiwa and the distribution of money to chiefs and the youth. This paper offers historical explanations to debunk the popular view that agitations across the region (Niger Delta) were ethnic-based or efforts by minority people to get more representation in government and request for more revenue; rather it argues that it is a response to the failure of the government to regulate and control the activities of the multinational oil corporations thereby encouraging massive exploitation of Niger Delta people’s land and resources. The paper concludes that the past military regimes and the succeeding Obasanjo’s democratic administration did not manage the Niger Delta problem properly.