The poverty of the forces of statism and democratism in addressing the Niger-Delta question in Nigeria

Abstract

Many scholars have argued that one out of every six black humans (not just Africans) is a Nigerian. And there is a sense in which whatever happens in Nigeria reverberates across the world. This paper emerges against the backdrop of an uneasy feeling that if the country called “Nigeria” would survive, then the “Nigerian Question” can neither be fully understood nor genuinely addressed without a sincere and objective perception of developments in the oil- rich Niger Delta region. The paper argues that the violence in the Niger Delta has continued because of the fumbling attempt to solve it using the ever-coercive power of the state (statism). It further argues that democracy within the Nigerian state would only be meaningful (and useful in addressing the Niger Delta question) if it can downplay it‟s or stir individualist variant. Consequently, the ever brandished and colossal state power, has made democracy in Nigeria become Democratism-wherein democracy becomes an ideology, which treats historically derived and engage allegiances as anachronisms and, therefore as obstacles to the freedom of people in modern nation-state. Employing the historical, expository and analytic methods, the paper carries out an analysis of these two forces and posit that it is the major reason why the crises in Nigeria‟s Niger-Delta would continue to rage.