Environmental Inequality In Nigeria

Governance and environmental inequality in

Nigeria: implications for conflict management strategies in the Niger Delta

NATHANIEL UMUKORO*

Department of Political Science, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria

This paper examines the role of governance in environmental inequality in the Niger Delta. Fair access to environmental resources could help to guarantee human security and mitigate violence.

Root causes of environmental inequality in Nigeria’s Niger Delta can be linked to government policies and laws such as the Land Use Act and the negative impacts of the activities of multinational oil corporations. Environmental inequality and its concomitant effects produce a trend to conflict in the Niger Delta.

Keywords: Governance; Environmental

The NDDB’s reports were never made public; they died with the first republic when the military took over power in 1966. Until the late 1980s, nothing significant was done to solve the infrastructural and developmental problems of the Niger Delta.

In 1989, the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida, in an attempt to assuage the demands of the Niger Delta, set up the Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development

Commission (OMPADEC). It was given 3% of the federal allocations earmarked for the Niger Delta States, amounting to N13.6 billion or about $180 million dollars at that time. In spite of the huge amount of financial resources invested in OMPADEC, it failed to meet its objectives due to wastefulness and corruption [20]. The NDDC was established by President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000 with the task of developing the Niger Delta. The

NDDC has focused on the development of social and physical infrastructures, ecological/ environmental remediation and human development. Like OMPADEC, it has

noted, the critical factors which are the causes of the conflicts in the Niger

Delta are poverty, unemployment, bad governance, environmental degradation and scarcity

[12]. Environmental degradation and scarcity breed conflict accelerating factors such as rising poverty and unemployment which are central to the frustration, discontent and anger that provoke violent agitations. Youths are denied the opportunity of decent living and deprived of productive sources of livelihood. The youths are jobless, idle, hungry, miserable and frustrated. They are effectively deprived of dignity. This makes them easy to mobilise.

The social discontent, frustration and anger have led to social vices, restiveness and violence [28]. Environmental protection would help to safeguard the rights of the citizens to a clean environment and ensure peaceful coexistence in the Niger Delta [29].

Effective institutional reform is the key to improving the condition of people in the

Niger Delta. This is because of the poor governance and corruption, which are related, distort socio-economic and political activities in societies. Institutional reforms and a sincere fight against corruption are the keys to ensuring sustainable peace in Nigeria. Law