The State And Conflict Resolution In Niger Delta Region: An Analysis Of State Response To Conflict In The Region

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1 The State And Conflict Resolution In Niger Delta Region: An Analysis Of State Response To Conflict In The Region Ndukwe Onyinyechi Kelechi Ph.D* and Haruna Ayuba** Department Of Political Science, University Of Maiduguri, P.M.B. 1069, Borno State, Nigeria Abstract The Niger Delta conflict has a deep historical root that could be traced to the pre-colonial period, propelled by complex international economic and political forces that led to local resistance. This paper attempts to examine how the state has responded to continuing conflict and crises in the Niger Delta region. Beside, the state response has led to military repression, establishment of various development commissions, commissions of inquiry or interventions by State Boundary Commissions and programme that could help to curtail the spate of conflict in the region. Despite these approaches to responding to the conflict, structural problems such as deepening inequality, environmental degradation was largely found. The findings revealed that the character of the state was responsible for conflict in the region. However, the State response to the conflict has relatively brought peace in the region. This was successfully achieved through the implementation of amnesty programme. To arrive at this conclusion, the paper relied on secondary sourced materials. The paper therefore recommends that for sustainable peace to be achieved in the region, the promotion of environmental sustainability to preserve the means of people s livelihoods, infrastructural development and human capacity building should be given priority attention. Functioning institution and good governance in place would go a long way in achieving a sustainable peace in the region. Key Words: The State, Conflicts Resolution and Niger-Delta Introduction Niger Delta is part of Nigerian State located at south- south region. It is an oil producing community engulfed with violent conflict over a decade. The complexities of these conflicts stem from contradictions in the exploitative production systems and hostile exchange relations between two major coalitions, comprising the multinational oil companies and the Nigerian state on the one hand, the people of the region and peasant communities on the other. Iwayemi (2006) In the past, the state has responded to conflict in the region in various ways such as using her security apparatus for suppression and containment, establishment of development commissions, creation of more states, using her agency of National Boundary Commission and many others. The adoption of amnesty by the State as conflict management strategy to demobilize, rehabilitate and reintegrate the restive youth in the region, and the inclusion of south- south region in the political space of Nigerian state created a sense of belonging in the mind of people from that region which form the basis of relative peace in the region. The establishment of commissions led to creation of NDDB, OMPADEC, NDDC and succinctly Ministry of Niger Delta.(Omotola, 2007) Apart from state efforts, players in the oil industry for example Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other corporate agencies also initiated various programmes and plans to ensure peace in the region. One of such is the mission of Peace and Security Working Group. Their mission was to prevent conflict, find a mechanism for sustainable peace for the region, manage and monitor the implementation of the peace and security strategy. According to Asuni (2005), the Niger Delta Peace and Security Strategy have a comprehensive agenda that draws in the Nigerian Stakeholders to address the pressing issues that affect security and economic development in the region. It is against this background that this paper is divided into the following sub-

2 headings. These include introduction, conceptual clarification of State, Nigerian State, conflict resolution, theoretical framework, overview of conflict in the Niger Delta,State responses to conflict in the region, challenges, conclusion and recommendations. Conceptual Clarification State State is one of the oldest institutions ever known to man. It is a very significant political institution. The great Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc were unanimous in their perception of the state. They all saw the State as a mutual phenomenon that arose for the purpose of maintaining law and order, peace and security. The state satisfies the economic, political, moral and religious desires of the commonwealth. (Encyclopedia Americana. vol.23)according to Thorpe (1974), State is an institution which successfully claims for itself a monopoly of legitimate violence within a defined geographical area. He further stated that the state ceases to exist once it cannot suppress illegitimate violence. Jordan (1978), stated that the term state applies to that political authority which maintains domination over a specific geographical area. This authority is usually defined by a constitution, which provides for the institution of government that is necessary to ensure internal stability and external security. Moreover, such a constitution is usually based on widely shared and accepted concepts of justice and equity. Essentially, there is the monopoly of force which distinguishes the state from its constituent groups and associations. Okoli (1990) noted that: A state is a politically independent, territorially defined, group of people, possessing a government that is subordinate to none other, monopolizing the coercive instruments of compulsion in the enforcement of its decision(p 14). A state is seen as a specific modality of class domination mediated by commodity exchange such that the system of institutional mechanisms of domination is somewhat differentiated and disassociated from the ruling class and the society appears as an objective force standing alongside society.(ake, 1993) According to Marx, as quoted in Lenin (1976), A state is an organ of class rule, an organ for the oppression of one class by another, it is the creation of order which legalizes and perpetuates this oppression. Nigerian State Nigerian state is an artificial creation of British colonial power. The British drive to exploit the available natural resources within the territories known as Nigeria led to the amalgamation of over two hundred and fifty ethnic nationalities under one central autocratic government in This made the government an instrument of repression and wealth appropriation, as government institutions were used to brutalize oppositions and agitations, and at the same time, used by those occupying positions of authority to covet public wealth for personal use. The state has remained elitist in character.(ibeanu, 2006) Since the inception of colonization, the character of Nigerian state has been that of a class nature. According to Nwankwo (1987): There are historical and class dimensions to the evident reliance on structural and direct violence as twin instrument in and the struggle for power and resources in Nigerian politics In Nigerian state, the dominant class refers to all those who are in the power position to take what they can from the nations accumulated wealth directly or through any form of patronage and are also in the position to decide what others will get ( Anikpo, 1996). Nigerian State today is a purely privatized State, and as modalities of class domination, political elites use government institutions as instrument for wealth creation, and enhancement of power and influence.(ibeanu, 2006)

3 The entity called Nigeria, found in 1914 after the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates are a by-product of a fraudulent social contract and not of a negotiated will of the welded parts. These coerced groupings of diverse peoples with varied backgrounds and cultures created both horizontal polarization and primordial loyalties which invariably make national integration difficult. This has further led to the current negative and warped state of development in Nigeria. (Ajetumobi, 1991) Ibeanu (1998), also argue that the Nigerian state could be understood in terms of the genealogy of global capital accumulation. The penetration of European merchants, led to intensive capital growth that resulted to the development of capital market and centralization of state system. Thus, the state became a tool in the hands of capital which never worked for the complete destruction of institutions, solidarity and social forces of the pre capitalist order as long as they allow for accumulation(ibeanu, 1993). Ibeanu (1997:8), reiterated that the State has never been a popular national state and has never represented the interest of the masses. More often than not, the distributional consequences of public policies are intended result of the private interests which have been instrumental in their design, passage and implementation. Thus, the Nigerian State can be defined as modalities of domination wherein private interests remote public policies and actions for its advantage. This has led to claims of marginalization and separatist agitations that have come to characterize politics in Nigeria. The conflict in Niger Delta is a concrete example to this. Conflict Resolution In conflict resolution, the aim is not to avoid conflict but rather to deal with it in a way which minimizes the negative impact and maximizes the positive potential inherent in conflict with the framework of the values of peace.( Burton, 1990). Christie (1997), opines that conflict resolution is a set of strategies which can be used to foster the satisfaction of human needs for security, identity, self determination and quality for all people involved in a conflict. Conflict resolution is about how parties can move from zero-sum destructive patterns of conflict to positive sum constructive outcomes. The aim is to develop process of conflict resolution that appears to be acceptable to parties in dispute, and effective in resolving conflict (Azar and Burton, 1986). Conflict resolution can also connotes a sense of finality were the parties to a conflict are mutually satisfied with the outcome of a settlement and the conflict is resolved in a true sense. Conflict resolution is also refer to as an outcome in which the issues in an existing conflict are satisfactorily dealt with through a solution that is mutually acceptable to the parties, self sustaining in the long run and productive of a new, positive relationship between parties that were previously hostile adversaries. (Mitchel and Banks, 1996) Theoretical Approach The paper used the Marxian political economy approach as the main theoretical approach for this discourse. This approach founded in the Marxian tradition view society as bipolarized and asymmetrical classes engaged in perpetual struggles. As Marx and Engel s (1977) observed, the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle, freeman and slave, lord and serf in a word, oppressor and the oppressed (p 38). This captures the situation in the Niger Delta region and Nigeria as a whole. First and foremost, it recognizes the conflictual nature of society and the state as an instrument of exploitation and oppression by one class over another. The people of Niger Delta can be seen as a minority class struggling against the coalition of the ruling class from the three major ethnic groups. The bone of contention between these opposing classes is the economy. This framework is founded on dialectical materialism and conceives of economic conditions as the ultimate deciding factor in social relations. According to Marx as quoted by Anikpo in his unpublished work:

4 In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will. Relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of the development of their material production forces on which rises a legal and political super structure and to which correspond definite forms of social awareness. (Anikpo,1996) Taking a cue from the above, one will view the conflict and crises in the Niger Delta from the oil dependent national economy. This economy has produced a super structure; a state and government that is peculiar to the economy and enacts law that ensure the corporate existence of the ruling class at the expense of the oil producing communities. This economy and its attendant super structure have therefore created conflictual nature of social relations in the Niger Delta. As Ekpenyong (1992:86) observed, that the political economy approach ask who appropriates and benefits from the various decisions and how structures and policies affect different sectors of the population. This captures how various policies of the state have affected the region. The 1969 Petroleum Decree, Land Use Act Decree 1978, National Inland Water Decree 13 of 1977 and so on. All these laws was promulgated to alienate the resources from the region and to determine the economic condition of the region and other component unit found in the state. The response to the conflict in the past and other efforts to develop the region was made to satisfy the interest of the ruling elites other than the communities been affected as a result of oil exploration. That is why various approaches and development efforts failed to abate the conflict in the region. The multinational corporations has equally failed to perform their cooperate responsibilities to their various host communities and this has generated conflict. Sometimes, State actions has helped in protecting and promoting the activities of all these oil players in the region instead of regulating their mode of operation appropriately and ensuring that they perform their cooperate responsibilities to the host communities. The expression of state power and repressive might through her security apparatus in the region is for the protection of its fundamental interest. This is exemplified in the way the state used her security apparatus in the region to kill and brutalize the people of the region over issues regarding to their economic and social life. Odi massacre, Odioma, Umuechem serve as a concrete example to this point. This further justifies the assertion of Marx and Engel: That the state is nothing more than the form of organization which the bourgeois necessarily adopt both for internal and external purposes for mutual guarantee of their property and interest.( Marx and Engel, 1977:59) Also, paramount in the political economy approach is the notion of Historical Materialism. This discusses the various changes that take place in the production process from time immemorial, and the attendant consequences on the socio political scene, its ideology and legal system. This approach therefore conceptualizes virtually every social phenomenon as a product of economic history of production. From the above, one will thus trace the Niger Delta problems to colonialism and the subsequent displacement of the communal mode of production, the introduction of colonial capitalistic mode of production and the consequences, the nationalistic struggles and the effect on the economy, legal system and the polity. The approach studies the social relations of people in the production process in any society. How those who own and control the dominant means of production (the ruling class) also control all the facets of the society, and how invariably policies are made to further promote and protect their interest. The conflict management strategy of amnesty policy introduced by the state to address the youth restiveness in the region, which succinctly brought a relative peace is base on the perspective that it was not to address the problem of the region completely and ensure sustainable peace, rather meant to manage the conflict and bring to a halt anything that will disrupt oil production capacity and destruction of oil

5 facilities in the region since the activities of the militants are having adverse effects on the economy of the State. Marxian political economy approach is considered suitable due to its inherent capabilities of studying issues and society from a holistic and embracive purview. Over view of Conflict in the Niger Delta region The context of the Niger Delta struggle is defined by the Nigerian national question with grave implications for conflict. The dimensions of conflict in the Niger Delta include conflicts between the multinational oil companies, the Nigerian state and the host communities, as well as intra and inter communal conflicts. Iwayemi (2006) The Niger Delta located in the southern part of Nigeria is one of the world s largest archive (fan shaped Niger Deltas). The region is surrounded by rivers, land, plains, large white and red mangroves and natural forest reserves and its occupants engages mostly in fishing and farming as their major occupations. Its soil is rich in minerals especially crude oil which is the mainstay of Nigerian economy Eyinla (2006).The region covers an area of about 70,000 square kilometers and makes up 7.5% of Nigeria land mass. Onojowo (2001). The population of the region is estimated to be about 31,227,577 million people, of more than 40 ethnic groups speaking about 250 different dialects NPC (2006). The minorities of the Niger Delta region have been agitating since 1950s. First, it was against marginalization, neglect and the politics of exclusion by the ethnic majority based ruling political parties and the government of the then eastern and western regions. This snowballed into the minority agitation for the creation of separate regions, which the Willincks Commission of 1958 rejected and rather provided constitutional guarantee in the form of fundamental rights. Biriye (1995) The discovery of oil in 1958 at Olobiri and the emergence of commercial oil production from the region, the subsequent exploration and exploitation by the state and actors in the oil industries (multinational oil companies) existing in the region heightened the conflict situation in the area. This raised the stakes and generated a struggle by the indigenes for control of the oil resources (Biriye,1995:8-10). According to Nwosu (2000:23), the region by the 1990s was one of the least developed and poorest in Nigeria. Increasing oil exploration had made the region economically and socially prostrate, courtesy of extensive environmental degradation and ensuring socio-economic disruptions and poverty. From a mild renewal of agitation in the 1970s, it became a widespread community based protests in the 1980s. By the 1990s, the region was mobilized by a flowering of civil society, intense identity mobilization and ethnic nationalism, community activism and youth mobilization to commence a broad regime of extensive active resistance ( Nwosu,2000, Obi 2001), stated that: Mass protest whose contents were demands and struggle were transformed considerably to be a re-orientation of the struggle for group rights to self-determination, equity and justice, state reforms and corporate governance. Hence, there was a change from the culture of accommodation to that of direct challenge and confrontation. These changes led to a broad programmed of disrupting oil production, occupation and shutting of oil facilities, abduction of oil workers for ransom, vandalization of oil pipelines and many others Obi (2001:9). Eskor (2000), situate the conflict in the Niger Delta within the framework of capitalism. It is capitalism that manifests itself in the various crises in the oil producing areas. According to Eskor (2000:8), it is profit that drives the multinational companies in the Niger delta in alliance with their surrogates that is the ruling class in Nigerian government to exploit the oil producing communities without developing them. To seek for profit, they enact laws that legalize gas flaring at the detriment of the oil producing communities, laws that alienate the resources from the people. Osaba (1998:36) argues that:

6 In the inter-play of forces as regards to who gets what, when and how, the oil companies were in complete control to the detriment of the Nigerian state. In search for profit, the imperialists do not have a permanent friend nor enemy but a permanent profit targeted interest. Ibeanu (1996), stated that the conflict in the Niger Delta is an extension of the character of the state in Nigeria. The state is controlled by a class of people that have a tenuous relationship with production. This class controls the state and its resources. The state thus, appropriate, parceled out and in fact becomes a means of production. In the process, the state lacks hegemony and given its non-autonomization, is enmeshed in the class struggle. Instruments of state coercion are consequently arrayed against opposing groups to prevent the virus of disaffection and revolt from spreading to other aggrieved groups. Owugah (2000), stated that oil which has brought so much wealth to the Nigerian state has been a tail of woes to the people of the Niger Delta. This is because prior to the introduction of oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta, the people had depended solely on the environment for their material needs. Aware of the importance of the environment to them, they were quite protective of it. The introduction of oil exploration activities by the oil companies destroyed the environment and the culture of the people. He further maintained that the state is incapable of controlling the oil companies because of their roles and control of the economy. The state depends on the oil companies for their existence. Thus, any peaceful, legal resistance and protest against the environmental degradation of the region by the people, the state resorts to violence. Thus, wealth is perpetually accumulated at the peril of the people. Naanem (1995), maintained that Niger Delta conflict hover around ethnicity and revenue allocation. The centre piece of his analysis is what he refers as internal colonialism founded on three cardinal points- ethnicity titled political domination, alliance of the dominant groups with the multinational companies and degradation. He further argues that internal colonialism in Nigeria is a function of political penetration and domination by major ethnic group as against economic domination. The Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and the Igbos, having got political power use it to transfer resources from numerically weaker groups for their own development. In the process two groups have been created in the country- the politically and economic buoyant core and the less political and economical weak or periphery. This scenario of internal colonialism has been lubricated by the alliance between the core groups and the multinational companies. This alliance has worked against the peripheral groups as they peter out or lose out in employment and other business opportunities. This situation is worsened by the fact that oil exploration and exploitation activities with their environmental consequences occur in the land of the minorities. The dominant group who do not have direct effect of the environmental problems occasioned by the oil activities can therefore afford to ignore them.( Naanem, 1995) Also, incidental to conflict in the Niger Delta is the rivalry among the elites, particularly the political class who enlist youths in their area of influence to intimidate and harass their perceived opponents through manipulation by jostling for power and positions.(osaghae, 1994) State Response to Conflict in Niger Delta Region Oil producing communities of Nigeria known as Niger Delta region has been characterized with fierce violent conflict for more than a decade. Sometimes, these conflicts have been between ethnic groups who have hitherto subsisted in the same political unit. For example conflicts between the Ijaw and Itsekiri in Delta State. Conflicts in the region have also been attributed to the inability of Nigerian State to meet the needs, aspirations, demand and plight of the region. Oil is the major source of income to the Nigerian state and this come from the region (Frynas, 2001). Also, conflicts in the region tended to be over land resources. This has only been exacerbated by the presence of oil and other natural resources, as communities fight bitterly to claim the land that holds the natural wealth. To exemplify this, is a conflict between IkotUmoessien community sharing boundary with Ngwa community in Abia State. IkotUmoessien has longstanding conflict with its Abia neighbours particularly Ngwa over access to land

7 resources. This has resulted in the destruction of many lives and properties. Conflict between Shell andisoko community in Delta State is another example. The pipeline edit stipulates that land should be leased to Oil Company for not more than 20years and not less than 5years, but shell has refused to respect the pipeline edit. They have taken the land in Isoko on right purchase for 99 years. The communities are unhappy with action of shell and have warned that 99 years is too long a time their future generation to benefit from their resources. This is a potential conflict indicator. According to Ndukwe (2015),unclear policies regarding the designation of a community as host community where oil is actually drilled for example has constituted a source of contentions by various communities. This has become a serious issue as communities struggle with each other over this. For example there was a violent conflict in March 2006 in Agaga. The conflict was as a result of the actions of an oil company at Edewo Estate in Agaga. The oil firm refused to recognize the host community Agaga but chose to recognize another community, called Uhwere. This resulted to lost of live and destruction of properties. Conflicts such as militant youth phenomenon are historically attributed to the inequitable distribution of resources throughout the country. Ndukwe (2015:84), cited the incidence in 1994/1995 when the late President Abacha invited thousands of youth from around the country including the south-south region to Abuja to canvass for their support in his election as a democratic leader. For most of these young people, it was the first opportunity to observe at close quarters how oil revenue was being utilized in other parts of the country. This created in their minds delusions that resources from their land were not used to develop their region. Hence, they took up arms against the State. Conflicts in the region have been seen by the Federal Government from a security stand point, where containment and suppression through military approach have been the primary objective. This is exemplified in October 1992, when the people of Umuechem in River State protested against Shell Petroleum Company on the ground of discrimination in the employment of even unskilled workers and absence of basic amenities in their community. The protest which was initially peaceful became violent when the shell petroleum development company brought in mobile police squad. The end result was tragic for the people of umuechem when on the following month being November, the whole community was raised to the ground with their traditional ruler and others gunned down while a hundred others were maimed, raped or assaulted (Ibeanu, 1996). The same pattern of response was replicated to Ilaje community in Ondo State, Kiama and Odi in Bayelsa State, Gbaramatu in Warri South, Delta State and so on(ibeanu,1996:12). According to Taminu (1999), the response of the State security forces to the region has always been brutal. This was also demonstrated by the extra judicial killing of human right and environmental activists, Ken Saro- Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders, an act which is linked to anti oil protests in the region. The state has responded to the conflict in the region through establishment of development commissions. Perhaps, most important for this part of the region is the creation of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in 2000, which was established to facilitate the rapid, even and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful. Also, established is the Niger Delta Ministry in 2008 by the late president Shehu Musa Yar Adua. The ministry is to coordinate the activities of agencies, communities, donors and other stake holders involved in the development of the region. In the past other high profile development commissions had been established such as Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB) in 1960, Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC) in 1993 and so on. However, none has achieved desired development or sustainability of peace in the region. Also the state through her boundary commission has resolved quite number of issues related to boundary disputes between states and communities. This, they have done through demarcation of boundaries along ethnic lines to address the unrest in the area. Cross River/Akwa Ibom boundary dispute, Eleme/Okirika conflict is a concrete example to this.

8 However, relative peace in the region has been achieved through the proclamation of Amnesty to the militant youths in the region. This has recorded a huge success as it is ascribed to be the best suitable policy the state has used to bring stability and manage conflict in the region since the Niger Delta region imbroglio. Challenges of the State in the Resolution of Conflict in Niger Delta Region The Niger Delta region remains a development challenge in Nigeria posing difficulties that eluded a number of attempts to address the socio economic problems in the region. These challenges include poverty which is reflected in a low level of human development measured in terms of maternal deaths, child mortality, a heavy disease burden, a highly polluted environment (caused by canalization, oil spills, gas leaks, gas flares), limited access to potable water, dilapidated schools, health facilities and deplorable communication networks especially in the water-logged areas that constitute more than one half of the regions total landmass. The region has in addition, a pervasive unemployment problem especially among the youths. The high level of unemployment together with a strongly felt sense of exclusion and neglect contributed to conflict and insecurity in the region. Also the region has a political challenge and this has affected effective conflict resolution process. The first challenge is how to strengthen democracy at community levels in Niger Delta so that the community leaders will consistently represent their constituent views and interest. Also there is a need to hold all officeholders or those in the positions of authority accountable for their actions since many were found in petro-business cycles and use their loots to sponsor conflict and cause political upheavals in the region. Also the need to include the region in the government/ petro-business is necessary. Exclusion of the region in the alliance poses a great challenge. As evident from the national petroleum policy that guides all strategic considerations of the Nigerian government in the petro-business sector, oil producing communities are glaringly missing in the document. Ibaba (2010). The alliance will change the current power imbalance in Nigeria s oil equation by allowing oil producing communities (not just selected elite) the opportunity to actively participate in strategic decision making in the areas of oil exploration and compensation, community development and environmental management. Since the inception of conflict in the region, various measures taking by the state in the past have failed to adequately address the problems in the region. The failure of the state to effectively compel the oil companies to obey the various laws put in place to guide their operations such as the laws on gas flaring, oil spills and environmental pollution does much to discredit government efforts and question her sincerity. This poses a very great challenge to peace and environmental sustainability. However, the state must accept the challenges to reassert its authority in the region. It must deal decisively with the issue of insecurity, kidnapping and hostage taking for ransom, crude oil theft, oil pipelines vandals, oil bunkering and many others to pave way for infrastructural development and constructive engagement with the true representatives of the people. The state should have effective leadership, political will to develop the region and create institutions devoid of corruption. This will help to reduce the level of acrimony, hatred and ensure a lasting peace in the region. Conclusion The Nigerian state dependence on oil and her claims over the resources without fair distribution of the economic wealth to the region that suffers the environmental degradation and damages to aquatic lives resulting from oil exploration form the basis for the understanding of the conflict in the region. Also, the subsequent expansion of international economy into other areas in Niger delta is a continuum of the global capitalist expansion, which further accentuated the conflict. Consequently, this has led to military repression in the region and establishment of various state intervention agencies charged with the responsibility of developing the region. The agencies failed to abate the discontent and development of the region as conflict continued to persist in the entire area of the Niger delta.

9 Therefore, against the insecurity unleashed by the waves of militancy in the region and its consequent effect on the economy, the state embarked on several mitigating modes of which is the most currently implemented amnesty progamme in 2009 that dovetailed into the new lexicon of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process aimed at building peace. This has brought a relative peace in the region. The study conclude that for sustainable peace to be achieved in the region, the promotion of environmental sustainability to preserve the means of people s livelihoods should be given more attention. Effort should be put in place through job creation, infrastructural development and human capacity building. The Niger Delta people and their leaders must reciprocate the state initiative by stopping whatever that could jeopardize the peace building process. They should also improve chances for successful negotiations by consulting more closely with each other to achieve greater unity and coherence.

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