Federal Government’s Amnesty Programme in the Niger-Delta: An Appraisal

Öz

The purpose of this article is to appraise the federal government’s amnesty programme in the Niger-Delta. Specifically, the article seeks to determine the extent to which the amnesty programme has addressed the Niger-Delta conflict, highlight the financial commitment of the federal government to the programme, and identify the implications of the amnesty programme for the economy and society. The article is framed by relative deprivation theory. Based on review of published literature and other media sources, the article discovers that of all the explanations offered for the amnesty by the Nigerian government, threats to economic survival and national security catalyzed the programme. A dismantling of the Nigerian ‘rentier state’, and clean up of the effects of pollution by multinational oil firms in the region are recommended. The Nigerian government should also draw inspiration from the US government action in ensuring compensation of the Gulf of Mexico oil spills victims.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Amnesty, empowerment, Niger-Delta, peace-building, resource conflict

Federal Hükümetin Nijer Deltası’ndaki Af Programı: Bir Değerlendirme

Öz

Bu makalenin amacı federal hükümetin Niger-Delta bölgesindeki af programını değerlendirmektir. Makale özellikle af programının NigerDelta çatışmasına nasıl bir çözüm getirmeyi amaçladığı , federal hükümetin af programı kapsamındaki ekonomik taahhütleri ve af programının * Lecturer in public administration at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria, [e-mail](1) IntroductionThis article is based on review of published literature and other media sources. Addressing daunting gaps in secondary data search would have required the use of primary sources, such as investigation of spoken discourses by undertaking interviews with some of the actors in the field. Other methods, such as questionnaire administration and the focus group could also be used to produce data and insights for the analysis. But resource constraints deterred their use in this study. In spite of these shortcomings, I am optimistic that they were not sufficient to derail the good intentions of the study, particularly with the resort to search for academic journals, technical papers, and published newspaper reports and articles. The internet proved very helpful in this regard. This article is structured into six sections. The next section discusses the theory of relative deprivation as it affects oil wealth and the deepening poverty in the Niger-Delta. Section three reviews both empirical and theoretical literature pertaining to the subject matter. The fourth section discusses the implementation of the amnesty programme. Section five focuses on the critique of the amnesty programme. The final section concludes the paper with some recommendations.Nigeria is a federation in which the constituent units that make up the country, predominantly the major ethnic groups, have embarked on separate developmental course. This development flows from the artificial creation of the British colonialists and their adopted policy of divide and rule. As a response, the nationalists had attempted to create a common Nigeria by recruiting actors from various ethnic backgrounds into the anti-colonial struggle. However, as observed by Thomas Imobighe, “they did not quite succeed in evolving a nation with an organic unity.” This has precipitatT.A. Imobighe, ‘Introduction: Civil society, ethnic nationalism and nation building in Nigeria’, in T.A. Imobighe (ed.), Civil Society and Ethnic Conflict Management in Nigeria, (Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited, 2003), pp.3-35.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Af, güçlendirme, Niger-Delta, barış inşası, kaynak çatışması

Kaynakça

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