Home |
Site Index |
FAQs |
Contact |
RSS
|
Podcast
home > by publication type > daily analysis > Nigeria’s Volatile Delta
Email
| Prepared by: |
|---|
Mangrove swamps and creeks in the south are crisscrossed by thousands of miles of oil pipelines. (AP/George Osodi)
If corrupt is the adjective most often used to describe politics in Nigeria, the word that most aptly portrays the landscape of its oil-rich south seems to be hellish. The Niger Delta, a region of mangrove swamps and creeks in Nigeria’s south, is crisscrossed by thousands of miles of oil pipelines. Oil spills—the result of neglect by oil companies and vandalism by militants—have caused significant environmental damage in the region. The area is further scarred by “flaring” (NPR), the burning of unwanted natural gas byproduct from oil drilling, which causes acid rain and air pollution. Under government orders, this practice will end in 2008, but it has already taken a massive ecological toll.
Oil from the Niger Delta accounts for 95 percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings, but the region’s poverty and physical devastation (BBC) are producing political unrest that could undermine this economic productivity. Pervasive feelings of exploitation among Delta residents are spawning increasingly aggressive militant groups (Virginia Quarterly Review) with the ability to cripple the operations of oil companies. As an International Crisis Group report details, Niger Delta militants were organized at the village and clan level for much of the 1990s, but now are getting more sophisticated in their attempts to gain “resource control,” or a fair share of the country’s oil revenues.
The most prominent of these new militant groups is the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND. A secretive group with a core leadership that affiliates itself with other militant groups on a case-by-case basis, MEND has adeptly leveraged media attention to publicize its demands, as this new Backgrounder discusses. The group’s attacks on oil pipelines and kidnappings of foreign oil worker have reduced oil output in the Delta by more than 25 percent (Reuters), or roughly eight hundred thousand barrels per day, according to Nigerian oil officials. It’s unclear whether violence will increase ahead of Nigeria’s mid-April’s presidential elections. Some experts predict it will, but others say MEND is disillusioned with the political process and does not have a stake in the elections.
Yet presidential candidates are acutely aware they will have to address the Niger Delta crisis if elected. Though the Nigerian government claims to have the Niger Delta insurgency under control, there is broad agreement that the threat from Delta militants is, if anything, on the rise. This year, fifty-eight oil workers (Nigerian Tribune) have been kidnapped—more than in the whole of 2006. The European Union will not deploy election observers to the region due to security concerns (Independent). Jamestown’s Terrorism Focus reports that the Nigerian government recently requested "the presence of American Marines in the Niger Delta to counter growing threats by militants on vital oil facilities." The request was denied, but the United States has boosted its naval presence in the nearby Gulf of Guinea dramatically since 2004, and President Bush recently approved the creation of a unified military command for Africa, AFRICOM, scheduled to be operational in 2008. Analysts say ensuring energy security was a major reason for its creation; sub-Saharan African supplies roughly 20 percent of U.S. oil imports.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at the Council.
After two decades of liberalization, many countries around the world are adopting new restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) that could retard continued progress. The authors make recommendations for correcting this protectionist drift by proposing guidelines for how countries can better regulate FDI yet still reap its economic benefits.
In this Council Special Report, the authors make a strong case that the Bush administration’s policy of diplomatic isolation of Syria is not serving U.S. interests, and offer informed history and thoughtful analysis of the country and its external behavior.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1-800-537-5487, fax +1-410-516-6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1-212-434-9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1-212-434-9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the logo below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
