Contending Issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria - Journal of ...

Chapter I: Understanding the Niger Delta Conflict: Matters Arising
nation’s unity which is better called “disunited unity” or a “fraudulent
togetherness” occasioned by deliberate plastering of wounds through
cosmetologized approach to national issues which, on its own has
engendered “dangerous deformities” in the Nigerian polity.
The civilian administration in Nigeria through unpatriotic political
actions and inactions is currently seemed to be heading into a
traumatic and disintegrative course. This claim rightly finds a solace
within the context of the spate of conflict in the Niger Delta region and
the country’s reaction towards it. What else can we expect in a
country where (elected) officials of the highest law making bodies
believe that the extermination of 20 million people is the only means
and best option to resolve a conflict. In fact, Akindele and Uwazomba
(Ibid) got it all when they assert that:
Nigeria is a country where amoral morality flourishes and
where political marginalization is defined by pseudo or self
acclaimed hereditary right of political power whenever
there is a power shift as it is currently the case in Nigeria.
Ours is a country where one geo-political location sees
power shift as volitional and that, that, could be taken
back at will if the rest of the country refuses to “play ball”
or succumb to the age-long domination or playing of the
second-fiddle political role. It is a country where innocent
leaders of oppressed, alienated and exploited people are
made to “pay unnecessary and avoidable supreme price”
for struggling to better the lots of their people by
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