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

Chapter VI: The Struggle Against Exploitation and Marginalization:
A Historical Survey of and Implication of the Uprisings and Protests in Nigeria’s
Niger Delta
the state rather it has gradually embolden others to join in the
struggle. This therefore starts with the Isaac Boro led opposition.
1) The Boro-led Niger Delta Volunteer service (DVS) - 1966
The principal focus of Boro’s Niger Delta Volunteer Service
(DVS), which was launched in February, 1966 was to create a State of
the Niger Delta people in order to address the human and
infrastructural development problems of the area (see Omotola, 2006:
17). Boro’s struggle was a follow-up of several other failed peaceful
agitations of the chiefs and politicians of the area in search of a state.
Prominent amongst such movements were Ijaw State Movement,
Rivers Chiefs and Peoples Conference led by Chief Harold Dappa
Biriye e.t.c, which were nipped in the bud by politicians from
preponderant ethnic nationalities in the Nigerian State. Most of such
agitations were even pre-independence and at best only received a
listening ear of the British Government, which led to the constitution
of the Minorities Commission popularly known as the Willinks
Commission of 1957. The commission reported in 1958 that:
“The needs of those who live in the creeks
and swamps of the Niger Delta are very
different from those of the interior… it is not
easy for a government or legislature
operating from the inland to concern itself or
even fully understand the problems of the
territory where communications are so
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