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

Dr. Victor Ojakorotu and Olaopa Olawale
oppressors. That is the way to move forward
(Obasanjo, Ibid).
The above is not only the background and context of human rights
violations, but the genesis of the protracted conflict in the Niger Delta
region. These crises have become acute, insurmountable and
intractable as it is being witnessed now in Nigeria.
The Nigerian State and oil multinationals have visited both ecocide
and genocide on the Niger Delta region. The tragedy of the Niger Delta
is already too well known to be recounted here. In all history, every
people under such inhuman oppression ultimately took up arms to
right wrongs. MEND has repeatedly and most eloquently articulated
its demands which a well-meaning state should not hesitate to grant.
Such contentious issues as adherence to the principles of federalism
and resource control form the raison d'etre for MEND's struggle.
Successive Nigerian rulers have always been short-sighted, if not the
Niger Delta debacle would not have been. The crisis in the region
portends grave danger not just for Nigeria, but for Africa and probably
the world. As the crisis escalates, the loss in human terms would
aggregate a holocaust.
Why have thing been so in Nigeria after forty-nine years of
independence Why is she in apparent ruins And, what could be
done to rectify the paralsysis of will that has characterized her
dialectical quicksand of history since her take-off as a nation
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