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

Chapter I: Understanding the Niger Delta Conflict: Matters Arising
This disturbing trend has gained momentum since the genesis of this
fourth democratic experiment, a development which shows that our
political class has refused to free itself from the manacle of political
intolerance and immaturity which, among other factors, made it a
ready captive of the military oligarchy in the past and, which will
continue to make it so, unless there is urgent and permanent change
of philosophy through committed moral rearmament. When evaluated
against the background of the wherewithal and rationale of acceptable
democratic culture, it is clear that the current events in Nigeria’s
Niger Delta region appear less favorable to an environment where a
truly democratic governance could survive.
Generally, our politicians, majority of whom are “opportunists” and
political-prostitutes”, have not actually imbibed (as it should be) the
spirit and etiquettes of democracy which has seen most polities to
greatness and international prominence. Their stock-in-trade is antidemocratic
brinkmanship and wanton destruction of lives and
property as it is presently in the Niger Delta among others.
It is with this background that we introduce the reader to a collection
of essays in this anthology with a multidisciplinary focus on the
contending issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria. Chapter 2 is on
the Political Economy of fossil fuel in Nigeria where Lere Amusan
posits that Nigeria’s overreliance on fossil fuel as a main source of
foreign exchange continues to expose the fragility of the state
economy to the unpredictable gloomy global international economic
relations. The need to maintain the skyrocketing prices of fossil fuel at
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