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

Contending Issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria
Chapter II:
The Political Economy of Fossil Fuels in Nigeria
By Dr. Lere Amusan
Introduction
Nigeria received its political independence in 1960 from the
United Kingdom (UK). Before independence and for a considerable
period of time after independence, the state had depended on the
metropole (the United Kingdom, UK) for economic, political and social
developments. Fossil fuel was discovered in Nigeria by the
Royal/Dutch Shell Company in the Niger delta in 1956 in Oloibiri.
Commercial production commenced in 1958. Exportation of oil as the
main source of foreign exchange and an instrument of foreign policy
did not gain any prominence until after the civil war. The oil shock of
the 1970s resulted from the Yom Kippur war that plunged the
developed states into beggar-their-neighbour policy elevated Nigeria’s
role at the international system. It brought about the prominence of
oil producing states in Nigeria into limelight. Though at the time,
Nigeria was not a major participant in the international oil politics,
but the quadruple in the prices of oil made Nigeria relevant in
international relations calculations. Being a developing state, its
mono-cropping subsistence agriculture did not allow the state to
either have a major role to play at the global politics, nor did it allow
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