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

Chapter X: The Politics of Interventionist Policies and the Niger Delta Crisis
in Nigeria: Impacts and Challenges
Oparah (2008) noted, building a few classroom blocks, tarring of a few
kilometers of unused and unuseable roads and drilling one or two
boreholes are merely scratching a deep wound on its surface. Much of
what have happened in these agencies like the NDDC have been the
fertilizing of a huge corruption complex that have targeted party
roughnecks, space-fillers at party rallies and briefcase wielding
accomplices of those in power for stupendous enrichment. Overinflated
contracts and those that were never never executed become
the ready avenue employed by the NDDC to enrich these fringe
elements that bear no direct impact on the resolution of an intractable
problem.
Intervention Agencies and the Challenges of Achieving Peace and
Sustainable Development in the Niger Delta.
The path to peace and sustainable development in the Niger Delta is
no doubt fraught with a lot of challenges, most of which have started
crystallizing.
In other words, the handling of the development
challenges of the Niger Delta Region has been a major challenge for
decades. Much of the challenges is a function of the nature of the
struggle itself on the part of the people and civil society groups in the
region. It also has to do with the response of the state to the various
agitations within the region. It is believed for example, that the
struggle has taken on a more vicious dimension for the last one
decade especially under the last administration of Olusegun
Obasanjo. This was the era when various militant groups
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