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

Chapter XI: Between the Politics of Oil Exploration and Exploitation, Oil
Producing Communities’ Reactions and Security Contradictions in the Niger Delta
concerns the oil crisis in the Niger Delta is problematic. The issue of
security in the Niger Delta in relation to the oil exploration and
exploitation on the one hand, and the reactions of irate oil-bearing
community youths in the Niger Delta region is somewhat well
captured by what Ibeanu (2005:25) describes as “a contradiction of
securities”. Ibeanu has attempted to explain that the perception of
what constitutes security to the state and the oil companies is
markedly different from the perception that the people of the oilproducing
communities have. While the state and the oil companies
perceive security in terms of carrying out the oil exploration activities
without being interrupted in any form; not minding the effects of their
operations on the inhabitants of the communities in which they
operate and the environment, the people of the oil-producing
communities view security as the possibility and capacity that their
livelihood and environment are not threatened or impoverished as a
consequence of oil exploration activities in their area. At either level of
operation of these contradictions, there are passions or sentiments
attached. There is always a manifest-passion of the Nigerian state’s
preference to ensure security of the multinationals wherever there
was crisis between them and the local communities in Nigeria; and
ignore sub-national passion. On the other hand, the local
communities that produce the oil often evoke general sentiment of
micro-nationalism.
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