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

Chapter II: The Niger Delta Crisis: The Political Economy of Fossil Fuels in
Nigeria
and services amounted to misallocation of resources. The school
facilities, if provided and equipped with western capitalist books,
would only promote liberal economic system, which is a gap between
the Nigerian environment and the oil majors. The establishment of
farm settlement and the eventual production of cassava were meant
for the SPDC workers while the communities around the farm were
not allowed to benefit from the stems and tubers produced in the
Isoko community. Also pertinent to note is the fish pond in some part
of Delta State. Fish and fingerlings from farms were not meant to
satisfy the locals, rather those who benefit were the families, high
chiefs and the oil companies’ cronies outside the area of production.
Workers that were employed were either from the family of the
existing workers or representatives of the traditional chiefs who were
the chief beneficiaries of the oil proceed in form of unexecuted
contracts and outright bribes to perpetrate economic exploitation of
the oil bearing region in the country.
Frustration experienced from the hanky-panky practices of the state
and oil MNCs led to the Isaac Boro uprising that eventually led to the
declaration of a Niger Delta Republic in February 1966. Though this
was short lived, it served as a precedent for the Ken Saro Wiwa and
Isokos uprising against the national government and oil companies.
Shell Oil Company provided logistics for the federal government
soldiers to quell the perceived treason and felony punishable under
the law of the country against Isaac Boro’s secessionist bid. What
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