Oil production, environmental pressures and other sources of violent conflict in Nigeria

Globally, environmental overexploitation and degradation constitute both threats to human development and sources of tension and conflicts. In Nigeria, the degradation of the Niger Delta environment by oil production has exacerbated long-standing grievances among communities competing for scarce resources. This article seeks to examine the theoretical and existential explanations for the mobilisation by groups from Nigeria’s oil-producing communities to pursue armed struggle in engaging with the Nigerian state and multinational oil companies. Using 10 focus groups with 85 participants, the author tests the argument that violent conflicts in the Niger Delta are related to the negative pressures placed on the environment and communities by pollution of land and water resources by oil production. These pressures expose the population of the area to poverty, hunger, malnutrition, anxiety, distrust and violence. The ensuing widening inequalities have spawned simmering grievances, a survivalist culture and a politics of ethnic mobilisation.