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Fellow Takes a Fresh Look at the Niger Delta "Story"

The oil-rich Niger Delta is in crisis and violence has intensified there in recent months. Wilson Center Fellow Deirdre LaPin, who lived in Nigeria for 13 years, is writing a book about this troubled area&#151a story of oil companies, governments, and society colliding—in the hopes that a balanced account will help lead to a solution.

The Niger Delta is in crisis. The region's people lack basic services and infrastructure; high unemployment has created a huge social and economic gap; and growing violence threatens the region's economies and security.

This Niger Delta story, recounted in many versions, paints a picture colored by local experience and oral tradition, rooted in 50 years of living with extractive industry, and in a prior 300 years of encounters with European traders. Over time, the people in coastal areas lost their control over trade, products, and local resources. They endured the impacts of pollution, displacement, relative poverty, and social disruption. Discontent led to social activism and localized rebellion, then periodic repression, and eventually to widening criminality, conflict, and violence. In this downward spiral, there are many to blame, but some real efforts to reverse the trend give rise to cautious optimism.

Wilson Center Fellow Deirdre LaPin has lived in Sub-Saharan Africa for almost 20 years, 13 of them in Nigeria. She is writing a new story about the Niger Delta, offering a balanced look at the current crisis as a system of interaction among three principal stakeholders: oil companies, governments, and a diverse society. Dire poverty, compounded by societal frustration over corruption and mismanagement of oil revenues, has fueled militancy and a growing rebellion, said LaPin, and put the three stakeholders on a course of collision.

The Niger Delta is the world's eighth largest exporter of oil and 20 million of its people are affected by oil production. Today, nearly 90 percent of central government revenues come from the oil industry—more than $50 billion in 2007—yet little trickles down to the ordinary Nigerian. "In this oil-dependent economy, the oil producing region feels it is not benefiting equitably," said LaPin. "Three-quarters of the people in the Niger Delta have a quality of life lower than the average Nigerian."

Oil companies—most notably Shell, Chevron, and Exxon Mobil—are spending $600 million annually on social development and infrastructure in the Niger Delta. "Oil companies had been making social investments since the 1950s in educational training, scholarships, and agricultural extension," said LaPin. "In the mid '90s, during a period of sanctions and reduced foreign assistance, the people needed other options for social development. Companies responded by adopting a community-based approach that focused on local ownership, empowerment, and sustainability." It was the right approach, but too late for companies to reverse the trend of grievance and greed.

One promising development came in 2000 when Nigeria's government established the Niger Delta Development Commission in which oil companies contribute half of its $500 million annual budget. And, recently, the government announced it created a new Ministry for the Niger Delta.

Thus far, many Niger Deltans say the Commission has had limited impact and question whether the full-blown bureaucracy of a Ministry will do better. She suggested the Niger Delta needs a fast-track peace and development effort based on a practical, coordinated plan. "Development is everyone's business—companies, communities, and all levels of government—all of whom must play a role in addressing long-standing patterns of competition and conflict. A balanced ‘story' may offer a platform to support this mutual understanding and establish a common way forward."