Ethnicity and Dynamics of Oil Conflict in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

The Niger Delta region is, indeed, not a stranger to attention and controversies. For more than a decade, it presented Africa's most populous country with its most profound security challenge, a situation that was only recently changed with the emergence of the Boko Haram Islamic insurgents. It also threatened to undermine the flow of oil in Africa's most important oil-producing country, a country which produces more than 2.5 million barrels of crude oil daily, with attendant implications for global energy supply. While different aspects of the Niger Delta controversy have been addressed by particular scholars, there remains an aspect that seems to have attracted only superficial attention. This is a detailed analysis of the role of ethnicity in the array of complications that have unfolded in the region. Indeed, beyond the platitudinous mention of the plight of the minority in the country's zero-sum politics, not much attention has been given to the complex impact of ethnicity on the politics and intrigues' of the Niger Delta. The purpose of this book is to interrogate the ethnic dimension of the perspectives of key groups in Nigeria on what their rights are in sharing oil money