Nigeria's Niger Delta: Militancy, Amnesty, and the Postamnesty Environment

The problems and challenges of the Niger Delta predate Nigeria as a Republic. The resultant violence can be traced to 1966, when the late Isaac Boro and his colleagues attempted to secede from Nigeria due, in large part, to the underdevelopment of the region. Historical reality aside, since 1970 oil has displaced agriculture as Nigeria’s primary revenue earner and it has, for the last four decades, been the nation’s breadbasket. But in spite of this, the Niger Delta remains vastly underdeve...