Abstract

The Niger Delta has been the hub of oil operations since 1958. Before the advent of oil, the people women mostly depended on the natural environment; fishing and farming for their livelihoods. However, oil operations in the region have been accompanied by unabated oil spillages and huge gas flares that have acutely despoiled the environment. The papers examine oil operations and environmental insecurity in the Niger Delta. The paper contends that oil operations have virtually stripped women of their known means of livelihoods, with no other alternative means of sustenance; leading to servile poverty. This has forced women into practices traditionally abhorred in the region for sustenance. The paper concludes that but for oil operations, women socio-economic status would not have been so adversely impacted and ingloriously diminished.

Highlights

  • The Niger Delta is Africa’s largest delta; with over 1⁄3 made-up of wetlands (Awosika, 1995)

  • Natural gas reserves estimated at 159 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) (NNPC, 2009), and 182 Tcf (RWI 2010) are present in the region

  • Studies have shown that gender socialisation significantly influences individual behaviour very early in life, and these findings have been supported across cultures (Block, 1973; Williams and Best, 1990). It is the nexus between oil activities and environmental insecurity arising from their concomitant impacts on livelihood that oil activities and women socio-economic status in the Niger Delta may be explained

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Summary

Introduction

The Niger Delta is Africa’s largest delta; with over 1⁄3 made-up of wetlands (Awosika, 1995). The Niger Delta, besides its vast oil and gas deposits is endowed with, fertile agricultural land, abundant rivers (as well as creeks) and fish, forest and human resources (Onosode, 2003). It is the nexus between oil activities and environmental insecurity arising from their concomitant impacts on livelihood that oil activities and women socio-economic status in the Niger Delta may be explained.

Results
Conclusion

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