Oil Bunkering in Nigeria's Post-amnesty Era: An Ethnopolitical Settlement Analysis

Abstract

This article seeks to explain the recent surge in oil theft in Nigeria from the viewpoint of ethnopolitical settlement. It argues that while persistent oil theft has been a means of facilitating and maintaining a predatory and exclusionary ‘social order’, it has also (and more so now) been a tool for confronting the establishment. The sharp rise after 2009 is attributed to the failure of government to take advantage of the amnesty programme to address the core issues at the root of the conflict in the region. These have become even more fundamental in the light of recent events in the country, such as the unintended publicity given to illegal mining in other regions, the discovery of and advanced efforts at oil-prospecting in other states of the federation, a disturbing publication on actual ownership of oil wells in the country, and some provocative statements on the current resource wealth-sharing formula by influential personalities from other ethnoregional groups. The situation is compounded by the presence of a very large number of youths who feel marginalized or excluded by the Jonathan administration, public revelation of massive corruption in the nation's oil sector, and developments in the political sphere that appear to be threatening the unity of the country. The paper proposes a political settlement that provides incentives for the ordinary citizen and host communities in the Niger delta to be actively interested in protecting the nation's oil and gas resources and infrastructures.