Niger Delta: A Critical Appraisal of the Amnesty Programme and Social Political Development in Nigeria.

Abstract

Environmental pollution by way of oil spillage and gas flaring are the lots and bane of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, where the country’s oil exploration activities are carried out by the oil multinational companies (MNCs). The crisis of the people as well as several non-governmental organizations for attention to the area were not only spurned, but were at intervals rebuffed with crackdown and repression from successive administrations in the country, with the strong connivance of the oil MNCs. The situation reached a crescendo, when the people of this region took to self – help by bombing, kidnapping and adducting the expatriates and other categories of personnel of the oil MNCs in exchange for monetary ransom. The government not able to bear the embarrassment and the drop of oil production daily, coupled with the substantial loss of revenue devised the amnesty programme in 2009 are a solution  to  the quagmire.