Pages: (82-114 )
Abstract
The Niger Delta has been boiling for several decades due to agitations by the oil producing communities over environmental rights abuses and the lack adequate attention by the Nigeria government. The reality is that lack of adequate structure is a pedestal for conflict. Militants and a host of conflict entrepreneurs have engaged in massive destruction of oil installations aimed at grounding the economy built around the petrodollar. The amnesty programme initiated by the Nigerian government has brought some quietude though. This paper interrogates quietness and raised some questions including the environmental rights violations in the region have ceased? Or is it that the conditions of survival environmentally have improved? Or is it just another peace of the graveyard? Or is the recent silence in the Niger Delta really golden? The data generated through questionnaire administered to key actors, including former militants, community leaders and security agencies deployed in the region. The major finding was that key militants had been disarmed, yet a possible return to the creeks was imminent as the conditions of peace were not fully kept. The study therefore concluded that to tackle the issues of ‘return wars’ and completely fall the empires of conflict entrepreneurs in the region, there should be a strong law enforcement mechanisms to get the extractive industry to be responsible; compensation of ecological disasters and protection of the fundamental human rights of all citizens.
Keywords: Niger Delta, environmental rights,