An Environmental Genocide: Counting the Human and Environmental Cost of Oil in Bayelsa, Nigeria

NoBayelsa, in the Niger Delta, in Southern Nigeria, is in the grip of a human and environmental catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. At one time, the area was home to one of the largest mangrove forests on the planet; an area of unrivalled ecological value. Today, it is one of the most polluted places on Earth. Oil extraction and its impact is the overwhelmingly evident cause of this disaster

Togo: Thorny transition and misguided aid at the roots of economic misery

The parliamentary elections of October 2007, the first free Togolese elections since decades, were meant to correct at least partially the rigged presidential elections of 2005. Western donors considered it as a litmus test of despotic African regimes’ propensity to change towards democratization and economic prosperity. They took Togo as model to test their approach of political conditionality of aid, which had been emphasised also as corner stone of the joint EU-Africa strategy. Empirical findings on the linkage between democratization and economic performance are challenged in this paper because of its basic data deficiencies. It is open to question, whether Togo’s expected economic consolidation and growth will be due to democratization of its institutions or to the improved external environment, notably the growing competition between global players for African natural resources

Heroes and Villains: Ijaw Nationalist Narratives of the Nigerian Civil War

Numerous explanations of the failure of the Biafran enterprise highlight the absence of legitimacy and support for the Biafran effort among the Niger Delta ‘minorities’. In the aftermath of the Civil War, popular narratives among the Ijaw, arguably Nigeria’s fourth largest ethnic group, tended to tie them closely to the Federal side. In this paper, we examine the transformations of the relationship between Southern minorities and the Biafran cause, with a particular focus onthe Ijaw. The fiscal centralization of oil resources that followed the war and the persistence of minority exclusion within the Nigerian polity have encouraged Ijaw elites, and other southern minorities, to review their commitment to Nigerian federalism. Conflicting tales of the Ijaw nationalist hero Isaac Boro testify to a growing ‘revisionism’ in interpretations of the Biafran War. Today the resurgenceof militant forms of Ijaw ethnic nationalism, against the backdrop of oilcommunity protests which have been taking place since the early 1990s, has given rise to new interpretations of the war, and the creation of new political linkages between Ijaw nationalists, other Niger Delta minorities and Igbo pro-Biafra movements. While resistance to Biafra catalyzed Ijaw nationalism in the fighting and aftermath of the Civil War, Biafra has now become a symbol of contemporary Ijaw nationalism. By drawing on new ‘revisionist’ histories of Biafra, this paper considers the complex interaction of ethnic nationalism, oil and secessionist conflict in Nigeria

Remembering and Forgetting Isaac Boro: Multiple Strands in Contemporary Ijaw Nationalism

Chapter discusses selective interpretations of history in process of identity construction by political entrepreneurs in Nigeria's Niger delta The Future of the Niger Delta, Onyoma Publication

Heroes and Villains: Ijaw Nationalist Narratives of the Nigerian Civil War

Article discusses narratives of Ijaw experiences during the civil war and their instrumentalisation in context of contemporary struggle

Beyond Amnesty in the Niger Delta: Problems and Challenges

French translation Discusses and evaluates the impact of political amnesty of 2009 for armed militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta also a policy breifing fo IFRI - French Institute of International Affair

Remembering and Forgetting Isaac Boro: Multiple Strands in Contemporary Ijaw Nationalism

Chapter discusses selective interpretations of history in process of identity construction by political entrepreneurs in Nigeria's Niger delta The Future of the Niger Delta, Onyoma Publication