Natural Resources, Resource Governance, and Insecurity in Developing Countries: Evidence from Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region

• Published in: African Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies 2023-12, Vol.12 (3), p.49
• Main Authors: Dickson, Monday E, Akpan, Otoabasi, Chuku, Chinogonum D, Bassey, Bassey E, Mboho, Kingdom S, Ojie, Peter A, Atairet, Atairet C, Ita, Victor E, Umanah, Ifiok J, Ibanga, Sunday E, Umoren, Philomena E, Mark, Joesph O, Ekpo, Dominic D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Central government; Developing countries; Exploitation; Federalism; Governance; Insecurity; LDCs; Marginality; Mutuality; National wealth; Natural resource management; Natural resources; Ownership; Petroleum; Resource exploration; Socioeconomic development; Socioeconomic factors
• ISSN: 2634-3657; 2634-3665
• DOI: 10.31920/2634-3665/2023/v12n3a3

This study examines the mutuality between natural resource endowment, resource governance, particularly the management of the vast revenues usually involved and insecurity in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The paper adopts a descriptive/qualitative approach and gathers data primarily from secondary sources. The resource curse model provides a guide for identifying and establishing the nexus between oil resource exploration and exploitation, lack of development, and insecurity in the region. The paper unfolds the basis for why a multiplicity of studies on the subject has regarded Nigeria as a classic example of a resource-cursed country with an unimaginable security crisis. Findings from the study trace the root of the crisis to the nation’s federal system, in which the management of oil resources is vested in the central government. This has culminated in the exclusion of the region or states from the control of the resources, leading to the marginalisation of the area by successive governments. The paper recommends that the law that vests the ownership of natural resources in the central government be reviewed and regions and states be allowed to control and manage resources in their area while paying prescribed percentages to the centre. In other words, natural resource management must be carried out in line with the resource control principle, which is a fundamental feature of true federalism. This would ensure proper utilisation of oil wealth for socio-economic development and will certainly halt restiveness and attendant insecurity in the future.