Niger Delta

==History==
===Colonial period===
The area was the [[British Empire|British]] Oil Rivers Protectorate from 1885 until 1893, when it was expanded and became the Niger Coast Protectorate. The core Niger Delta later became a part of the [[Eastern Region, Nigeria|eastern region of Nigeria]], which came into being in 1951 (one of the three regions, and later one of the four regions). The majority of the people were those from the colonial Calabar, Itsekiri and Ogoja divisions, the present-day [[Ogoja]], [[Itsekiri]], [[Annang]], [[Ibibio people|Ibibio]], [[Oron people|Oron]], [[Efik people|Efik]], [[Ijaw people|Ijaw]] and [[Ogoni people|Ogoni]] people. The National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC) was the ruling political party of the region. The NCNC later became the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens, after western Cameroon decided to separate from Nigeria. The ruling party of eastern Nigeria did not seek to preclude the separation and even encouraged it. The then Eastern Region had the third, fourth and fifth largest indigenous ethnic groups in the country, which are the [[Igbo people|Igbo]], [[Ibibio people|Ibibio]] and [[Ijaw people|Ijaw]].

In 1953, the old eastern region had a major crisis when professor [[Eyo Ita]] was expelled from office by the majority Igbo tribe of the old eastern region. Ita, an [[Efik people|Efik]] man from [[Calabar]], was one of the pioneer nationalists for Nigerian independence. The minorities in the region, the [[Ibibio people|Ibibio]], [[Annang]], [[Efik people|Efik]], [[Ijaw people|Ijaw]] and [[Ogoja]], were situated along the southeastern coast and in the delta region and demanded a state of their own, the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers (COR) state. The struggle for the creation of the COR state continued and was a major issue concerning the status of minorities in Nigeria during debates in Europe on Nigerian independence. As a result of this crisis, Professor Eyo Ita left the NCNC to form a new political party called the [[National Independence Party (Nigeria)|National Independence Party]] which was one of the five Nigerian political parties represented at the conferences on Nigerian Constitution and Independence.<ref name="nigerdeltabudget.org"/>

===Post-colonial period===
In 1961, another major crisis occurred when the then eastern region of Nigeria allowed present-day southwestern [[Cameroon]] to separate from Nigeria (from the region of what is now [[Akwa Ibom State|Akwa Ibom]] and Cross River states) through a plebiscite while the leadership of the Northern Region took the necessary steps to keep northwestern Cameroon in Nigeria, in present-day [[Adamawa State|Adamawa]] and [[Taraba State|Taraba]] states. The aftermath of the [[1961 British Cameroons referendum|1961 plebiscite]] has led to a dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria over the small territory of [[Bakassi]].

A new phase of the struggle saw the declaration of an Independent Niger Delta Republic by [[Isaac Adaka Boro]] during Nigerian president Ironsi's administration, just before the [[Nigerian Civil War]]. Also just before the Nigerian civil war, Southeastern State of Nigeria was created (also known as [[Southeastern Nigeria]] or Coastal Southeastern Nigeria), which had the colonial Calabar division, and colonial [[Ogoja]] division. [[Rivers State]] was also created. Southeastern State and River State became two states for the minorities of the old eastern region, and the majority Igbo of the old eastern region had a state called East Central state. Southeastern State was renamed Cross River State and was later split into [[Cross River State]] and Akwa Ibom State. Rivers State was later divided into Rivers State and Bayelsa State.

===Nigerian Civil War===
The people of the Eastern region mostly the Igbo speaking language suffered heavily with the great loss of lives and properties, hunger and starvation, and sustained many deaths during 1967–1970 [[Nigerian Civil War]], also known as the Biafran War, in which the eastern region declared an independent state named Biafra that was eventually defeated.<ref>{{Citation|date=2015-12-31|pages=xv–xx|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-7128-5|doi=10.1515/9781400871285-003|chapter=Chronology of Important Events in the Nigerian Civil War|title=The International Politics of the Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last1=Heerten|first1=Lasse|title=The Nigeria-Biafra War|date=2017-07-06|work=Postcolonial Conflict and the Question of Genocide|pages=3–43|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-22929-4|last2=Moses|first2=A. Dirk|doi=10.4324/9781315229294-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Ekwe-Ekwe, Herbert.|title=The Biafra War : Nigeria and the aftermath. |date=1991 |location=[[Lewiston, New York]] |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |isbn=0-88946-235-6 |oclc=476261625}}</ref> During this period, schools were shut down completely, and gunfire became a daily occurrence.

===Non-violent resistance===
{{See also|Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People}}
Following the civil war, local communities increasingly demanded social and [[environmental justice]] from the federal government, with [[Ken Saro Wiwa]] and the [[Ogoni people|Ogoni tribe]] as the lead figures for this phase of the struggle. Cohesive oil protests became most pronounced in 1990 with the publication of the Ogoni Bill of Rights. Indigenous people protested against the lack of economic development, e.g. schools, good roads, and hospitals, in the region, despite all the oil wealth created. They also complained about environmental pollution and destruction of their land and rivers by foreign oil companies. Ken Saro Wiwa and nine other oil activists from Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) were arrested and killed under [[Sani Abacha]] in 1995.<ref>{{cite thesis |id={{ProQuest|1666393541}} |last1=Strutton |first1=Laine |year=2014 |title=The New Mobilization from Below: Women's Oil Protests in the Niger Delta, Nigeria }}</ref>

===Recent armed conflict===
{{Main|Conflict in the Niger Delta}}

When long-held concerns about loss of control over resources to the oil companies were voiced by the [[Ijaw people]] in the [[Kaiama Declaration]] in 1998, the Nigerian government sent troops to occupy the Bayelsa and Delta states. Soldiers opened fire with rifles, machine guns, and tear gas, killing at least three protesters and arresting twenty-five more.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hrw.org/news/1998/12/31/state-emergency-declared-niger-delta | title=State of Emergency Declared in the Niger Delta | date=1998-12-30 | access-date=2018-01-19 | publisher=Human Rights Watch | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805220129/http://www.hrw.org/news/1998/12/31/state-emergency-declared-niger-delta | archive-date=2012-08-05 | url-status=live }}</ref> Since then, local indigenous activity against commercial oil refineries and pipelines in the region has increased in frequency and militancy. Recently{{When|date=March 2023}} foreign employees of [[Royal Dutch Shell|Shell]], the primary corporation operating in the region, were taken hostage by local people. Such activities have also resulted in greater governmental intervention in the area and the mobilization of the [[Nigerian Army]] and [[State Security Service (Nigeria)|State Security Service]] into the region, resulting in violence and human rights abuses. In April 2006, a bomb exploded near an oil refinery in the Niger Delta region, a warning against Chinese expansion in the region. The [[Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta]] (MEND) stated: "We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta. The Chinese government, by investing in stolen crude, places its citizens in our line of fire."<ref>Ian Taylor, [http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/741-China-s-environmental-footprint-in-Africa "China's environmental footprint in Africa"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223061935/http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/741-China-s-environmental-footprint-in-Africa |date=2007-02-23 }}, ''China Dialogue'', 2 February 2007.</ref>

Government and private initiatives to develop the Niger Delta region have been introduced recently.{{when|date=March 2023}} These include the Niger Delta Development Commission, a government initiative, and the Development Initiative, a community development [[non-governmental organization]] based in [[Port Harcourt]]. Uz and Uz Transnational, a company with a strong commitment to the Niger Delta, has introduced ways of developing the poor in the Niger Delta, especially in Rivers State. In September 2008, MEND released a statement proclaiming that their militants had launched an "[[oil war]]" throughout the Niger Delta against both, pipelines and oil-production facilities, and the Nigerian soldiers that protect them. Both MEND and the Nigerian Government claim to have inflicted heavy casualties on one another.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7615498.stm "Nigeria militants warn of oil war"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915064938/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7615498.stm |date=2008-09-15 }}, BBC News, 14 September 2008.</ref> In August 2009, the Nigerian government granted amnesty to the militants; many militants subsequently surrendered their weapons in exchange for a presidential pardon, rehabilitation programme, and education.