Niger Delta

===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"/>