Abstract:
I
n 2006, Nigeria was rocked by an explosion
of violence directed against the large foreign
oil companies operating in the oil-rich Niger
Delta. Starting in January 2006 with the kidnapping
of four foreign Shell employees by militants
known as the Movement for the Emancipation of
the Niger Delta (MEND), the violence continued
to escalate through the rest of year, as the militants
blew up pipelines, overran an offshore rig,
killed Nigerian soldiers, and kidnapped and ransomed
more than 50 oil workers. To stop its war
on the oil companies, MEND’s demands included
restitution for the environmental damage
wrought by the oil industry, greater control over
oil revenues for local government, and development
aid to improve living conditions in the delta
(Junger, 2007).
Unfortunately, violent conflict between local
communities and oil companies in the Niger
Delta is not new, dating back to the early1990s.
The history and ramifications of the oil conflict
in Nigeria, as well as its consequences for statesociety
relations, the Niger Delta ecosystem,
and the national economy, are well-known.1
Relatively unknown is the prevalence of a convoluted
“rentier space,” its operational mechanisms
and centrality to the origin, persistence,
and continuation of the oil conflict. In this article,
I outline the structure of the culture and
patterns of accumulation surrounding oil and
its implications for conflict, and attempt to
develop a conceptual framework to explain the
dynamics of Nigeria’s oil conflict, which could
be applied to similar rent-driven extractive
economies in the global South.
