Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T19:52:41.332Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SURVIVAL STRATEGIES AND CITIZENSHIP CLAIMS: YOUTH AND THE UNDERGROUND OIL ECONOMY IN POST-AMNESTY NIGER DELTA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2013

Paul U. Ugor
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Focusing on Gbekebor, a small rural community in Burutu Local Government Area in Delta State, this article examines the rise of small-scale artisanal oil refineries in the oil-rich Niger Delta area in south-eastern Nigeria. Mostly owned and run by unemployed youth in the Delta region, this informal underground oil economy is a classic example of the ways in which the mass of disgruntled youth in Nigeria have now evolved their own new survival strategies in the face of inauspicious social and economic conditions in everyday life. In the article, therefore, I argue that the growth of illegal refineries in the Niger Delta region represents ordinary people's desperate search for economic and social justice for themselves and their communities when the state and superordinate economic regimes (oil corporations) operating in the Delta area have connived to deny ordinary people their social and economic rights as citizens.

Résumé

S'appuyant sur Gbekebor, petite communauté rurale de la région administrative de Burutu dans l’État du Delta, cet article examine l'essor des petites raffineries pétrolières artisanales dans le delta du Niger, une région du Sud-Est du Nigeria riche en pétrole. Majoritairement détenue et dirigée par des jeunes sans emploi de la région du delta, cette économie pétrolière souterraine informelle est un exemple classique de la manière plurielle dont la masse de jeunes mécontents au Nigeria a désormais développé de nouvelles stratégies de survie face à une conjoncture sociale et économique peu propice, au quotidien. L'auteur soutient donc que le nombre croissant de raffineries illégales dans la région du delta du Niger représente la quête désespérée de justice économique et sociale de la part de personnes ordinaires, pour elles-mêmes et leurs communautés, lorsque l’État et les acteurs économiques dominants (compagnies pétrolières) présents dans la région du delta sont de connivence pour priver les personnes ordinaires des droits sociaux et économiques qui sont les leurs en tant que citoyens.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 83 , Issue 2 , May 2013 , pp. 270 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agbese, P. and Kieh, G. K. Jr (2007) ‘Introduction: democratizing states and state reconstitution in Africa’ in Agbese, P. and Kieh, G. K. Jr (eds), Reconstituting the State in Africa. New York NY: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Ahonsi, B. (2011) ‘Capacity and governance deficits in response to the Niger Delta crisis’ in Obi, C. and Rustand, S. A. (eds), Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta: managing the complex politics of petro-violence. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Ako, R. (2011) ‘The struggle for resource control and violence in the Niger Delta’ in Obi, C. and Rustand, S. A. (eds), Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta: managing the complex politics of petro-violence. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Alubo, S. (2007) ‘The imperative of reconstructing the state in Nigeria: the politics of power, welfare, and imperialism in the new millennium’ in Agbese, P. and Kieh, G. K. Jr (eds), Reconstituting the State in Africa. New York NY: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Balouga, J. (2012) ‘The political economy of oil subsidy in Nigeria’, International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) Energy Forum (Second Quarter): 31–5.Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F. (2009) The State in Africa: the politics of the belly. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F., Ellis, S. and Hibou, B. (eds) (1999) The Criminalization of the State in Africa. Oxford: James Currey, 1999.Google Scholar
Bayat, O. (1997) ‘Un-civil society: the politics of the “informal people”’, Third World Quarterly 18 (1): 53–72.Google Scholar
Berman, B., Eyoh, D. and Kymlicka, W. (eds) (2003) Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Brautigam, D. (1997) ‘Substituting for the state: institutions and industrial development in eastern Nigeria’, World Development 25 (7): 1063–80.Google Scholar
Castells, M. and Portes, A. (1989) ‘World underneath: the origins, dynamics, and effects of the informal economy’ in Portes, A., Castells, M. and Benton, L. (eds), The Informal Economy. Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Chabal, P. (2009) Africa: the politics of suffering and smiling. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Chabal, P. and Daloz, J.-P. (1999) Africa Works: disorder as political instrument. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Dowden, R. (2009) Africa: altered states, ordinary miracles. London: Portobello Books.Google Scholar
Duquet, N. (2011) ‘Swamped with weapons: the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in the Niger Delta’ in Obi, C. and Rustand, S. A. (eds), Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta: managing the complex politics of petro-violence. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Ferguson, J. (2006) Global Shadows: Africa in the neoliberal world order. Durham NC and London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Finnström, S. (2008) Bad Surroundings: war history and everyday moments in northern Uganda. Durham NC and London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge: selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester Press.Google Scholar
Francis, P., LaPin, D. and , P. Rossiasco for the Africa Program (2011) Securing Development and Peace in the Niger Delta: a social and conflict analysis for change. Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.Google Scholar
Gaventa, J. (2006) ‘Foreword’ in Newell, P. and Wheeler, J. (eds), Rights, Resources and the Politics of Accountability. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Ghazvinian, J. (2007) Untapped: the scramble for Africa's oil. Orlando FL: Harcourt Inc.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. (2004) Marginal Gains: monetary transactions in Atlantic Africa. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hart, K. (1973) ‘Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana’, Journal of Modern African Studies 11 (1): 61–89.Google Scholar
Hart, K. (2001) Money in an Unequal World: Keith Hart and his memory bank. New York NY: Texere.Google Scholar
Hart, K. (2010) ‘Informal economy’ in Hart, K., Laville, J. and Cattani, A. D (eds), The Human Economy: a citizen's guide. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hecht, D. and Simone, M. (1994) Invisible Governance: the art of African micropolitics. Brooklyn NY: Autonomedia.Google Scholar
Hull, E. and James, D. (2012) ‘Introduction: popular economies in South Africa’, Africa 82 (1): 1–19.Google Scholar
Kabeer, N. (ed.) (2005) Inclusive Citizenship: meanings and expressions. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Lindell, I. (ed.) (2010) Africa's Informal Workers: collective agency, alliances and transnational organizing in urban Africa. London and New York NY: The Nordic Africa Institute.Google Scholar
Martins, P. H. (2010) ‘Citizenship’ in Hart, K., Laville, J. and Cattani, A. D (eds), The Human Economy: a citizen's guide. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Mbembe, A. (2001) On the Postcolony. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Meagher, K. (2010) Identity Economics: social networks and the informal economy in Nigeria. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Newell, P. and Wheeler, J. (eds) (2006) Rights, Resources and the Politics of Accountability. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Nwabueze, A. (2011) ‘Heavy metal concentrations in tissues of Egeria radiata (bivalvia: tellinacea) from creeks in Burutu area of Delta State, Nigeria’, International Journal of Agricultural and Soil Sciences 1 (2): 35–9.Google Scholar
Nwajiaku-Dahou, K. (2010) ‘The politics of amnesty in the Niger Delta: challenges ahead’, IFRI (December): 1–29.Google Scholar
Obi, C. and Rustand, S. A. (eds) (2011) Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta: managing the complex politics of petro-violence. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Owusu, F. (2007) ‘Conceptualizing livelihood strategies in urban African cities: planning and development implications of multiple livelihood’, Journal of Planning Education and Research 26 (4): 450–63.Google Scholar
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, B. (2007) ‘Learning in global systems and local links: the Otigba computer hardware clusters in Nigeria’ in Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, B. and McCormick, D. (eds), Industrial Clusters and Innovation Systems in Africa. Tokyo and Paris: United Nations University Press.Google Scholar
Pieterse, E. (2008) City Futures: confronting the crisis of urban development. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Shaxson, N. (2008) Poisoned Wells: the dirty politics of African oil. New York NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ukiwo, U. (2011) ‘The Nigerian state, oil and the Niger Delta crisis’ in Obi, C. and Rustand, S. A. (eds), Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta: managing the complex politics of petro-violence. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Warikoo, N. (2001) Balancing Acts: youth culture in the global city. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Zalik, A. (2011a) ‘Labelling oil, contesting governance: legaloil.com, the GMoU and profiteering in the Niger Delta’ in Obi, C. and Rustand, S. A. (eds), Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta: managing the complex politics of petro-violence. London and New York NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Zalik, A. (2011b) ‘Protest-as-violence in oil fields: the contested representation of profiteering in two extractive sites’ in Feldman, S., Giesler, C. and Menon, G. (eds), Accumulating Insecurity: violence and dispossession in the making of everyday life. Athens GA: University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar