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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
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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 

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