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Oil Crimes, National Security, and the Nigerian State, 1999–2015

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2018

GERALD EKENEDIRICHUKWU EZIRIM
GERALD EKENEDIRICHUKWU EZIRIM*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, [email protected]
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Abstract

The discovery of oil in commercial quantity in Nigeria in 1956 ushered in a period characterized by endemic crises of oil rents management and corporate insecurity. From 1999, democratic renewal, backed by excess oil rents returns, made the popular democratic control of oil wealth critical. The consequent rentier management of oil wealth, excluding the citizens and their huge expectations occasioned threats to national security, thus punctuating limited democratic control of oil wealth, or lack of it. Employing the ex-post-facto research design, primary data for the study were generated from focus group discussions with experts in the oil sector, while other sources were from observations of the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Customs Service, Nigerian Police, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, National Bureau of Statistics, and the Central Bank of Nigeria. Logical induction was used to analyze the data. Anchored on a frustration-aggression conceptual and theoretical framework, the study found that deprivation of oil benefits to Nigerian citizens manifested in illegal oil bunkering, pipeline vandalization, cross-border smuggling of petroleum products, attacks on oil installations, kidnapping, and piracy, with attendant threats to national security.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 80 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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