Nigeria : in search of sustainable peace in the Niger Delta through the Amnesty programme

Environmental pollution by way of oil spillage and gas flaring are the lots and bane of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, where the country’s oil exploration activities are carried on by the oil multinational companies (MNCs). The cries of the people as well as several non-governmental organizations for attention to the area were not only spurned, but were at intervals rebuffed with crackdown and repression from successive administrations in the country, with the strong connivance of the oil MNCs. The situation reached a crescendo, when the people of this region took to self-help by bombing, kidnapping and abducting the expatriates and other categories of personnel of the oil MNCs in exchange for monetary ransom. The government not able to bear the embarrassment and the drop in daily oil production, coupled with the substantial loss of revenues devised the amnesty programme in 2009 as solution to the quagmire. The paper is aimed at examining the circumstances causing the crisis situation in the area, and the attendant consequences to the people of the areas and to the global community. It will attempt a critical analysis of the amnesty programme of the Federal government as a last resort and its impact at ensuring durable peace and sustainable development in the region. It discusses some of the challenges to amnesty programme and concludes with potential policy recommendations