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Top1. Introduction
Nigeria is the seventh largest oil producer in the world, supplies a fifth of United States oil imports, and an important supplier of liquefied natural gas. The oil revenues account 40% of the gross domestic product (Obi, 2010). In 2012, oil rents accounted for 26.8% of GDP (World Bank) and provided 70% of government revenues in 2011. Thus Nigerian oil is to be, increasingly, a strategic core to national and international economy (Obi, 2001; Fenske and Zurimendi, 2017).
The Niger Delta region has been, for decades, at the center of national and international politics and academic debates, because of the continuous conflicts and stressed relationships between local communities, multinational oil corporations (MNOCs), and the government (Obi, 2009; Ajodo-Adebanjoko, 2017; Raimi et al., 2017; Chinwe Chikwem and Chikwendu Duru, 2018; Taleb, 2017). Though the ethnic violence has been emphasized and investigated in the frame of self-determination, from country independence and later (Ebiede, 2017a), the Niger Delta was highly exposed to adverse environmental changes caused by intensive oil exploitation operations. These facts highlight the importance of environmental issues that have been studied in many academic researches. However, the subject is still not closed, and this study aims to analyze the implication of the environment and its degradation as a medium element and/or direct driver in triggering the violent social and political crises (Larry and Ekundayo, 2017). Previous studies indicated that many areas in Niger Delta are transformed ecologically into wastelands. As a result, local inhabitants are suffering from livelihood damages and various serious health issues (Babatunde, 2017; Chukwuka et al., 2018).
The Niger Delta has become a region of violent confrontations, criminal violence and insecurity, as a consequence of decades of oil pollution affecting both people and lands, aggravated by State neglect and total impoverishment and marginalization of the society (Obi, 2009; Koos, 2018). The intense hostilities in the region pervaded among youth groups, political elites, and women, against the government’s interests as well as touched MNOCs facilities and workers (Ebiede, 2017b).
Regardless of its origins and causes, industrial activities, natural hazards, mismanagement, and/or poor governance and monitoring, the environmental degradation negatively affects the local communities which are prone to face severe environmental stresses and various socioeconomic and political crises (Idemudia, 2017; Obi, 2018). The Niger Delta as a unique ecological zone in Africa, rich in strategic resources (such as crude oil and natural gas) and natural biodiversity, has been a space to severe pollutions related to oil and gas exploitations which adversely impacted soil, water, and air of the region (Kadafa, 2012; Zabbey et al., 2017; Okpara and Kharlamova, 2018). Besides, since agriculture is the main occupation, the consequences of environmental degradations are serious, which led to the outbreak of insurgencies, growing hostilities, and violent agitations in a region (Oyewole et al., 2018).
This paper focuses on the ethnic violent conflict related to environmental degradation which affected ecologically habitats, social norms and security, livelihood sustainability, and economic development in Niger Delta societies. It is a contribution that discusses the interactive relations between the State, petrobusiness companies, and diverse oil-bearing communities to address the issues of infringement from oil exploitation causing land degradation on the existence and well-being of local people and their natural environment.