Nigeria's oil politics: Institutional responses to the Niger Delta question

The oil-rich Niger Delta accounts for over 90 percent of Nigeria's oil resources which sustains the Nigerian political economy. However, the Delta is a manifestation of the oil paradox; a paradox of boom and wealth alongside doom, poverty and conflict resulting from the inequitable distribution of resource benefits and costs. This paradox of Nigeria's oil politics is examined by focusing on the institutional responses of the Nigerian state to the Niger Delta's demands for political and economic powers required to participate in oil and gas development. I argue that the participation of the Niger Delta people in oil and gas policy-making that affects them is low as a result of the inability of the Nigerian state to construct an effective framework to accommodate their interests given its historical specificities such as its colonial, dependent, rentier and limited autonomous nature. These factors predispose it to act in favour of foreign capital.