Brief but revolutionary: Yar’ Adua and the sustainable development of the Niger Delta, Nigeria

S.O. Aghalino

Department of History and International Studies, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

E-mail: aghalinosamuel@yahoo.com

Accepted 27 July, 2012

The Niger Delta is reputed to be the bastion of the economic survival and by extension, the corporate existence of Nigeria. Several years of crude oil exploration and production have resulted in environmental despoliation and pollution and the inhabitants of the area desperately poor. Successive administrations in Nigeria have attempted to tame the lingering developmental challenges of the region without much success. When the Yar Adua administration was inaugurated in 2007, the Niger Delta was one of the Seven-Point Agenda of the administration. Though the administration was brief, it had a revolutionary approach to the denouement of the crisis in the region. Using primary and secondary sources, this paper therefore, attempt to explicate and dissect the administration’s approach to the resolution of the crisis in the region. This is done against the backdrop of early attempt to redress the crisis. The study argues that the hallmark of Yar’Adua’s initiative is the declaration of amnesty to the militants in the region. It is contended that for lasting peace to reign in the region, the present administration must go beyond the Amnesty and reintegrate the militants into the mainstream of society by winning over their minds and making them to be stakeholders in the oil industry.

Keywords: Yar’ Adua, development, Niger Delta.