The current
conflict in the Niger Delta arose in the early 1990s over tensions between
foreign oil corporations and a number of the
Niger Delta's minority ethnic groups who feel they are being exploited, particularly the
Ogoni and the
Ijaw. Ethnic and political unrest has continued throughout the 1990s despite the conversion to
democracy and the election of the
Obasanjo government in 1999. Competition for oil wealth has fueled violence between many
ethnic groups, causing the militarization of nearly the entire region by ethnic militia groups as well as
Nigerian military and police forces (notably the
Nigerian Mobile Police). From 2004, violence hit also oil industry with piracy and kidnappings. In 2009, a presidential amnesty program accompanied with support and training of ex-militants proved to be a success. Thus until 2011, victims of crimes were fearful of seeking justice for crimes committed against them because of a failure to prosecute those responsible for human rights abuses.
[3]
The
Ogoni people, a minority ethnic group of about half a million people who call Ogoniland home, and other ethnic groups in the region attest that during this time, the government began forcing them to abandon their land to oil companies without consultation, and offering negligible compensation. This is further supported by a 1979 constitutional addition which afforded the federal government full ownership and rights to all Nigerian territory and also decided that all compensation for land would "be based on the value of the crops on the land at the time of its acquisition, not on the value of the land itself." The
Nigerian government could now distribute the land to oil companies as it deemed fit.
[6]
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