NIGER DELTA CRISIS IN NIGERIA, ROOT CAUSES OF PEACELESSNESS IN THE REGION

ABSTRACTThe oil rich Niger-Delta region of Nigeria has been embroiled in crisis between the government forces and some militants elements that are aggrieved over certain fundamental issues affecting the region which has lead to peacelessness. Since the last two decades, militants have fought with government forces, sabotaged oil installation taken foreign oil workers hostage and carried out lethal car bombing. At the root of the problem is a crisis of underdevelopment. The crisis has been exacerbated by emergent issues as gross distortion of Nigeria federalism in respect to resources control, citizenship rights and environmental degradation. Unfortunately, the external manifestation has been mainly that of violent agitation and criminal activities of some elements, taking advantage of the bad situation.The project work which will be divided into five chapters, chapter one shall look at an introduction, Nigeria in brief, Niger Delta area in perspective, statement of research problems, objectives of the study, hypothesis significance of study and limitation of the work, chapter two deals on literature review where we will look at the factors responsible for the Niger Delta crisis and also the theoretical framework which will be the system theory as developed by David Easton, Chapter three shall look at methodology which include questionnaire administration pattern, scope of the study and chapter four shall be tabulation and finding of the answers to the hypothesis raised and a concluding chapter which will be recommendation and the way forward and conclusion and bibliography.