Author profile: Emmanuel Duru
Environment Law and Underdevelopment in the Niger Delta Region
There is no ecological zone which has been so degraded and laid waste to than the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The bounties of nature bestowed on this geographical area have gradually been turned into its instruments of poverty and squalor, and the area remains grossly underdeveloped.
The Politics of Oil in the Niger Delta
For centuries, the people of the Niger Delta were content to engage in farming, fishing and other endeavours, unaware that underneath their soil was one of nature’s most prized minerals, Petroleum. With the discovery of oil by Shell D’Archy, the forerunner of Shell Petroleum Development Corporation in 1956 at Oloibiri, Bayelsa State and its consequent exportation two years later, oil production has remained a mixed bag of fortune and misfortune
