Peacebuilding and transformational change in Nigeria's oil region

• Date: 01 March 2020
• Author: Obasesam Okoi
• Published date: 01 March 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21270

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Peacebuilding and transformational change in

Nigeria's oil region

Obasesam Okoi

Department of Peace and Conflict Studies,

University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

Correspondence

Obasesam Okoi, Department of Peace and

Conflict Studies, University of Manitoba,

Winnipeg, Canada.

Email: okoio@myumanitoba.ca,

obasesamokoi@gmail.com

Funding information

Janice Filmon Award for Peace Studies

Abstract

This article draws on primary sources to examine post-

conflict transformations in Nigeria's oil region. The over-

arching goal of the article is to evaluate the impact of

Nigeria's disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration

program and its effectiveness as a vehicle for peacebuilding

in the oil region, focusing specifically on the changes it has

brought to the lives of former insurgents at the cultural,

intrapersonal, structural, and interpersonal (CISI) levels.

This study introduces the CISI model of conflict transfor-

mation to put these changes into context and explain why

they are crucial for understanding peacebuilding and trans-

formational change.

1|INTRODUCTION

Oil extraction in Nigeria has generated unprecedented prosperity for the state and oil multinationals

but massive inequality in communities with an abundance of oil wealth. Such contradictions have

exacerbated the vulnerability of local communities and pushed thousands of aggrieved youths to take

up arms against the state and oil multinationals, rendering the Niger Delta region almost ungovern-

able (Chukwuemeka & Aghara, 2010; Idemudia, 2009; Ikelegbe, 2006; Obi, 2010; Watts, 2007).

The emergence of armed groups such as the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities, Niger Delta

Volunteers, and the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force in the early 2000s championed by Tom

Polo, Asari Dokubo, and Ateke Tom transformed the character of the Niger Delta struggle. Asuni

(2009) notes that both Ateke Tom and Asari Dokubo operated criminal networks in the Niger Delta

around oil bunkering and exerted substantial influence in the politics of Rivers state. While Ateke's

disposition to criminality suggests that his intents were self-serving, Asari “espoused ideological

aims”to legitimize his actions as a struggle for freedom (Asuni, 2009, p. 15).

Realizing the effects of the insurgency on the nation's economy, on June 25, 2009, the late Presi-

dent Musa Yar'Adua announced the federal government's plan to facilitate the transition from war to

peace in the oil region, beginning with the proclamation of amnesty and unconditional pardon to the

Received: 6 March 2019 Revised: 11 July 2019 Accepted: 8 September 2019

DOI: 10.1002/crq.21270

Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 2020;37:223–238. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crq © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 223

insurgents. After that, the state embarked on an ambitious peacebuilding program as a precondition

for addressing the insecurities in the oil region. The precise elements of peacebuilding include dis-

arming the insurgents, decommissioning and destroying their weapons, and advancing efforts to

build their capacity through a range of activities including education, entrepreneurship, and voca-

tional skills training in both local and offshore training centers. This article examines postconflict

transformations in Nigeria's oil region to understand the impact of disarmament, demobilization, and

reintegration (DDR) interventions, focusing specifically on the changes it has brought to the lives of

former insurgents and their communities. This article attempts to put these changes into context and

explain why they are crucial for understanding conflict transformation in the oil region. The theoreti-

cal argument is that the exinsurgents who have experienced changes in their lives have more incen-

tives to become nonviolent and less likely to resume insurgency. Therefore, what defines the state of

peace in the oil region is not the suspension of hostilities but how DDR activities affect the lives of

the exinsurgents. The analysis shows that postconflict peacebuilding in the oil region manifests in

four levers of change, which constitute the CISI (cultural, intrapersonal, structural, and interpersonal)

model of conflict transformation. The CISI model makes a unique contribution to conflict transfor-

mation thinking.

I divide this article into eight sections. The introductory section provides an overview of the

study, followed by a brief methodological section, while the third section lays out the conceptual

framework of the CISI model. Sections four to seven provides a thematic analysis of the CISI model

while the concluding section provides a summary of the study and its implication.

2|METHODOLOGY

This study focusses on three states within Nigeria's region: Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, and Rivers. Bayelsa

and Rivers are high-conflict states because of the prevalence of violence, while Akwa Ibom is a low-

conflict state where insurgent activities mostly involve passive resistance. These sites were selected

based on geographic proximity, accessibility to key-informants and their willingness to share infor-

mation voluntarily.

There are 30,000 registered participants in Nigeria's DDR database comprising of exinsurgents

and noninsurgents from the nine states of the Niger Delta. For the quantitative phase, I drew 100% of

the survey participants from this sampling frame. I administered a total of 396 questionnaires to the

two categories of respondents, representing 2% of the total population of delegates registered in the

DDR database from Akwa Ibom, Rivers, and Bayelsa. Responses were received from all the 396 par-

ticipants, resulting in an 84.8% response rate by exinsurgents and 15.2% by noninsurgents (youths

from the oil region those who did not take part in violence but integrated into the DDR program).

The population comprises of 63% youth (18–35 years of age) and 37% adults (36 years and above).

Also, 84% of the respondents were predominantly men, while women represented 16%. I used the

snowballing sampling technique to recruit the survey participants and leveraged my initial contacts

in Akwa Ibom, Rivers, and Bayelsa to solicit referrals to other informants. I performed simple

descriptive statistics that provided summaries about the sample, displayed in frequency tables. In the

qualitative phase, I used purposeful sampling technique to recruit informants who are “information-

rich”(Patton, 1990, p. 169). I conducted a total of 45 interviews with purposefully selected infor-

mants recruited based on their experiences living or working in the oil region or as participants in the

DDR program.

224 OKOI