Sustainable peacebuilding and development in Nigeria's post‐amnesty programme: The role of corporate social responsibility in oil host communities

• Published date: 01 May 2021
• Author: Joseph Ikechukwu Uduji,Elda Nduka Okolo‐Obasi,Simplice A. Asongu
• Date: 01 May 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2200

ACADEMIC PAPER

Sustainable peacebuilding and development in Nigeria's post-

amnesty programme: The role of corporate social responsibility

in oil host communities

Joseph Ikechukwu Uduji

1

| Elda Nduka Okolo-Obasi

2

| Simplice A. Asongu

3

1

Department of Marketing, Faculty of

Business Administration, Enugu Campus,

University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

2

Institute for Development Studies, Enugu

Campus, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

3

Development Finance Centre, Graduate

School of Business, University of Cape Town,

Cape Town, South Africa

Correspondence

Joseph Ikechukwu Uduji, Department of

Marketing, Faculty of Business Administration,

Enugu Campus, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,

Nigeria.

Email: joseph.uduji@unn.edu.ng, joseph.uduji@

gmail.com, joseph.uduji@yahoo.com

The activities and violence of militants in the Niger Delta which saw the capacity for

production of oil in Nigeria fall to an all-time low resulted in federal government of

Nigeria announcing the Presidential Amnesty Programme in return for peace in the

region. We examine how the multinational oil companies corporate social responsibil-

ity impact on entrepreneurship development and job creations to absorb the youths.

A total of 1,200 youths were sampled across the nine states of Niger Delta. Results

from the use of estimated logit model reveal that general memorandum of under-

standing interventions are prevalent with communities with greater ownership creat-

ing room for better projects, sustainability and improved trust; yet the interventions

failed to make significant impact on entrepreneurship development and job creations.

Clearly, facilitating how youths get involved in skill acquisition and empowerment

programmes would help them become entrepreneurs, improving their self-assurance

that they can prosper outside militancy activities and violence.

1|INTRODUCTION

The economy of Nigeria is greatly dependent on the oil sector. Yet, the

Niger Delta area of the country where the activities of the multinational

oil companies (MOCs) are noticeable is affected by incessant violent con-

flicts. The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) is in joint-venture agree-

ments with the MOCs functional in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria. The

FGN controls and owns the land with its natural resources in the sub-soil,

and land can be taken over by the government for over-riding public pur-

poses in line with the Land Use Act 1978. This is a key source of conflict

in the region (NDDC, 2001, 2004). The period 2006–2009 in the Niger

Delta was marked by wide-ranging insecurity, sabotage of oil company

equipment, violence with rival militant groups, the kidnapping of oil

workers, illegal oil bunkering, car bombing and violent clashes with gov-

ernment forces (PIND, 2015a, 2015b, 2017, 2018). The militant groups

blamable for much of these conflicts and devastations in the region

include the Egbesu Boys, Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Arogbo Freedom

Fighters, Movement for the survival of the Ijaw Ethnic Nationality, Joint

Revolutionary Council, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger

Delta, MENBUTU, and so on (Aderogba, 2016; Ajibola, 2015; Ajodo-

Adebanjoko, 2017).

Before these years of severe militancy activities and violence in

the region, Nigeria was chief producer and exporter of oil in Africa.

The rise in violence, however, held up the exploration of oil, the

nation's oil production capacity dropped from 2 million barrels to

800,000 per day. This resulted in a substantial decline in the nation's

oil revenue, and displacement as the number one oil producer and

exporter in Africa, which, in turn, further led to sharp drop in the

nation's foreign investment (Akinbobola & Aderoba, 2016;

Akinwale, 2010). It is against this unwanted development that the

Late President of Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, established the

Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in 2009 to realize sustainable

peace, human and environmental security in the Niger Delta region

(Chikwem & Duru, 2018; Davidheiser & Nyiayaana, 2011;

Ebiede, 2018). The central aim of this programme was to grant pardon

to all militants that turned in their arms within a 60 day period,

between August and October 2009. Besides, the ex-militants were to

receive a monthly stipend of N 65,000 (USD 180) each, and go

through government funded skills acquisition empowerment training

from 2010–2015 within and outside the nation for acquiring gainful

employment and reintegration into the society when the programme

is completed (Ering, Bassey, & Odike, 2013; Essien, 2008;

Received: 7 November 2019 Accepted: 20 May 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2200

J Public Affairs. 2021;21:e2200. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of13

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2200