Environmental Rights and Insecurity Interrogating the Development Dynamics of the Niger Delta

Abstract

This study interrogates the interconnection between environmental rights, insecurity and development. The Niger Delta region constitute its focus. Although, associated literature have highlighted the impacts of environmental rights on insecurity in the region, the analysis appears to have focused on oil companies’ activities and its impact on insecurity/conflict on development while neglecting the impact of oil on communities caused by artisanal/local refining in the region. Thus, this study was set out to fill this gap. To achieve this, the study employed the application of two theoretical frameworks. The structural violence theory and the political economy framework. The structural violence theory sees the lopsided social structures, institutions and deprivation as conditions creating fertile grounds for insecurity/conflict while the political economy framework sees the environment as a productive force-social capital. Hence, its destruction creates a fertile ground for insecurity/conflict in the region. The study is purely qualitative relying mainly on documentary reports. Data was gathered through secondary source and analysis was done through qualitative and institutional processes. Findings of the study showed that lack of environmental rights and access to scarce resources create a fertile ground for insecurity/conflict and this impacts on development in the Niger Delta region. Environmental protection/conservation through legislative acts, promotion of environmental rights campaign through mass media, inclusion of environmental rights as part of human rights campaign through constitutional provisions are recommended as the most likely means to enhance environmental rights and by extension promotion of security. This in turn would enhance/promote development in the Niger Delta region.