From Palm Oil To Crude Oil: The Impact Of International Trade On Niger-Delta Communities

ABSTRACT

This study examines the process of economic transition from palm oil to crude oil and its impact on the Niger-Delta communities from 1895 to 1995. It highlights the dilemma between crude oil exploration and exploitation in the region and the attendant environmental outcomes. The study discusses the Niger-Delta crises within the context of the contemporary global political economy, particularly the imperial permutations of the Great Powers seeking the control of energy supplies the world over.

In concrete terms, the thesis examines the impact of international economy on a traditional society, scrutinizes the environmental consequences of economic transition in the delta in the larger task of establishing the link between human survival and the environment. There is also the objective of identifying the actual roles of globalization, MNCs and international finance capital in the region's economic transition as well as to examine the role of the state in mediating conflicts arising from crude oil extraction. Further objectives include to understand the structure and character of underdevelopment made possible by agents of global imperialism notably oil corporations and very importantly to properly assess the role of internal and local contradictions especially corruption and misgovernance in fostering underdevelopment, inequity, inequality and conflicts in the region.