Abstract

The degree of violence in the Niger Delta has become endemic, characterized by 33 cases of kidnapping recorded between January 2006 and February 2007, with more than 200 victims, mostly expatriate oil workers. There were also about 12,770 cases of vandalism, particularly of pipelines and installations, recorded between 2000 and 2007, with most of them occurring in the Niger Delta. The implications of the Niger Delta crises are too far-reaching to be ignored. For the inhabitants of the area, there are constant environmental hazards and security threats, while for the Nigerian government, over N150.5bn in revenue was lost in eight years; there was also a drop of more than 20% in oil exports between April 2006 and October 2007. The concern of the study was to investigate the intervening factors in the conflicts between oil companies and host communities in the Niger Delta. The population for this study comprised indigenes of Omoku and Obrikom communities in Rivers State and Eruemukohwarien, Tisun and Kolokolo communities in Delta State. Both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (focus group discussion) methods of data collection were employed. The findings revealed that not all the communities studied were involved in company-community conflicts. The study also shows several factors that determined whether or not there were conflicts in the communities, such as the oil companies being perceived as representing the government, political undertone and the communities’ bid to attract attention among others.

Key Words: Niger Delta, Oil Companies, Conflict, Intervening Factors

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 3, No. 1, April 2011, 93 –103.

© Delmas Communications Ltd.

About the authors

*Amodu, Lanre Olaolu is a Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.

**Dr. Idowu Sobowale is Professor and Head, Department of Mass Communication, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.

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