The discovery of oil in Nigeria was originally viewed by many as the catalyst that would propel the factionalized nation into prosperity and transform it into a world giant. This discovery led to the advent of multinational organizations flooding the region intent on reaping benefits from the plentiful natural resources. The most prominent of these perpetrators were oil companies such as Chevron and the Royal Dutch-Shell Corporation who have been criticized by human rights groups for their operations in Nigeria, yet are allowed to continue extracting oil from the country, while positioning themselves as long term partners in the Nigerian oil industry. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of the Niger Delta, the discovery of oil in their region has increased the hardships they face, rather than helped alleviate their problems. The fact of the matter is that the Nigerian government collects 60 percent of the oil rents while multinational oil corporations receive the remaining 40 percent. The government’s portion of the oil rents is essentially supposed to be redistributed evenly among all areas of the country and to all citizens, but due to the political maladies of corruption and cultural cleavages, this fundamental responsibility of a government to provide basic services is, and continues to be, put on the back burner. As the multinational oil corporations, shareholders, and corrupt government officials are getting wealthier, the people of the Niger Delta are forced to deal with the detrimental consequences of their government’s inaction, which affect them in ways such as living with water, air, and land pollution due to the extraction methods used, not to mention their declining standard of living.

The growing disparity between the wealthy government and impoverished citizens has undoubtedly deepened the omnipresent cleavages in the society. The current state of chaos in the Delta is based predominantly on the fact that the oil from the Delta basically provides 90 percent of Nigeria’s hard-currency revenue, yet its people are subject to lives of abject poverty with minimal government services. This fuels the fire of ongoing violent clashes and further strengthens the claims of emerging militant groups who have used and continue to use legitimate grievances, such as poverty, corruption, and environmental degradation, to justify increasingly disruptive attacks. In order to quell these uprisings, the government should stop looting, start functioning, and provide its constituents with basic services such as security, education, clean water, health care, and electricity.

Since the fundamental and basic services are still not being provided by the government, which basically survives on the oil that flows from the Delta, there will continue to be violence and mayhem until the dire conditions are acknowledged and treated. Unfortunately, this crisis has been going on for decades and reached an apex this summer where there was widespread kidnappings as well as copious violent acts aimed at getting not only national recognition but capturing international attention as well. In the past, Nigerian authorities have attempted to paint the Niger Delta Crisis as a very complex situation with irrational actors using violence to create chaos and hinder production of oil and the growth of the national economy. The truth of the matter is that the Delta crisis is fundamentally a result of the lack of proper governance.  After years of exploitation, the people of the Delta have resorted to violence as the means to escape the periphery and poverty. It is naïve and idealistic to assume that the people of the Delta should sit idly as their government gets rich off the oil that literally lies underneath their land without providing the basic services they need. The only real way for the government to remove the incentives for violent acts is to provide able governance and credible development efforts. Proper governance and the distribution of oil rents through social services is the only way to solve this problem and end the crisis.

Facts and figures used in this Op-Ed were gathered from articles in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs Magazine, and the International Crisis Group