JOURNALS

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that communitarian understanding is required to address and proffer lasting solution to the Niger Delta crises, which basically derive from an unflinching agitation of the Delta communities for social justice and warding off of human indignity. The Niger Delta area of Nigeria has been characterized by incessant violent revolts rendering attempts at ensuring social peace and national security futile. These conflicts are predominantly due to a number of factors: the prolonged state’s neglect of the region, the exploitative nature of the transnational corporations producing oil in the region, the greedy dispositions of some powerful and influential citizens of Nigeria and the avarice of some Delta indigenes. The Delta indigenes’ perceived social injustice and inhuman treatments, based on the activities of these groups, prompted a determination to disallow resolution of the crises until they are given adequate attention and eventually get social justice. For long, the situation in the region deteriorated with the state’s determined counter-attacks and attempts towards repressing and suppressing the Delta peoples and their militant groups in order to scuttle their protests and efforts. Apart from the fact that these reprisal attacks never daunted the Delta peoples’ zeal, despite that many lives were lost, they portrayed the state as vicious, autocratic, dominating and unconcerned about the welfare of the Delta communities. In later years, governmental efforts at resolving the crises yielded some fruits but problems in the region are far from ending. Thinking about these, using the methods of conceptual, theoretical and historical analyses, this paper unearths the issues and events that portray injustice in the Delta and their attendant indignity. It argues that adopting communitarian values in national reconciliation can ensure social peace in the Delta region.