A Critical Analysis of the Impact of the Presidential Amnesty Programme on the Unrest in the Niger Delta Region

There is no gainsaying that the Niger Delta region has been a theatre of conflicts since the discovery of petroleum resources in commercial quantities in the area. It has been an unbroken chain of layers of conflicts. What took place in the region at the discovery of oil was akin to the scramble for Africa by European powers. Like in the scramble for Africa, the emphasis was on the control of resources. The control of resources has always been at the center of imperialism and its attendant conflicts. Ontologically, resources are scarce and will always be scarce. It is an existential fact that the scarcity of resources always induces conflicts. However, needs are infinite. Oil is a universally daily needed natural resource. As important as it is, it is not evenly globally distributed. The abundance of oil deposits in the Niger Delta ipso facto makes it a center of multinational economic interest. Naturally, the hawks, economic predators of all shades and hues did swoop in on the region. In the multinational quest for the control of the petroleum resources in the Niger Delta region, different theories of ownership were advanced. The refusal to be bystanders in the control of the oil resources domiciled in their region and the pains caused by the environmental degradation occasioned by oil exploration and exploitation led to series of confrontations that have culminated in a protracted unrest in the Niger Delta region. The introduction of the amnesty program to the region proved to be a game changer. This work critiques the impacts of the presidential amnesty program in the region.