AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

This paper seeks to discuss the usefulness of the concept of the resource curse, by contrasting the theory to the context of the Niger Delta and the effect that oil extraction in the region has had on the wellbeing and livelihoods of local communities in the Delta. The Niger Delta region (location of Nigeria’s crude oil resources) is poor despite the enormous royalties from crude oil export since discovery in 1956. This analysis will attempt to identify how the unemployment situation in the region has provided a motive for youths to engage in violent regimes and illegal activities. The principal argument is that the changes in the Niger Delta are not as a result of natural effects from resource endowment, but rather the causal mechanism for the curse of natural resources - a weak economy, violence, underdevelopment - in the Niger Delta are more of a result of political decisions and strongly linked to human factors.