Review of History and Political Science

Mortgaging tomorrow’s Security through Today’s Graveyard Peace: A Critical Discourse of the Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta, Nigeria
Chibuzor Chile Nwobueze, PhD ; Preye Kuro Inokoba, PhD

Abstract
Over the years, as a result of its strategic importance to national development, coupled with perennial and fierce resource-induced agitations, the Niger Delta, Nigeria has become a veritable laboratory for all sorts of government interventionist and management policy measures. Although the implementation of the peace building initiative has brought about cold peace to the conflict-ridden region, the paper argued that the Amnesty Programme does not have the capacity to engender genuine and durable peace to the crisis-ridden region. This is because the focus of the peace-building strategy is geared towards addressing the symptoms rather than the root causes of the Niger Delta conflicts. The post-amnesty security environment is characterized by kidnapping, hostage-taking, oil-bunkering and attacks on critical national oil assets, a vivid indication of the deceptive peace the programme may have fostered on the oil-rich region. This has given peace-loving humanity cause for anxiety. In appraising the amnesty peace initiative, the study adopted a combination of descriptive qualitative and case study research design, with insights from structural violence paradigm. The paper concluded that, until and unless the real drivers of restiveness and violence are holistically and constructively engaged, genuine and sustainable peace and security will continue to elude the region.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/rhps.v5n2a3