Paper long abstract:

Nonstate agencies are the primary providers of protection; deterrence; investigation; resolution; and punishment for most Africans in most circumstances. For this reason alone, states should be evaluating what if anything should be the contribution of the nonstate sector in the future and how it might fit into any national security policy. The paper begins by considering some of the definitional problems with the term ‘nonstate’ policing and suggests, despite the diversity, certain commonalties. It then proceeds to examine the arguments for and against the state supporting its activities. Though, in conclusion, it argues the case for the construction of new alliances and the strengthening of existing ones between nonstate and state policing, it doubts whether there is yet the political will to formally abandon the claim to be the sole provider of policing. Ultimately the question of who delivers justice and security services is a political and normative one.

Paper long abstract:

Can oil fuel the rise of developmental states in Africa? This paper explores the relationship between the political economy of oil and the prospects for development in Africa. It critically examines the “oil curse” thesis that seeks to draw a determinate linkage between oil wealth, corruption, predatory and rentier forms of statism, and the “hindering” of development in Africa. The assumptions of this perspective tend to fuel pessimism and under-pin the gloomy prognosis for the prospects for development by African petro-states, except they exorcise their countries of the “oil curse” through neo-liberal political and economic reforms.

Drawing on the case of Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, this paper provides a more nuanced interpretation of the implications of the state-oil nexus for the quest for development. It also shows that an understanding of how the transnational logics of accumulation and dispossession as well as social forces and power relations find expression in the politics of the petro-state is more useful for an analysis of how oil wealth has not so far led to economic transformation in Nigeria.

The paper makes a strong case for the re-thinking the oil-state and its role in development in Africa beyond the narrow confines of a “gate-keeper”, “rentier” or “lame leviathan”, and suggests ways through which the present conjuncture can be broadened to make the people the focus of development, and transcended by a democratic transition to a developmental oil state in Africa.

Paper long abstract:

The Niger-Delta region is one of the oil rich and the most volatile regions of the world. Prior to the September 11 attack on the US, the US Department of State in its annual briefings on global terrorism labeled the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria as the “ground zero of Nigerian oil production” as well as “a volatile breeding ground for militant impoverished ethnic groups” .The violent upsurge in the region is largely attributed to the peculiar nature of Nigeria’s political economy as an oil dependent neo-patrimonial state in which oil resources and oil rents are central in shaping national political discourse.

Furthermore, there are colossal research evidences on the role of the Nigerian state and oil companies on the current vicious cycle of petro-violence as well as peace-building and conflict management initiatives. Thus this paper aims at examining the major trajectories of the Niger-Delta conflicts. Emphasis will be laid on the glaring paradox between constant state orchestrated peace-building strategies in order to pacify the region vis-à-vis the intensification of anti-oil protest that rocked the oil producing communities of the region since the 1990s.

Specific Objectives-:

(a) Examine the nature of the petro-violence in the Niger-Delta region

(b) The role of the state and oil companies in peace-building and crisis management

(c) Failure of sustainable peace-building strategy