Paper short abstract:

In this presentation we analyze the political economy of Niger Delta oil governance paying particular attention to the transnational connections that have historically shaped the practices and narratives of different actors as local social movements and the Nigerian state.

Paper long abstract:

To Nigeria the discovery of oil at the end of the 1950s brought ruptures and continuities on economic, social and political orders. Since then a myriad of actors have tried to capture the oil wealth generated in the Niger Delta region developing complex and apparently contradictory practices. Those actors have created a fluid network of alliances, the so-called "Nigerian oil complex" (Watts, 2004). Faced with dominant approaches, which tend to emphasize a single dimension of natural resources-related conflicts in Africa, in this presentation we analyze the political economy of Niger Delta oil governance paying special attention to the transnational connections established around the oil industry. Drawing on a series of in-depth interviews conducted in Abuja and London to activists and NGO members our research explores how the populations affected by oil extraction are becoming increasingly involved in the transnational oil industry in ambivalent ways. We will show that the exploitation of oil has contributed to generate both alliances and fragmentations among the local population and has encouraged the flowering of new competing identities for access to resources (Obi, 2001). We will finally note that since 1999 the democratization process gave more strength to this competition and opened up new challenges to the Nigerian state on development and governance issues. This presentation will confirm the importance of spatial and temporal dimensions in analyzing natural resources-related conflicts while emphasizing the crucial role played by the transnational connections that shape the practices and narratives of local actors in oil rich regions.