The Role of International Law in Resolving the Conflict in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

This paper captures the injustice and unfair treatment the Niger Delta region has over the years been receiving from the federal government of Nigeria and multinational oil companies that are exploiting and exploring crude oil and gas in the region. The region is rich in gas and crude oil, ironically it is very underdeveloped in infrastructure and human capital development. Painful enough the environment is polluted and characterised by environmental degradation, emanating from the exploration and exploitation of crude oil by the multi-national oil companies operating without recourse to national and international law on environmental protection. The people of the region have been denied the right to control the natural resource in their land, through the enactments of the petroleum Act of 1969 which vests ownership and control of every petroleum resource completely with the Federal Government. The second Act is the Land Use Act (1978), which vests all lands in Nigeria under the control of the Federation Government, held in the trust of the Governors of each state. These enactments reenacted in the 1999 constitution as amended, have become the big sources of the Niger Delta conflict and the experience of injustice. The oil companies have failed in their social corporate responsibility (CSR) to their host communities. Efforts by the people of the region and civil rights communities to approach the Nigerian courts for redress have proved abortive, as the Federal Government and the oil companies continue to influence judgments to their advantage. The youths of the region, have considered militancy and other social vices, intending to draw global and national attention for injustice. The paper explores the Niger Delta conflict and the quest for justice from the point of international law, since justice cannot be achieved within the Nigerian administration of justice system. This is possible since Nigeria operates a dualist legal system and has ratified a lot of international laws as part of its justice system. The paper is built on the Social Legal theoretical framework and fundamentally on document analysis.