United Nations And Conflict Ressolution In Nigeria: A Study Of The Ogoni Crisis
Allen Emmanuel
Department of Political Science, Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Davies Emmanuel Opuene PhD
Department of Political Science, Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Keywords: UNITED NATIONS AND CONFLICT RESSOLUTION, The Concept of Conflict, Structure of the United Nations, The Ogoni Land, Economy of the Ogonis’, History and Cultural Relations of the Ogonis’
Abstract
Peace and harmony remain the most important prerequisite of any progressive society. Sustainable peace and harmonious coexistence of a people rather than society characterized by frequent conflict become an important salient feature towards a stable socio-economic system. This study has three major objectives. First to examine the role of the United Nations in conflict resolution particularly environmental conflict in which the domestic government is an interested party. Second, to ascertain the root cause(s) of the crisis in Ogoniland Third, assess the efforts of the United Nations in resolution of the ogoni conflict taking cognizance of the United Nations Environmental Protection and the socio economic rights and accountability projects reports. The Study adopted the qualitative research method, using information gleaned via qualitative content analysis of data generated from secondary sources and indept interview in addition to participant observation. The Conflict theory was used as analytical framework with the aim of identifying the social factors responsible for the continued conflict in Ogoni land. The study discovered that; the socio-economic life of the people of Ogoni has been negatively affected by the activities of oil companies in the area so much so that the people cannot boast of basic amenities of life; oil explorations/spills in Ogoni land has seriously caused environmental degradation in the land making it almost impossible for the people to have portable drinking water, humus soil for farming of all kinds, etc as the aqua system has been destroyed exposing the soil to all manner of infections. Based on above the study among recommends among others that the environmental policies in Nigeria should cease to only have relevance in white papers but also reflect real life situations, public policies and programmes on human rights should strictly be enforceable to avoid abuses which often times lead to low standard of living, the activities of oil companies in ogonil and vis-a-vis Niger-Delta be monitored by the government through an effective agency, that will seek to end incidents of oil spill as well as remediation of affected areas in the Niger Delta area, while the Ogoni land UNEP recommendations on Ogoni land be fully implemented by the state and multi-national companies in Nigeria