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News

Prof links oil, violence

Visiting lecturer says trouble in Niger Delta stems from fact that wealth not shared

COUGAR NEWS STAFF

A professor visiting UH said Thursday that guerilla movements in Nigeria stem from problems created by the nation's chief export -- oil. 

Michael Watts, an oil expert from the University of California, Berkeley, said that some inhabitants of the oil-rich Niger Delta have launched an armed insurgency in response to the government's lack of financial compensation for oil taken from the lucrative region. 

"(The) oil mafia is driving a political project, which is a form of proto-nationalism," Watts said. 

Oil mafias -- groups that kidnap Western oil workers to ransom for weapon funds -- have become a common occurrence in past years, as various militant groups have formed in the Delta, he said.

About 60 foreigners have been kidnapped in the Delta this year, the AFP wire service reported in March.

Watts said the standard of living in Nigeria has dropped since the discovery of oil, triggering a "resource curse."

Although Nigeria has generated about $500 billion since the 1960s, Watts said, the profit seldom finds its way to the Delta, which suffers from a lack of schools, roads, hospitals and electricity. This negligence sparked the violence, he said.

World leaders such as Paul Collier of the World Bank, he said, have offered differing explanations for the armed uprisings. 

"(Collier would say that) rebellions are nothing more than organized crime," Watts said. "Economics is what matters to them, not their vision."

Watts is the director of the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley, and visited UH as part of the Tenneco Distinguished Lecture Series in conjunction with UH associate history professor Kairn Klieman and the Houston Area African Studies Group. 

--With additional reporting by Eli Jabbe.
 

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