On the road to the state's perdition? Authority and sovereignty in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

This article discusses the reorganisation and fragmentation of political rule in the Nigerian Niger Delta from the end of the 1990s until today. It details empirical evidence on the resources provided by transnational interventions, especially those connected to the changing security strategies of oil companies as well as intensified corporate social deployments, and on the appropriation of these resources by local actors. The continued drive from neopatrimonial to predatory rule, it is argued, has taken a decided twist towards localisation during recent years. Instead of constructing the crises in the Niger Delta as an example of ‘state failure’, the focus of this article is directed at the establishment of extra-state political formations, their legitimising discourses and social practices.