Historical Political Economy of Fisheries Resource Governance in the Niger Delta: Colonial Legacy and Contemporary Implications

This research conducted an original historical political economy analysis of fisheries resource governance in the Niger Delta from the colonial era to the present, tracing how colonial institutional configurations, the petroleum economy, and post-independence policy legacies have shaped contemporary fisheries governance outcomes and coastal community marginalisation in Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, and Cross River states. Fisheries governance crises in the Niger Delta are commonly analysed as technical management failures, yet the political economy origins of institutional dysfunction, community disenfranchisement, and resource conflict have not been systematically examined through a historical lens. The study applied a critical historical institutionalism framework, drawing on archival sources including colonial administrative records, Nigerian Legislative Council fisheries debate transcripts, post-independence policy documents, and oral history interviews with elder fishing community leaders and historians. Forty-two oral history interviews were conducted across eight communities. Archival research was conducted at the National Archives in Ibadan and Enugu, and the British National Archives. Results revealed that colonial fisheries regulation systematically dispossessed traditional fishing communities of customary governance authority while creating regulatory frameworks that exclusively benefited colonial trading interests and, later, petroleum companies. Post-independence policy largely reproduced colonial institutional templates while overlaying the petroleum sector's political economy, further marginalising fisheries in national resource allocation. Contemporary governance dysfunction is shown to be structurally rooted in these historical configurations rather than solely attributable to weak technical capacity. The research makes an original historiographical contribution to Nigerian fisheries governance scholarship and recommends a historical justice framework as a foundation for transformative governance reform in the Niger Delta fisheries sector. Keywords: political economy, fisheries governance, Niger Delta, colonial legacy, historical institutionalism