The Political Economy of Oil Nationalism and Resource Control Agitation in the Niger Delta, 1990 to 2023

This study empirically examines the political economy of oil nationalism and resource control agitation in Nigeria's Niger Delta region, encompassing Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, and Edo States, from the emergence of organised resource control activism in the 1990s to the contemporary post-amnesty political landscape. Resource control agitation in the Delta reflects a complex intersection of distributive justice claims, environmental grievances, ethnic minority political mobilisation, and violent non-state actor dynamics that has periodically threatened Nigeria's petroleum sector stability. A mixed-methods design is employed, combining quantitative analysis of oil production disruption data with qualitative case analysis of three major resource control movements: the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), the Ijaw Youth Council, and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). Data sources include Shell Nigeria operational disruption records, state revenue allocation data, and 40 in-depth interviews with movement leaders, community elders, and government amnesty programme officers. The Resource Curse Theory and the Ethnic Grievance and Conflict Framework jointly provide the theoretical foundation. Findings establish that resource control movements emerge in contexts where revenue allocation centralisation, environmental degradation, and elite exclusion from oil rents combine above a threshold of cumulative grievance. The 2009 amnesty programme reduced violence but did not address structural resource allocation grievances, producing a fragile security environment. Keywords: oil nationalism, resource control, Niger Delta, MOSOP, political economy.