Overview

'Nigeria's Resource Wars' reflects on the diversity of conflicts over access to, and allocation of, resources in Nigeria. From the devastating effects of crude oil exploration in the Niger Delta to desertification caused by climate change, and illegal gold mining in Zamfara, to mention a few, Nigeria faces new dimensions of resource-related struggles. The ravaging effects of these resource conflicts between crop farmers and Fulani herders in Nigeria's Middlebelt and states across Southern Nigeria call for urgent scholarly interventions; with the Fulani cattle breeders' onslaught altering the histories of many Nigerian families through deaths, loss of homes and investments, and permanent physical incapacity. Currently, there is an almost total breakdown of interethnic relations, with political commentators acknowledging that Nigeria has never been so divided as it presently is in its history. The struggles have now degenerated into kidnaps, armed robbery, and incessant targeted and random killings across the country; compounding the already complex problem of insecurity in Nigeria. The chapters in this volume engage with these issues, presenting the different arguments on resource conflicts in Nigeria. They draw insights from similar conflicts in Nigeria's colonial/post-independence past and events from around the world to proffer possible solutions to resource-related confrontations in Africa. By offering a collection of different intellectual perspectives on resource conflicts in Nigeria, this volume will be an important reference material for understanding the diversity of thought patterns that underpin the struggle and policy approaches towards resolving conflict situations in Africa. This volume will be of considerable interest to scholars of Africa, researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and conflict studies, and policymakers interested in understanding the resource crisis in Africa.

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9781622738311

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Reviews

This timely book is like no other. Its pages, organised by themes, are the fruit of a 2019 international gathering supported by the University of Nigeria and the Humboldt Foundation, Germany, harvesting a valuable research which received strong support from all over Africa and beyond. Contributors from all over the federation and beyond, coming from many research fields, consider the various resource wars that plagued Nigeria for nearly a century, seeking to offer a global, balanced and unbiased view of these conflicts. This well- structured and well-researched book presents a long list of conflicts, going back in history and scouring the various States of the federation to gather scores of comprehensive data. Views expressed are supported with convincing and well-explained maps, tables, excerpts from press articles, pictures and statistics. The impact of these wars on all sections of the society - men, women and youth - as well as on agriculture, land management, intercultural relations, social interaction, political choices, religious affiliations, migrations, literature, visual art and cinema, is carefully and convincingly uncovered - no field remains untouched. Particular attention has been paid to rural, land and water issues, focusing particularly on Fulani herdsmen and local farmers, and the Niger Delta and the oil issue. Each chapter adds to a long and useful list of recommendations intended to help empower a radical societal transformation, which, if addressed, will hopefully help bring peace to our troubled land. A courageous book addressed to all stakeholders in Nigeria. Prof. Francoise Ugochukwu Open University, UK With over 800 pages, Nigeria's Resource Wars is impressively a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of the challenges of nation-building in Nigeria with a focus on how the contestations over the complex and critical issues of resource management, resource allocation and access have engendered tensions, conflicts and a civil war in the country. With the exception of a few essays, which present historical accounts of resource-related conflicts in Nigeria dating back to the precolonial period, the rest of the chapters focus on three broad themes that have caused tensions and conflicts since the past three decades. These are the farmer-herder conflictive relationships; the oil-rich Niger Delta conflicts; and the Boko Haram insurgency. Dr Gloria Chuku Professor and Chair of Africana Studies University of Maryland, Baltimore County

"This timely book is like no other. Its pages, organised by themes, are the fruit of a 2019 international gathering supported by the University of Nigeria and the Humboldt Foundation, Germany, harvesting a valuable research which received strong support from all over Africa and beyond. Contributors from all over the federation and beyond, coming from many research fields, consider the various resource wars that plagued Nigeria for nearly a century, seeking to offer a global, balanced and unbiased view of these conflicts. This well- structured and well-researched book presents a long list of conflicts, going back in history and scouring the various States of the federation to gather scores of comprehensive data. Views expressed are supported with convincing and well-explained maps, tables, excerpts from press articles, pictures and statistics. The impact of these wars on all sections of the society - men, women and youth - as well as on agriculture, land management, intercultural relations, social interaction, political choices, religious affiliations, migrations, literature, visual art and cinema, is carefully and convincingly uncovered - no field remains untouched. Particular attention has been paid to rural, land and water issues, focusing particularly on Fulani herdsmen and local farmers, and the Niger Delta and the oil issue. Each chapter adds to a long and useful list of recommendations intended to help empower a radical societal transformation, which, if addressed, will hopefully help bring peace to our troubled land. A courageous book addressed to all stakeholders in Nigeria. Prof. Françoise Ugochukwu Open University, UK With over 800 pages, ""Nigeria's Resource Wars"" is impressively a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of the challenges of nation-building in Nigeria with a focus on how the contestations over the complex and critical issues of resource management, resource allocation and access have engendered tensions, conflicts and a civil war in the country. With the exception of a few essays, which present historical accounts of resource-related conflicts in Nigeria dating back to the precolonial period, the rest of the chapters focus on three broad themes that have caused tensions and conflicts since the past three decades. These are the farmer-herder conflictive relationships; the oil-rich Niger Delta conflicts; and the Boko Haram insurgency. Dr Gloria Chuku Professor and Chair of Africana Studies University of Maryland, Baltimore County"

Author Information

Egodi Uchendu is Professor of History at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She has worked as a researcher in the U.S. and several locations in Europe since 2001; funded by the Fulbright, AvH (Germany), A. G. Leventis Foundation and others. Her research revolves around women in conflict situations, men and masculinities and their relation to women, African historiography, and emerging Muslim communities in Eastern Nigeria. Her publications include Islam in the Niger Delta, 1890-2017: A Synthesis of the Accounts of Indigenes and Migrants (2018), Dawn for Islam in Eastern Nigeria: A History of the Arrival of Islam in Igboland (2011), and Women and Conflict in the Nigerian Civil War (2007). Among her edited works are Masculinities in Contemporary Africa (2008), New Face of Islam in Eastern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin: Essays in Honour of Simon Ottenberg (2012), and, with other scholars, Perspectives on Leadership in Africa (2010) and Studies in Igbo History (2016). A former editor of the Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (2014-2018), she currently directs the Centre for Policy Studies and Research, leads the African Humanities Research and Development Circle (AHRDC), is on the editorial team of History in Africa and is a collaborative member of the Centre of African Studies at the University of Cambridge. For more information, visit www.egodiuchendu.com.

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