THE SIGNIFICANCE OF KOLOKUMA CLAN IN THE NIGER DELTA AGITATIONS

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Groups in the Niger Delta region have agitated against political authorities and companies since the pre-colonial times. In the post-colonial era, the agitations have been against multinational oil corporations and the Federal Government of Nigeria. Most of these agitations are traced to the exploration and exploitation of oil in the region. Crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantities in Oloibiri in present day Ogbia Local Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria, in 1956. Since then, many Multinational Oil Companies (MNOCs) have come to the region to carry out oil related businesses. Despite, the wealth these MNOCs generate from the region, they and the Federal Government of Nigeria have not been able to develop the area as expected. For this and other factors, the people of the region have taken to various forms of agitations including the Kaiama Declaration. Hence, it is in a bid to understand the issues that led to this declaration by the Ijo ethnic minority in Kaiama in 1998 and how these issues contained in the declaration have combined to influence the struggle for Niger Delta liberation carried on by the various groups, in a bid to address some of the issues raised in the “Kaiama Declaration”, that forms the basis of this paper.

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