Bilateral Relations and the Challenges of Multinational Joint Task Force in West Africa

Abstract

For decades, the Nigerian states have struggled with incidence of violence and insecurity in the Niger Delta region. The inability of the Federal Government of Nigeria to find enduring and sustainable solution is the bane of peace in the region. Human security jeopardy which culminates from oil exploration and bunkering cornered the locals of the region in an unfortunate situation of environmental degradation. Dangerous contamination of natural resources that people grapple with in the land of their birth over time served as impetus for the agitations and violent conflict that ensued between non-states actors, multinational oil corporations and the Federal Government of Nigeria. Different administrations in Nigeria have attempted to restore peace in the Niger Delta region. What is however noticed in theory and practice is that critical stakeholders are not included in the peacebuilding framework and effort of the Nigerian state in the Niger delta region. This perhaps accounts for the persistence of different environmental problems that have given rise to violent conflict in the region. The discourse relying on both primary and secondary data to examine the potentials of different categories of stakeholders (youths, women, academics, traditional rulers, civil society groups) and underlining reasons for their exclusion in the peace-building effort in the region. The study pinpoints the imperatives of an all-inclusive peace building architecture as panacea to the Niger Delta crises and recommends that there should be constitutional coverage for the stated stakeholders.