Oil and Security in the Gulf of Guinea: Reflections on the External and Domestic Linkages

Abstract

<p>The age-long significance of the West African Sub-region to global commerce or economy is not dwindling and, by all appearances, will not even in the distant future irrespective of shocks in the price of oil. Retrospectively, the region was key to European search for economic opportunities in both the pre-colonial and colonial eras as it provided the haven of resources needed for industrialization in Europe. A great number of slaves shipped from Africa to the New World were also taken from the region because of the advantage of huge oceanic freeway. Now, amidst threats of energy insecurity due to crisis in the Persian Gulf and increasing concern for securing reliable source of supply by oil importing countries, especially by the US, the Gulf of Guinea has come to the fore once more as a region with great potential for providing a significant part of the answer for emerging fears of global energy insecurity. This paper seeks to explain this role on the part of the Gulf Guinea in the context of external and domestic linkages to security and oil conflict in the region. The paper argues that quest for energy security and failure by oil importing countries to seek alternative energy sources breed insecurity for oil exporting countries. We suggest an explanation on how this operates, especially in relation to the mode of governance of the oil by national leaders, multilateral institutions and multinational oil companies in the case of Nigeria’s delta region.</p

Securitization Outside the West

“…But increasing unrest and instability there made the West rethink its source of energyan alternative source would end the over-reliance on the supply from the Gulf. The easily accessible alternative place that is considered is the Gulf of Guinea where large deposits of hydrocarbon reside (see Allen, 2012). Because West Africa is the gateway to the Gulf of Guinea, what happens to the region of West Africa is of very serious security interest to the energy consumers of Europe and the Americas.…”

Chosen Trauma, Emotions and Memory in Movements: The Ogoni and Ijaw in the Niger Delta

“…The articulation of the reasons and demands, expressed in speeches and contained in what is today easily referred to as the 'Kaiama Declaration' provides a lot of insights into the question of chosen trauma, emotions, and social movement activities. Oil was, as it is now, the common enemy (Allen 2012a(Allen , 2012b(Allen , 2018. Participants spoke with emotion, passion, and determination, and asked the companies to leave the region not later than the end of December 1998.…”