Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

ISSN: 2630-7065 (Print) 2630-7073 (e). Vol. 6 No. 4. 2023

Association for the Promotion of African Studies

COMMUNITARIAN ETHICS, SOCIAL CHANGE AND SOCIAL

PEACE IN THE NIGER DELTA

EEGUNLUSI, Tayo Raymond Ezekiel, PhD

Department of General Studies
Institute of Technology-Enhanced-Learningand Digital Humanities
Federal University of Technology,Akure, Nigeria
kingadetayo@[Link]
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31712.66569

Abstract
This paper argues that communitarian understanding is required to address
and proffer lasting solution to the Niger Delta crises, which basically derive
from an unflinching agitation of the Delta communities for social justice and
warding off of human indignity. The Niger Delta area of Nigeria has been
characterized by incessant violent revolts rendering attempts at ensuring social
peace and national security futile. These conflicts are predominantly due to a
number of factors: the prolonged state’s neglect of the region, the exploitative
nature of the transnational corporations producing oil in the region, the greedy
dispositions of some powerful and influential citizens of Nigeria and the
avarice of some Delta indigenes. The Delta indigenes’ perceived social injustice
and inhuman treatments, based on the activities of these groups, prompted a
determination to disallow resolution of the crises until they are given adequate
attention and eventually get social justice. For long, the situation in the region
deteriorated with the state’s determined counter-attacks and attempts towards
repressing and suppressing the Delta peoples and their militant groups in
order to scuttle their protests and efforts. Apart from the fact that these reprisal
attacks never daunted the Delta peoples’ zeal, despite that many lives were lost,
they portrayed the state as vicious, autocratic, dominating and unconcerned
about the welfare of the Delta communities. In later years, governmental efforts
at resolving the crises yielded some fruits but problems in the region are far
from ending. Thinking about these, using the methods of conceptual, theoretical
and historical analyses, this paper unearths the issues and events that portray
injustice in the Delta and their attendant indignity. It argues that adopting
communitarian values in national reconciliation can ensure social peace in the
Delta region.
Keywords: communitarian ethics, human dignity, national
development, reconciliation, security, social justice, social peace

Introduction
The overly individualistic emphasis of liberalism created the impetus
for the communitarian debate. The intensity of this debate makes

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several writers consider communitarianism as a virile alternative to

liberalism. The stands of some communitarians are, however, vastly
opposed to this perspective as they seek a blending of the social and
moral ideals communitarianism emphasizes with the individualistic
orientation promoted by liberalism. This is the trend this paper follows.
The paper predominantly argues that the neglect of communitarian
social and moral values in Nigeria as a viable operational paradigm for
ordering the Nigerian society and dealing with the situation in the
Niger Delta (henceforth Delta or the Delta) is the source of injustice and
violation of human dignity in the area. Communitarian understanding
is required to address and proffer lasting solution to the Delta crises,
which basically derive from an unflinching agitation of the Delta
communities to get social justice and ward off human indignity. Since
crude oil was discovered, the Delta area of Nigeria has been found to be
essentially problematic and characterized by incessant violent revolts
rendering attempts at ensuring social peace and national security futile.
These conflicts are predominantly due to a number of factors: the
prolonged state‘s neglect of the region, the exploitative nature of the
transnational corporations producing oil in the region, the greedy
dispositions of some powerful and influential citizens of Nigeria and
the avarice of some Delta indigenes. Also, generating internal strife is
the issue of autochthony or claim of original ownership of land. As
discussed by Courson (2020: 73-74), the conflict over autochthony was:
…engendered by colonialism, but was deepened by ethnic
political action on chieftaincy and, in the contemporary period,
transformed to an insurgency by government-oil firms'
complicity. Ijaw-Itsekiri are at loggerheads over claims to lands in
New-Warri or Ogbe-Ijoh, Benin River and the Escravos River
environs. At the same time, Urhobo-Itsekiri are daggers drawn
over ownership of Agbassa, Okere and Okumagba lands in
Warri. Beyond the legal space and reliance on land leases signed
by Dore Numa, other avenues to the resolution of this intractable
problem are either rebuffed and/or ignored. Land ownership
squabble in Warri is long and protracted without any concrete
steps by the government (colonial or postcolonial) to address it.
Since the late-1990s, the question of land ownership in Warri has
turned violent. The Ijaw and Urhobo fought over land ownership
in Aladja (the site of a gigantic steel company in Nigeria) and
over Garigilo and Esama in 1996; the Ijaw and Itsekiri fought over
ownership of Jones creek in 1996, and over LGA creation,
relocation and ward delineation in, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2003;
and the Urhobo and Itsekiri fought over both land in 1999 and

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ward delineation in 2003. All the three groups have crossed paths
over land squabbles in Warri. Recently, the extension of territorial
claims for the whole of Warri Division by each of the three ethnic
groups rather than for Warri urban itself has been attributed to
the renewed violent armed conflict in the Region. It is conflict
over space but layered by petropolitics.

The strife resulting from autochthony has thrived more because the
state and certain interested persons in the Delta have profited from it
while allowing things to degenerate to serious crises with dire national
and international consequences. Those involved played politics with
and around the issues to the detriment of the Delta populace. In all
these, the Delta indigenes‘ perceived social injustice and inhuman
treatments, based on the activities of the various groups and elements,
prompted the Delta people‘s determination to disallow resolution of the
crises until issues are given adequate attention and they eventually get
social justice. The youths, who are mostly restive form the vanguard of
these efforts. The situation in the Delta was difficult to manage because
the state acted as a high-handed protagonist rather than an impartial
umpire in welfarist toga. Thus, for a long time, the situation in the
region, worsened daily, with the state‘s determined counter-attacks and
attempts towards repressing and suppressing the Delta peoples and
their militant groups in order to scuttle their protests and efforts. Apart
from the fact that these reprisal attacks never daunted the Delta
peoples‘ zeal, despite that many lives were lost, they portrayed the state
as vicious, autocratic, dominating and unconcerned about the welfare of
the Delta communities.

Over time, due to continuous agitations, the Nigerian state conceded to

certain solutions to the Delta crises. However, the initial solutions
provided through certain groups as the Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC) and Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development
Commission (OMPADEC) never really put the people‘s dignity and
feelings into consideration. Apart from the fact that the factors stated
above allowed some influential Delta indigenes who are supposed to
mediate in the Delta crises and help alleviate the sufferings of their
people to excessively benefit at the expense of the community, the state-
centred, colonial-oriented and dominating nature of the Nigerian nation
played out in these factors and reflected the modus operandi of the
groups involved. These, thus, constitute derisive approaches that
frustrate real dialogical and consensus based quest for social justice for
a long time. As government realized its mistakes, efforts at resolving

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the crises, such as the creation of the Niger Delta Ministry and the
Amnesty programme, yielded some fruits but problems in the region
are far from ending. On one side are Delta indigenes still threatening to
sabotage national efforts while agitating for resource control, on
another side are the activities of those entrusted with the resources of
the agencies created to address the welfare of the region that have either
looted or mismanaged the resources in their care, or work in their
interest to the detriment of the majority in the region. Thinking about
all these, using the methods of conceptual, theoretical, historical and
empirical analysis, this paper unearths the issues and events that
portray injustice in the Delta and their attendant indignity. It suggests
that the moral issues and the situation of injustice that promote constant
anger and revolts in the Delta area have deleterious consequences for
and undermine Nigeria‘s national development and, at large, global
peace and security. On these bases, due to its dialogical and consensus-
motivated reconciliatory approaches, it is necessary to adopt
communitarianism, as a means of solving the Delta problems. Thus,
arguing that adopting communitarian values in national reconciliation
can ensure social peace in the Delta region and Nigeria, this work
shows how cultivating and harmonizing individual virtues and values
with those of the society, with the ultimate aim of sustaining the state,
will promote beneficial reconciliation and social peace in Nigeria.

The Niger Delta on Resource Control: Pre-Independence and Early

Post-Independence Agitations
Resource control and sharing have been the major issues promoting
social unrest in the Delta. The problem in the Delta predates the modern
era. With involvement in trades – slave trade, colonial palm oil trade
and now the crude oil trade – the region has witnessed seasons of
attempts at ensuring the control of its resources. Due to trade
consideration and being eventually subdued by the British, alongside
other tribes merged into various colonies and protectorates under
British colonial rule, the region became amalgamated into Nigeria in
1914 after an effort that started in 1900 when the British took over the
administration of the area once controlled by the Royal Niger Company
founded by Sir George Dashwood Goldie. At the drumbeat of Nigeria‘s
independence, the Delta people were part of the various minority
groups that expressed fear of domination by the majority groups in the
nation and sought independent existence as states within the nation,
agitating against being merged with the dominant tribes. In response to
their fears, as expressed at both the 1953 and 1956/57 Constitution
Conferences held in London, a four-man Enquiry Commission on Fears of

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Minorities (otherwise known as the Willink Minority Rights

Commission), headed by Henry Willink, was set up in September 1957
to hear the peoples‘ grievances. As Courson (2016: 55) notes:
The outcome of…minority petitions to Britain was the
inauguration of the Henry Willink Commission in 1957. The
Commission, however, confirmed the fears and disadvantaged
position of minority groups in every region. It concluded that
state creation was not the solution and even could obstruct the
proposed granting of independence to Nigeria in 1960. The
Commission therefore recommended the constitutional
classification of the Niger Delta as an area with ―Special
Development‖ needs that requires cooperative efforts of the
Federal, Eastern and Western Governments because it was ―poor,
backward and neglected,‖ and it suggested the establishment of a
Federal Board to address the peculiar problems of the Niger Delta
people. This recommendation led to the post-independence
creation of the Niger Delta Development Board in 1961 by Sir
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, then Prime Minister. But the Board
failed in all parameters to meet the desire and aspirations of the
people of the area; hence the demands for autonomy and fair
treatment continued in post-independence Nigeria.
As evident in later years, the first point of crisis was that the
recommendations of the commission defeated the peoples‘ expectations
while their fears were largely unaddressed. At independence, the 1960
Constitution was not so expressive on issues relating to the Delta. The
1963 Republican Constitution‘s provision for the Niger Delta
Development Board only stated that the Board was to be ―responsible
for advising the Government of the Federation and the Governments of
Eastern Nigeria and Mid-Western Nigeria with respect to the physical
development of the Niger Delta‖. It also referred to an August 26 th 1959
―proclamation relating to the Board‖ 41 and that the section of the
constitution on Niger Delta shall no longer be effective or valid from 1st
July, 1969. In short, the people were not allowed autonomy and were
still subjected to the domination of majority groups against their wish
with possibility that their case would probably be unattended to after
1st July 1969. Such considerations as these might have led to the
agitations by Isaac Adaka Boro (1938-1968) and his Niger Delta
Volunteer Force to declare the Niger Delta Republic on the 23rd of

41
Constitution of Nigeria. 1963. Chapter XII, 5. ttps://[Link]/archive/ng/1960/ng-
[Link]

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February, 1966. Though this initial agitation was unsuccessful, the seeds
of the militia activities, restiveness and resistance sowed blossomed and
manifested in serious crises in later years. Thus, the consequent
dastardly facilitation and sustenance of infamy acts of violence that are
coterminous with the situations of crises throw the Nigerian nation and
the entire global community into repeated tantrums of traumatic
experiences and agony as they witnessed great threats to the sustenance
of human and material resources and the economic survival of nations
and the transnational corporations that are involved in oil exploration
in this region.

Justification for Communitarian Ethics in the Delta Crises: Looking

Towards Nationally Beneficial Relations
The threats to material and human resources in the Delta, no doubt, are
threats to global peace and economic sustenance. This is because many
nations are represented in the companies carrying out oil exploration in
the region and the price of Nigerian oil is among the factors that, in
some sense, determine the strength of global economy. However, the
crises in the Delta took their tolls on development in the area in the
immediate than on the global community. It is hence necessary to adopt
communitarian understanding in solving the Delta crises. Granting the
fact of the social embeddedness of the self into African communities,
the idea of communitarianism is not at all alien to the nation. However,
the form that currently thrives in the nation appears to be a closed
communitarian system – largely tribalistic and sectarian in nature. This
excludes other tribes, leaving them to fashion out ideals that can unite
them and help them define their communal identities. The long and
short of this is that, rather than promote national unity, this form of
communitarian understanding is divisive. Closed communitarianism is
in fact a wrong interpretation of the real communitarian agenda. The
communitarian understanding that should reign in Nigeria is one that
has universal appeal and capable of promoting national unity, catering
for the welfare and equality of all the different Nigerian tribes, rather
than being sectarian in nature. To cater for this situation and evolve a
really beneficial social system, this paper essentially perceives
communitarianism as a philosophy of social change in the Nigerian
socio-political and economic milieu, as far as resource distribution is
concerned in the Delta area of the nation.

In lieu of this, this paper shows that social development is impossible in

Nigeria and in the Delta without a conscious and passionate adoption
of communitarian values and ideals targeted at sustaining the society. It

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further argues that the breakdown of order in the Nigerian society is as

a result of the breakdown or neglect of a national orientation towards
promoting the two phenomenal and intertwined ideals of shared-
meaning and shared-understanding. These are very essential because
the meaning of one may become obscure without the meaning of the
other. The cry of marginalization and injustice in resource distribution
in Nigeria – which is the question of / agitation for social justice - really
boils down to the fact of the neglect of or lack of the real understanding
of these ideals (Tusabe, 2005:95; Young, 1990: 15-38; Miller, 1976:17-19;
Rawls, 1972: 60-105; 1974:156-178). We may find every effort geared
towards finding a lasting solution to this problem elusive if we refuse to
address the fact that we have deviated from these ideals that kept the
African society together long before colonialism. An examination of
these ideals reveals them to be essential in defining the common vision,
objectives, goals, values and requirements of moral virtues as elements
useful for mutual beneficial relations among stakeholders in national
issues relating to justice and fairness in dealings in the Nigerian society.
In earnest, these ideals form the pedestal for defining the basic elements
that guarantee social peace, and facilitate positive social change and the
sustenance of the human community. Thus, they underlie our seeing
social change as the socio-cultural, political, economical and moral
developments within a social system as they affect human and national
life and create an atmosphere conducive for peaceful coexistence and
community sustenance. I argue in this work that giving attention to
these ideals will help clarify and guarantee mutually beneficial relations
among the peoples in the Nigerian society and its various tribes and
communities, one of which is the Delta, and facilitate national
integration, social peace and unity.

The Failure of States Agencies, the Failure of Methods of National

Reconciliation and the Urgent Need for a Paradigm Shift
For decades, the crises in the Delta depict a conscious effort by the Delta
people to get social justice at all cost. They, equally portray a strong
competition between stakeholders of national politics: the strong
groups with the paraphernalia of institutions behind them and the
weak minority groups determined to fight oppression. The
understanding of the implications of the Delta crises propelled the
Government to provide some solutions to the crises in its attempts to
remedy the situation of injustice in the Delta. The solutions include the
13 Percent Derivation Formula, NDDC, OMPADEC, and a host of
others. Government believed that these arrangements would allow for
proper management of the Delta situation and the championing of the

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cause of ensuring fair distribution and sharing of resources in ways

beneficial to the Delta people. Unfortunately, neither the constitutions
of these groups nor the implementation of the programmes permits
adequately addressing the unbiased sharing of national resources
directed at national integration without controversies, mismanagements
and upheavals. This is usually because of certain intrigues in the polity.
These groups‘ limitations boil down to the fact that they have
continually followed the rigid and sometimes subtle colonial and
parochial methods inherited by the Nigerian nation. Thus, the old and
unpopular solutions they represent showcase approaches that are based
on state-centric, master servant relations, top-down social engineering
and dictatorial policies that generally did not take into consideration the
dignity, feelings and desires of the affected people. As highlighted by
Ujomu (2002:252):
the contributions of the Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC) project to the Ogoniland have been minimal. This
programme or project is another evidence of lack of careful
planning and consultation….Presently, the NDDC is
rehabilitating old native roads….The rivers in the area are bad
due to oil spillages. There is a community hospital but it is not
functioning. Drugs are not given to indigenes. The existing
infrastructures are inadequate because Ogoni community is a
very big area. It covers Tekana, Kpean, Yokaa, Baen, Tai, Gokan,
etc. It shares boundary with parts of Eket about 75km away from
Bori. In Bori town like many other towns and villages in the rural
Ogoni axis, the only tarred roads pass through the town center.
Other roads were neither tarred nor graded. These roads in Bori
and other near-by villages were not motorable. There are just
electricity poles for the sake of having them.
The more reason why these groups have been unable to discharge their
responsibilities boils down to the fact of a prevailing ―consistent pattern
of misuse and misappropriation‖ of funds in these groups (Ujomu
(2002:253). At the same time, these groups have a heavy reliance on
state-doctored programmes that do not promote real meaningful
dialogues capable of ensuring real national reconciliation. Thus, as the
chaotic situation in the Delta worsens by the day, it is obvious that there
is need for a paradigm shift from the non-dialogical, non-consensus-
driven and non-reconciliatory but conservative and managerial-natured
strategies these institutions adopt at solving the Delta problems.
However, the problems in the Delta, in being fair, also aggravates with
the cheating of the people by their own leaders who siphon larger parts
of the money meant for the development of the region and keep them

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for their selfish uses within and outside Nigeria. In this regards, the
failure of the state and its institutions and the powerful Delta indigenes
at a successful handling of the Delta crises necessitates embracing the
dialogical communitarian approach that promotes reconciliation in
tackling the challenges posed by these situations.

A Further Exploration of the Historical Antecedents in the Delta

Social Imbroglio and Crises
According to Ikelegbe (2006:24), the Delta region of Nigeria ―is
embroiled in resistance against the Nigerian state and the transnational
companies (TNCs). The region is generally restive with pockets of
insurrection and armed rebellion.‖ What Ikelegbe regards as ―pockets‖
of resistance is in actual fact a strong life-threatening revolt which
attracted an equally strong military espionage and action. It should not
be taken for granted that any national situation that requires military
intervention, and not mere police action, already has a life-threatening
dimension to it. This is because the military, by its constitution, is not
supposed to have reasons to defend the nation from within against
itself but to protect its territorial integrity against external invasion. For
the military to defend a nation against its members where it should
engage police action shows a completely unhealthy national scenario.
Apart from the fact that the crises in the Delta constitute a vehement
revolt against the TNCs and the Nigerian state, two of the principal
actors in the crises, it is also a vehement agitation to be heard and given
attention at all cost. The region, because of this habitual violence and
anarchy that led to loss of lives and properties, is a centre posing a very
great security concern to the nation and the entire world (Omeje, 2006:
479-480; Volman, 2003: 578-582).

The anarchy situation in the Delta which was initially a solemn protest
and gradual revolution led by the likes of Boro, added a radical and
guerrilla-warfare-like dimension capable of engineering a destructive
national influence. As earlier noted, the crises in the region which began
in the pre-independence days of Nigeria reached its peak in recent
times. The discovery of oil in the Delta shifted the attention of the entire
nation from reliance on agriculture as the main source of national
income to crude oil exploration (Obi,2002: 264-265). Like many other
nations where oil or other mineral resources are discovered, the conflict
in the Delta originates from the discovery of oil in the region. The Delta
crises and other negative outcomes from oil exploration, as well as the
sharing of the proceeds of oil, have made many critics claim that
Nigeria‘s oil is a curse rather than being a blessing (Courson, 2020:65).

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Thus, as is common in discussions in the international arena, nations

just discovering oil are said to be carefully fashioning out means of
profiting from oil proceeds without communal crises so as to forestall
their oil becoming a curse to them like Nigeria‘s.

It is common knowledge that Nigeria experienced so much oil boom in

the 1970s that it globally ranked among nations with the strongest,
globally and widely acclaimed, very successful economies. Despite this
boom, the Delta which contributes the larger part of the nation‘s
national income and gives her economy its strength, suffered so much
neglect from the Nigerian nation and the transnational corporations
that explore crude oil in the region. This neglect used to be very visible
in the lack of attention to the area despite having suffered so much
environmental hazards and degradation resulting from the effects of oil
spillage and activities of the TNCs. The situation in the Delta was made
worse by the protracted military rule in Nigeria. For decades, the efforts
by the people to get the state to come to their aid met with vehement
repression by the state‘s autocratic military regimes that dispatched
military forces to the area to quell revolts by the people. However, over
the years, the peoples‘ revolts continued unabated. As reported by
Ibeanu (1997: 3):
In 1981, 1000 villagers in Rukpokwu blocked the routes to 50 shell
oil wells, while the inhabitants of the three villages in Egbema
seized Agip installations at Ebocha. In October 1989, oil drilling
equipment worth 10 million Naira ($1, 000) belonging to Elf was
destroyed by angry villagers at Oboburu. Two expatriate
engineers were among 22 persons who were seriously injured. In
1990 when the Ogoni resistance began in earnest, there were 75
recorded incidents of oil spillage in the delta area, involving over
ten thousand barrels of crude oil. Many of the incidents have
been attributed to sabotage of equipment by unhappy rural
communities.
This clearly shows that the lingering agitation by the different groups in
the Delta to get justice escalated to an almost uncontrollable and daily-
deteriorating extent. The painful aspect of the reactions of the Nigerian
nation to the anger-driven resistance of the communities of oil
exploration is that, rather than being reconciliatory and peace-driven
missions towards pacifying aggrieved parties and attaining real
national unity, they continued a chain of very violent reprisal attacks on
those communities. These vengeful attacks depict lack of sensitivity on
the path of the national governments to the suffering of the Delta
people and their agitation for change. Instead of solving the problems

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between the Delta people and the nation, the situation led to further
violent protests from the communities. Ibeanu (1997:3) highlights
further that:
one widely published case took place on 1st November, 1991
when over twenty villages of Umuechem were brutally murdered
by para-military forces in early morning on the village, a sequel
to protests staged by villagers against the multinational oil giants,
shell, a day before.

Elimination of the Ogoni Seven and the Failure of National Punitive

Action
Omeje (2006: 479), rightly, observes that these protests assumed a new
dimension with the elimination of the Ogoni Seven which include one of
the Delta intellectuals, Ken Saro Wiwa, who led them, by the Abacha
junta. These persons who had began to command much respect were
seen as threats to the nation by the Abacha regime. Saro Wiwa, in
particular, had formed the popular Movement for the Survival of the
Ogoni People (MOSOP). Omeje (2006: 478) stresses that his group
influenced ―the anti-oil campaign by mobilizing and conscientizing
large sections of the Delta grassroots populations and civil groups to
fight for environmental justice‖. Thus, his 1995 execution with other
members of MOSOP is one of the cases that shifted the attention of the
international community to the Delta region. This is because this event
generated worldwide condemnation from human rights groups who
considered the killing of the activists as a further pointer to this
insensitivity to human plight by the Abacha regime. This lack of
concern for the Ogoni people‘s agitations and sufferings only further
heightened the level of insecurity in the Delta communities and the
entire nation. What shows that this situation of gross insecurity depicts
the unhealthiness of the Nigerian social system, as the Human Rights
Watch (2002:2) reported, is the continual heavy military presence in
Ogoniland for a period of five years before the Obasanjo Regime took
over power in 1999. This situation of protracted and relentless
engagement of military intervention and activities in the area only
further sent wrong signals to other quarters of the globe to underscore
the smear in our national political image. As we could see, the actual
reason behind this killing of the Ogonis and the long sustenance of
military presence in their community was to suppress and restrain the
entire Delta people from further violence and protests. However, the
methods of punitive expedition based on military action and capital
punishment never deterred the Ogonis and the entire Delta community.
Instead, the lingering oppressive situation only further incensed the

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members of the Delta communities to champion more virulent

combatant-like revolts that have made the Delta another zone for civil
war – with the Nigerian government and the TNCs on one side and the
Delta ethnic militia groups on the other.

The Damages of the Odi Massacre

In order to bring the deteriorating situation of repeated militant action

and society protests under control the government adopted stronger
military campaigns that attracted further widespread condemnation
and promoted injustice. As reported by the Human Rights Watch ( 2002:
2), ―In November, 1999, five months after the new Government headed
by President Olusegun Obasanjo took office, soldiers destroyed the
town of Odi in Bayelsa State, killing hundreds of people.‖ This
destruction of the entire community of Odi town in 1999 by a dispatch
of soldiers by the Nigerian Federal Government, in a bid to quell the
people‘s revolts and permanently check their excesses, has since been
an incentive towards a stronger agitation for liberty from state
oppression in the Delta. The Odi case, clearly enough, is one of the cases
that showed well-pronounced lack of welfare and concern for the
people and, essentially, raised questions concerning human dignity and
rights in the Delta. The Odi massacre, as the Ogoni execution and other
cases that generated deadly national upheavals, largely demonstrates
an equally strong destructive tendency to worsen the Delta situation. A
lot of damage was already done by this daylight mass murder of the
people. Apart from the physical damage done to the people and their
material resources, the psychological damage done to them by the
killings goes a long way to affect their trust in the national system. This,
thus, is one of the cases culminating in long term, well-organized
violent insurrection that does more serious damage to the nation‘s
economy and security. That the Federal Government even allowed it to
happen, no doubt, indicates that the Nigerian state has a lot to learn in
government-citizen relationships. The worrisome thing is that this
attack on human dignity in Odi came in a democratic dispensation. A
democratic system is expected to be more tolerant about and hesitant in
violating the ideals of human rights. At this stage, we examine
communitarianism.

Communitarianism: A Theoretical Insight into Africa’s Modes of

Social Change
Communitarianism as a philosophy of community sustenance has been
largely dominated by the insight towards integrating the individual

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person into the society. This background theoretical understanding

portrays a strong conflict between particular persons‘ values and
community values. This conflict between individualism and social
integration of the self into the community, without an undue sense of
independence from the community, in this postmodern era of
globalization, has been the same across centuries of human existence.
This is because the moral human nature in every human is the same
and the individual has a high tendency to exalt himself above the
community‘s values, ideals, orientations, and judgments. The innate
abilities in man to be independent are essentially very enormous. These
potentials, if well harnessed and well-converted for societal
development can become instrumental to a monumental social change
in the human society. Social contract theorists as Locke, Hume, Mill,
Bentham, Hobbes and Rousseau, with some of their views hypothetical,
have at different times shown how human nature brings to fore and,
when properly regulated, sustains the establishment of the human
society. Locke‘s virulent revolt is against the then prevalent elitist view
of the monarchical order of his days that the king possesses divine
rights to rule the people. This somehow erroneous view portrays the
kings as having full custody of the properties in the land. Thus, having
the consequence that the individual lacks the rights to acquire private
properties, it marginalizes the people and justifies injustice. Locke, thus,
argues that the ruling power of the king and ownership of properties
derive from the contract mutually signed by members of the society
rather than claims to divine authority. In lieu of this, individuals in the
society have rights to acquire properties without hindrances to their
liberty by the government or others in the society.

In what seems to be a deliberately collaborative effort, Locke‘s view is

supported by J. S. Mill. Mill argues that persons in a democratic society
lack reasons to allow limitation to their liberty and should act as such.
He stresses that any limitation to human liberty will consequently or
completely exterminate his happiness through hindering his social
development. So, in order to attain maximum societal development, it
becomes essential for the government to ensure individual liberty. The
only precondition for the violation of these rights is the threat to the
liberty of others in the society.

Though a painstaking perusal of these theorists‘ classical arguments for

liberalism still retain the necessary materials for defining and sustaining
the human community, some communitarians still perceive the liberals‘
arguments as capable of subverting the ideals that sustain the society. A

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subversion of the ideals that are capable of sustaining the society may,
consequently, result in violence and disorder. However, much as the
liberals‘ views are capable of destabilizing the human society when
there is excessive empowerment of the persons, Gbadegeshin (1998:292-
294) and Menkiti (1979;157-159), in what has often been thought to be
an African perspective to communitarianism, argue that individuals are
capable of being of immense benefit to the society. As such, individuals
that produce social change in the society should be promoted by
permitting them to fully utilize their abilities through their full
integration into the community for its common good and social peace.
According to Gbadegeshin, Africans in the previous generations have at
some time or the other allowed certain individuals to front for them at
moments of dire need. At such times, these persons spearhead the
common cause of the society to ensure its continuity. Such individuals,
in what later results in corporate social responsibility (CSR) for the
communities, spur the entire communities to act as necessary to
produce a significant social change for their long-term advantage
(Owolabi, 2003: 16, 17). This shows that communitarianism is not just
directed at community sustenance but also social change in the society.
Thus, the change envisioned by the communitarians is that which
ensures strong societal development and allows individual
participation in this development for the common good of the entire
society. The issue of social change in the African societies in the pre-
independence era was dependent on communalistic modes of life. One
of the ways by which this issue is addressed is through a community
action that considers the society as the heart of its activities. Thus,
priority attention is given to the wellbeing of the society and its
members. Individuals concede their rights to ensure the society‘s
sustenance and guarantee that it constantly experiences a highly
rewarding social change that reflects the changing times and protects
the collective vision and common good. The resulting changes had at
one time or the other been monumental in their own respects such that
they beneficially affected the people and further gave them some high
sense of dignity.

The Question of Human Dignity and the Delta Situation

What has made the African social order more cohesive and strong in
pursuit of the essential ingredients that promote human dignity is their
commitment to a social bond that is highly strengthened by strong
believe in spirituality. This, till date, is a strong factor affecting and
motivating the African societies. It still has strong roles in promoting
the struggle in the Delta communities. The evident trust in charms by

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the ethnic militia in these communities fosters an audacity that further

engenders the Delta crises. These militia groups usually claim to be
operating for the sake of promoting human dignity. This emphasis on
human dignity, as Ujomu (2002: 251-253) shows, constitute an
important basis for agitating for justice in the Delta. This further shows
that the people have a high sense of dignity. The sense of dignity is the
ability for the perception of issues that promote or do not promote
human dignity. The whole essence of it is to identify what violates
human dignity and seek to eliminate them to promote this dignity. In
earnest, the awareness deriving from this sense of dignity as the
underlay for a sense of justice forms an impetus that channels and
reconfigures the human mentality towards attaining an epistemic
understanding of the moral and social anomalies in human dealings.
Thus, consequently helping to create and sustain a moral and social
epistemic foundation for redirecting human and societal actions to
create a beneficiary situation for the society and the individuals in it.
This sense of dignity is a strong factor promoting justice. The sense of
justice, essentially, is the sense of appropriating rightness or wrongness
as far as human actions are concerned. Without a sense of justice there
may never be a way to determine which actions are right or wrong and
an individual may never have a feeling of being cheated. The person
who is not aware of being cheated or being unfairly treated does not
consider himself to be having a basis for any agitation against injustice
as long as he is ignorant of the situation of injustice. Without mincing
words, the sense of justice is largely based on the perception of human
indignity. Pritchard (1971: 299) seems to acknowledge this fact by
asserting that justice and dignity can be brought into relationship with
each other. He emphasizes that justice depends on the individuals‘
perception of themselves. According to him,
It can readily be seen that …feelings of inferiority have a serious
effect on one‘s sense of justice. Imagine a slave who somehow still
regards himself as the equal of his master. He would be expected
to be specially sensitive to the injustice of his enslavement and to
feel the appropriate resentment. In contrast, a slave who actually
regards himself as inferior to his master will not be sensitive to
the injustice done him…he might accept his lack of freedom as
perfectly just…The conclusion…is that the lower a person‘s
regard for his worth or dignity the less sensitive he will be to the
injustices done him.
I can, thus, deduce from Pritchard‘s viewpoint that the whole essence of
every human action boils down to this factor of dignity and that a sense
of human dignity is the basis for agitations and claims of justice. As

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such, every effort from different groups, such as the human rights
groups, social organizations, governmental and non-governmental
organizations, the world over has this factor of human dignity as its
underlying trigger, most especially where there are real sincere motives
to act for humanity.

Human Dignity, Distribution and the Communitarian Ideals of

Shared Meaning and Shared Understanding
The issue of human dignity may be said to be the most fundamental
factor in communitarian ethics. Human dignity is what the
communitarian perspectives attempt to protect by promoting the
different elements constituting the community: the family, the person,
the various institutions and organizations, in short, the different
arrangements made for the ordering of the human society. Those who
devote themselves to any form of moral rules, seek to achieve human-
welfare, deal fairly and engage in mutually participatory and beneficial
actions do so on the basis of human dignity. Thus, all efforts by
communitarians to define what the society and human relations are, on
this basis, fall under many unique headings. According to Markate Daly
(1994: xiv):
Some communitarians view community as the most natural and
highest form of life for human beings, some argue that the
community is a basic human need, that frustration of this need
leads to alienation, addictions, crime, and effective families; some
identify true democracy with a community controlled by an
active citizenry; some look at the customary morality of a
community, winnowed and refined by generations of intelligent
members, for an ethical standard. But all communitarians believe
that under the influence of a revitalized community we would be
able to live more fulfilling personal lives than is now possible
under the dominance of individualistic ideal.
What actually defines the personhood, community values, the ethical
ideals and the communitarian world-view are the ideals of shared
meaning and shared understanding. Walzer (1983: 3-20) construes
shared-meaning as the meaning common to members of the society of
all the objects and concepts that promote social cohesion in the
community. These affect the distribution of social and material
resources in a nation. Walzer elucidates the fact that goods ―have
different meanings in different societies‖. Thus, ―…it is the meaning of
goods that determines their movement. Distributive criteria and
arrangements are intrinsic not to the good itself but to the social good. If
we understand what it is, what it means to those for whom it is good,

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we understand how, by whom, and for what reasons it ought to be

distributed. All distributions are just or unjust relative to the social
meanings of the goods at stake… Social meanings are historical in
character; and so distributions and just and unjust distribution change
over time.‖ (Walzer, 1983: 104 - 105). This change is largely dependent
on the paradigm shift in people‘s shared-understanding of the
meanings. Shared-understanding is the understanding of social-
meanings common to the people of a particular community. The actions
of persons in particular societies ―depend for their force on some shared
understanding of knowledge, influence, and power. Social goods have
social meanings, and we find our way to distributive justice through an
interpretation of those meanings. We search for principles internal to
each distributive sphere‖ (Walzer, 1983:.108)

Communitarian Social Change Perspective, National Reconciliation,

National Consensus and the Delta Imbroglio
Social change that, in a general sense, is the progressive and fluctuating
spate of development in the society is promoted by the ideals of shared-
meaning and share-understanding of social goods in the society. The
breakdown in understanding the meanings of these two ideals has led
to the downturn experience of social change in Nigeria. There have
been different conceptions of social change. Oladipo (2007: 20) perceives
this as ―socio-cultural reconstructions‖ while Bamikole (2007: 26-29)
conceives of it as the various faces of social development and societal
transformations whether domestic or international. These two scholars‘
views have roles to play in our attempts at defining social change.
According to Johnson (1960: 615), social change in a broad sense is the
substantial change experienced on a daily basis by humans in their
social systems. Thus, change in this sense defines a retinue of ideas such
as the physiological changes resulting from organic growth in persons,
the psychological changes due to either negative or positive influences
of members of the society on one another, ―social action‖ which,
according to Daya Krishna (1954:568- 569), is the action consciously
directed at ―others in their characters as a group rather than as
individuals‖ for the ―perpetuation of an existing value or change in a
new valuational direction‖, and so on. This kind of tangible change is
such that may not be easily and conspicuous noticeable but which is a
subtle change in cases ―where a social system is a subsystem of a larger
one‖. Krishna asserts that this tangible change may likely be the ―results
of immanent forces operating, mostly unconsciously, within the social
structure itself.‖ Thus, Johnson (1960:615) asserts that ―in a narrow
sense, social change is change in the structure of a social system; what

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has been stable or relatively unchanging changes…In its basic sense,

then, social change means change in social structure‖. This change in
structure is a change that affects the different structures of the social
system such as the social values, the social institutions, the distribution
of resources, and so on. These changes may be a part of the social
system or due to social environment or ―the impact of non-social
environment‖ (Johnson, 1960: 615). The social change in the modern
African societies witnesses a high-handed domination by a sometimes
oppressive and self-willed ruling class and incorporates a set of new
ideas and initiatives that seem to play down a communitarian
understanding and orientation. Thus, it serves to merely justify the
personal aggrandizement of certain individuals and cabals and, in some
sense promote unfounded ethnicity xenophobia and jingoism. Before
colonialism, the change in the structure of the African social systems
was affected by a myriad of events which include intertribal wars, civil
wars, peaceful change of governments, peoples determination to create
and enforce change, proper arrangement of communities‘ institutions,
and so on. During these times, as Mair (1960:447- 456) describes,
―throughout Africa south of the Sahara production for exchange was far
less than production for subsistence. Valuable goods changed hands
less often for economic than for social reasons. Those rendered services,
whether to neighbours or to persons in authority, were rewarded than
paid and the obligation to make due return were moral rather than
contractual.‖ In these regards, the then rustic social arrangements have
well-managed social structures that promote societal development and
communal integration in manners that guarantee peace co-existence
and sustain human aspiration (Sullivan, 1994:193). Modernism brought
by colonialism has destroyed this structure by infusing it with ideas
that enhance the current conflicts in most African societies one of which
is the Delta. Thus, another type of social change has been created,
which, though reflects a retinue of events, as the reality of post-
colonialism, the ever proliferating challenges posed by the modern
societal structures as they incorporate a new form of civilization and
successful intercultural relations, has lost its grips on the essential
communitarian values, virtues and ideals that once gave the African
nation its social and moral meanings and uniqueness. According to
Mair (1960:449), in what seems to be a veil of economic and
technological revolutions and appears to do nothing better than show
the entire continent as a people existing for the colonial masters‘
economic agenda:
This continent of small states divided into yet smaller village
communities, is now a part of a world system of production for

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exchange created by the use of machine invented in Western

Europe and North America. The greater part of it becomes so
through incorporation in the political systems of European
nations. Whatever the motives behind this process, it is clear that
the changes which it has made in African society were logically
inevitable if Africa was to take advantage of these new
techniques.
This devotion towards analyzing the reality of the modern change in
the Africa social structure appears to be a mockery of the entire
continent. The effects of the colonial masters‘ ideas and operations have
led to the emergence of a more volatile social structure in Africa that
has not really helped the constitution of its states. This is the problem
the Nigerian nation and the Delta community have faced. This volatile
nature of the Nigerian social system has been worsened by certain
ideological conceptions deriving from the nation‘s citizens‘ exposure to
the Western and Eastern blocks of the world. This is also the same
across Africa. Some parts of these ideologies conflict with the
orientations that guaranteed peace in the African societies for several
centuries before colonialism.

One of the most formidable ideological underpinnings to social change

in the current African situation of social upheavals is Islamic extremism.
The manifestations of this in Nigeria include the activities of groups like
Boko Haram and Ansaru, with links to Al-Qaeda. Though the activities
of Islamic extremists rivet Nigeria‘s North, they are limited in the East
and South. Besides these, ferociously revolutionary Marxist ideology
holds sway in some parts of Africa. Thus, the Marxian conception of
change that is the revolution of the proletariats to ensure the evolution
of a free and independent classless society has been the most
predominant idea that has constantly featured in the discourses on
societal change among Africans, which has had serious consequences
for their states. Even though the Delta people are not clamouring for the
abolition of the Nigerian state but resource control, this view has also
played a major role in the Delta crises. This, in some sense and to a large
extent, has also been the energizer for the incessant crises in most war
torn African states. In this wise, the importation and unmitigated
practice of this idea of social change seem to have become a serious
mishap or, at least, a tool for setback to these nations‘ political
structures and has largely sometimes often defeated their efforts to
attain peace. This contradicts the erstwhile prevalent orientation in
Africa before colonialism that allows for peace without first engaging
violence unless it becomes so unavoidable to attain this situation of

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peace. The current orientation, most especially among most Delta

youths, based on Marxist perspective is that peace is impossible without
violence. This is the sense in which the African nations become war
zones with series of repeated violent conflicts even when efforts are
already made to end such conflicts. Thus, progress-driven social change
in such societies becomes unrealistic as the success already achieved in
development becomes reversed due to the situation of war.

The two most essential ideals of communitarianism on which other

ideals and value depend clearly spell out the yardsticks for running the
human society to create social change. As can be gleaned from our
discussion so far, the whole discourse on communitarian ethics boils
down to the need to promote certain individual values and virtues such
as tolerance, fellow-feeling, patriotism, dedication, diligence,
selflessness, respect, temperance, fortitude and so on, for the societal
common good. The communitarian understanding of justice,
underpinned by and derivable from the communitarian sense of ethics,
seems to prove to be different from the current type of justice prevalent
in our societies. Justice as we have it now fulfills certain roles that
include safeguarding the individual‘s rights and desires, thus, giving
him some forms of compensation; sending warning signals to the
members of the society as deterrence to harmful actions to individuals
as well as the society. The methods adopted in getting justice in these
instances may only denigrate and humiliate individual persons and the
society without really achieving the purpose of reconciliation. In this
regard, what is the paramount is to derive some fulfillment that leave
others out and satisfies just a group. As distinct from this,
communitarian justice has the moral and social considerations towards
societal harmony as is main agenda. A communitarian society seeks
justice not by putting blames entirely on any party in a dispute but to
identify, whenever necessary, where both parties are both right and
wrong and show them such with the intention to reconcile them. In this
regards, both parties may be right or wrong. This reconciliation agenda
of the communitarians usually often take dimensions invoking in
people the values of tolerance and forbearance. The communitarian in
this instance does not believe in promoting ideas that can endanger the
social institutions capable of sustaining the society but to promote
things capable of ensuring their survival.

Essentially, the problem in the Delta is the failure of a communitarian

agenda directed at national reconciliation and proper national
restructuring. The vestiges of the communitarian orientation towards

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reconciliation reside in the three parties that are the major protagonists
to the Delta crises. First, the Nigeria government and the ruling and
influential elites who are strong stake holders in the Nigerian national
polity. These have all the instruments and paraphernalia of office and
the influence to ensure national reconciliation. These have for long
grapple with different methods of conflict resolution and reconciliation
in the Delta which are yet to yield the expected dividends. Second, the
Delta communities, their elites and the militants, some of whom have
very sincere motives to derive justice and ensure reconciliation. One
cannot claim that there is a trace of an orientation towards
reconciliation in some members of the Delta community who
determined not to allow peace to reign as long as they continually
benefit from the situation of violence in the Delta. Things deteriorates
with many of the Delta influential and power-thirsty elites taking
undue advantage of the people by diverting the funds meant for the
development of the region to personal coffers. Thus, for this group,
greed largely colours their thinking and beclouds them from seeing the
reality of the danger and insecurity the entire nation is subject to and
the deplorable condition of the Delta states. Lastly, the TNCs that
continually explore oil in the Delta region without real adequate
compensation for the people‘s losses over the years. The TNCs have
often been criticized and attacked for being insensitive to the plight of
the Delta people. They have also often been expected to consider the
people‘s welfare first above their own economic gains. This has,
however, already been incorporated into their programmes, especially
the CSR. According to Ifeka (2004: 144), in 2003, Shell spent $60 million
on community development to generate unemployment and calm
‗restive youths‘. This situation has been further addressed in later years.
Although, the TNCs now give some social welfare to the inhabitants of
these communities, the major crisis they have with those communities is
that they have been unable to satisfy them or respond to all their
requests. The communities consider what they have benefited from the
TNCs as quite infinitesimal compared with the dividends the TNCs
have derived for several decades from the Delta community. This
consideration has usually ruptured fresh violence in the region. Thus,
also originating fresh initiatives for peace meeting to resolve the
conflicts. The outcome of these peace meetings have usually been that
the region experiences temporary peace that regularly burst into further
more deadly violence. This volatile situation can be curbed by a sincere
and high demonstration of communitarian understanding and actions
evidencing good/cordial relationships by all these major dramatis
personae in the national struggle for justice. The evidence that the

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above three groups have in them traces of communitarian

understanding is not far-fetched. This often shows in their giving
consideration and attention to some elements that can engender
national survival. The manifestation of this is that they have usually, in
recent times, been forced into dialogue to ensure the survival of their
businesses, economies, communities and national interests. Thus, what
should have come first in national reconciliation and national
consideration unavoidably comes to the fore due to circumstances.
Thereby, staring us in the face is the reality that any national
programme that will permanently resolve the current Delta imbroglio
must have at its heart a communitarian understanding that has wide
participation and favour real humanitarian considerations among the
three parties above and most especially pacifies the aggrieved Delta
people.

The Motivations for Social Peace and Eradication of Violence in the

Delta
There have been attempts to define what peace really is. Ekanola
(2004a:1-8), in a characteristic theological manner portraying human
ontological status, makes a very useful distinction between two types of
peace: the inner peace and social peace. This distinction shows inner
tranquility as the peace within the individual and social peace as peace
brought about by good relationships between members of the same
society or community. Though Ekanola did not show the relationship
between these two types of peace, we take his distinction as a point of
departure for what we intend as to achieve in this work. The conflicts in
all human societies, including the Delta, are really the results of lack of
inner peace in the individuals originating those conflicts. The agitations
in these persons are strong indicators of absence of inner peace in them
that consequently affect the society. The cord of relationship between
the individual person and the society is so strong that they bilaterally
affect each other. According to MacIntyre (1981:124), individuals are
indefinable if separated from their societies. Persons always have their
stories narrated in relation to others in their societies. MacIntyre
essentially thinks that philosophers like Locke and Hume, engrossed in
the debates on personal identity that have run across centuries, only
succeeded in creating more futile brain-tasking puzzles. This is because
their omitting the fact that social links in individuals are the real basis
for personal identity makes the subject of how to define human identity
more traumatic and meaningless. The social links with others in the
society invoke a memory in humans and determine their historical,
social, and moral identities. Thus, every man identifies himself:

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I may justifiably be taken by others to be in the course of living

out a story that runs from my birth to my death. I am the subject
of a history that is my own and not anyone else‘s … I am
someone‘s son or daughter; someone else‘s cousin or uncle; I am
a citizen of this or that city, a member of this or that clan, that
tribe, this nation…I inherit from the past of my family, my city,
my tribe, my nation, a variety of debts, inheritances, rightful
expectations and obligations. These continue to give my life…its
own moral particularity.
MacIntyre points out that the above crucial communitarian standpoint
may warrant serious objections from the liberals who conceive of
humans as capable of the power of self-determination. He, thus, stresses
that though a human being may have the power of choice and decision
he cannot do anything to alter his social background. The fact that the
individual is in relationship with others in the society shows the
strength of his abilities to influence them to advance the society and
facilitate its peace or destabilize it and continually draw them to war.
Where there are no inner conflicts and crises the individuals are happy
enough to contribute to the successes of their societies. This inner
tranquility is what the liberals really aspire to achieve by their project of
human empowerment which unfortunately is carried to a far extreme
which is almost destroying the social fibers capable of sustaining the
society. The liberals‘ agenda, if properly situated within society-
promoting values, really possesses the qualities necessary for human
emancipation that will not neglect his ontological and spiritual aspects
and at the same time guarantee the social peace of the society.

Anta Diop (1991: 211-219) seems to understand this fact in his definition
of three factors that culminate in and guarantees man‘s cultural/
communitarian identification: the historical, linguistic, psychological
factors. According to him, to ―define …the collective personality…every
attempt…must consist of carefully studying the appropriate mode of
action on these three factors. Perfect cultural identity corresponds to the
full simultaneous presence of these factors in these individuals.‖ The
historical factor invokes in persons the historical consciousness which
ensures their cultural security and historical continuity. The linguistic
factor shows the linguistic relevance of a people that strengthens their
kinship ties while the psychological factor shows the psychic feelings
they have of the historical and linguistic ties to their societies. These
factors have been fundamental in the social struggles in most African
societies in the primitive periods as well as these modern periods. The
psychological factor in communal identity seems to be the pivot on

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which the other two rest that gives them their strength and serves as the
basis for violent or peaceful actions. The identification of the
individual‘s social and moral identities depends on his historical and
linguistic identities as affected by his psychological identity which
really can invoke in them a communal and ethnic spirit that is intolerant
of other cultures within the same socio-political arrangement. This no
doubt has a role in the events in the Delta and in creating social change.
What then is social peace? Peace is generally taken to be the absence of
conflicts. Conflicts may be violent or non violent. The non-violent
conflict is, however, very unreliable and possesses a latent incendiary
article that may later develop into full-blown violent conflict at the
slightest provocation. Ekanola (2004b: 42-52) has identified two types of
social peace: negative or minimalist and positive or maximalist
conceptions. The latter is peace as the ―absence of violence‖ while the
latter is that in which certain conditions are satisfied that guarantee the
continual emotional stability of the members of a state to forestall any
situation of crisis and violence. Ekanola proceeded by identifying and
describing three types of violence from Galtung‘s views:
Physical violence…occurs when people are hurt somatically to
the point of death. Psychological violence which includes lies,
brainwashing, threats and anything that serve to decrease mental
potentialities. The second relates to the distinction between
personal or direct violence and structural violence. The former
occurs when there is an actor who commits the violence while the
latter exists when no such actor can be identified…The third
dimension...is the distinction between latent and manifest
violence. Violence is manifest when it is observable while latent
violence is something not actually there but which can easily
come about with very little provocation or challenge.
I agree with Ekanola that a situation of peace will be devoid of these
situations of violence. From our discussion thus far, I reconcile that real
social peace is a product of a harmonious interrelationship between
members of a society which ultimately guarantees the conditions of
non-violence, favours conditions that promote the social wellbeing of as
well as ensures the inner tranquility of the members of the society. This
working definition is required to ensure peace in the Delta communities
and nudge the Nigeria state and its members to be awake to their
responsibilities and promote social peace and reconciliation in the
nation. As has been observed, the violent conflicts that have been
prevalent in the Delta societies within the last three to six decades have
incorporated the various dimension of violence listed by Ekanola. To
curb these, the nation and its members must return to prom oting and

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applying the communitarian ideals and values that once thrived in

Africa and sustained its social structures that have been jettisoned for
conflict promoting ideas.

Conclusion
This paper debated that communitarian understanding is necessary in
addressing the Niger Delta crises characterized by violent agitations
that not just threaten Nigeria‘s economy but also its peace and security.
The work examined the factors that sustained the crises for long, such
as prolonged state‘s neglect, exploitations by the oil-producing
transnational corporations and the greed of those entrusted with
solving the problems or alleviating the sufferings of the Delta people.
The people‘s perceived social injustice and inhuman treatments, based
on the identified factors, made them throw caution to the wind to fight
for their rights and existence. To find lasting solution to the Delta crises,
this paper both unearths the issues and events portraying deep injustice
in the Delta region and argued for the adoption of communitarian
values in the region and, by implication, Nigeria to ensure social peace.

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