Abstract
Nigeria’s oil economy has the potential to transform significantly the living conditions of minority groups in the Niger Delta region. Paradoxically, however, six decades of oil extraction in Nigeria has brought unprecedented prosperity to multinational corporations and a tiny indigenous elite while millions of citizens in communities with an abundance of oil wealth lack good roads, electricity, clean water, health facilities, high-quality schools and economic opportunities. The cumulative effects of oil extraction on the environment and poverty have been a source of long-standing discontent among ethnic minorities, whose agitation for resource control and environmental justice was initially expressed through non-violent