The US Involvement in Niger-Delta Crisis: Implications for National Security in Nigeria

The oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria has been engulfed in conflicts for a very long time. Since the early 1990s, environmental activist groups led Ken Saro-Wiwa, women, and youth have embarked on peaceful and violent campaigns against the Nigerian state, and oil majors in the region. These attacks led to shutdown of oil production which affected the state revenue and global oil supply before the granting of amnesty by the Federal Government to militant in the region in 2009. This paper examines the nature and trends of the crisis, youth militancy, United States responses and its implication for national security in the country. The paper reveals that the crisis has taken a new dimension since the emergence of the movement for the emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) in 2005. Despite efforts put in place by successive governments to resolve the crisis through military means and other policy measures, they have not yielded the desired results. The paper further reveals that United States responses to the crisis by providing Nigeria with military assistance (arms and weapon sales) are meant to protect oil installations. In the region thus, African command (AFRICOM) which became fully operational on the 1^st of October 2008, is Washington's major platform for protecting oil and other natural resources in the sub-region.