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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Ogini Uprising: Oil Politics, Minority Agitation and the Future of the Nigerian State |
Author: | Osaghae, Eghosa E. |
Year: | 1995 |
Periodical: | African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society |
Volume: | 94 |
Issue: | 376 |
Period: | July |
Pages: | 325-344 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Nigeria |
Subjects: | Ogoni minority groups rebellions Ethnic and Race Relations Politics and Government |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/723402 |
Abstract: | The uprising of the Ogoni in the Niger Delta of Rivers State, Nigeria, in the early 1990s was a significant landmark in the struggles by oil-producing minorities in the country to enjoy greater benefits from their exploited resources and to redress their marginalization from State power. This article examines the reasons why the Ogoni embarked on asserting the right to self-determination and the struggle to back it up, the nature of the struggle, the response of the Nigerian State, and the implications of the Ogoni situation for the larger issues of minority politics, the national question and the future of the Nigerian federation. It shows that the Ogoni uprising was not an isolated episode. It was part of a wider awakening of the civil society which not only led to a vigorous challenge of the overbearing power of the State but also placed fundamental questions of the nature of State power and the basis of the Nigerian federation on the political agenda. Within this context, the more far-reaching implications of the Ogoni episode for Nigerian politics lie in the articulation of some of the major sources of stress in the federation which are summarized in the concept of the 'national question'. Notes, ref. |