Re-Thinking Ethnic Minority, Resource Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Nigeria
Re-Thinking Ethnic Minority, Resource Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Nigeria

Summary/Abstract: Ethnic minority agitations over resource rights has been one of the most persistent andcontroversial problems in Nigerian politics since pre-independence. As a dynamic and transitionalphenomenon rather than a static and permanent feature of the Nigerian political landscape, ethnicminority and resource rights agitations over the years have undergone substantial changes in Nigeria’spolitics. Using the secondary data, this study critically examines the origins, nature and trends ofethnic minority and resource rights agitations. It locates ethnic minority and resource rights as a preindependenceissue that was exacerbated by post-independence politics. The study concludes that thesolution to ethnic minority agitations lays not so much in the creation of more states as it has beenpreviously done but in the entrenchment of social or distributive justice. Similarly, the solution toresource rights lies not in incessant change of revenue allocation formulas but in liberalizing thegovernance of natural resources. Finally, the study suggests the use of the term”resource rights” ratherthan”resource control” to better situates the gamut of rights of the Nigerian people.

• Details
• Contents