ETHICS OF CIVILITY AS A PANACEA TO NIGER DELTA CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper reflects on the violent conflicts in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria that threaten the nation's oil-dependent mono-economy and corporate existence. The Delta region's crises caused loss of lives and properties until government granted amnesty to her militants and created the Niger Delta Ministry to take care of the peoples' agitations. While these measures have yielded some positive results, the peace in the region is marred by a resurgence of violence through activities of aggrieved militant groups that unleashed terror on the Delta communities and vandalised pipelines as they expressed dissatisfaction with the Nigerian state and the Multinational Oil Corporations. As it re-examines the immediate and remote causes of the crises, the paper adopts the methods of historical and conceptual analyses to argue for stakeholder's commitment to ethics of civility as the lasting solution. Thus, identifying social egoism as the basis of the Niger Delta crises, it argues that ethics of civility, which it perceives as the commitment to the well-being of the self, others and the environment without neglecting future generations, is a way of addressing the Niger Delta crises. By construing social egoism as the tendency of a group to act to protect its interests, it debates that the pursuit of group-interest devoid of concomitant consideration for existing and potential (future) generations, and the environment, would continue to impact negatively on crises resolution efforts and impede national peaceful co-existence if not properly addressed.