Natural Resources and Armed Conflict: Analyzing Nigeria’s Experience

Abstract

Throughout the 1990s many separatist and rebel groups in Africa and Asia relied on fund 
obtained from the sale of illicit mineral resources such as gold and diamond to finance their 
violent activities. Natural resources did not only finance some of the most brutal armed 
conflicts in Africa but in many cases motivated and sustain them longer than necessary. 
Nigeria is historically one of Africa’s countries where natural resources have fuel some 
of the deadliest armed conflict in the continent since 1960s. This paper analyses the role 
of natural resources in armed conflict and critically reviewed the existing literature and 
theories on the relationship between natural resources and armed conflicts, as well as 
historical processes in which they are embedded. Although such relationship is analyzed 
through historical lenses, a particular emphasis was placed on the link between current 
banditry and terrorism ravaging the North-West and abundant natural resources found in 
the area. It was concluded through a critical analysis that natural resources have been a 
curse to Nigeria and have played a significant role in motivating, igniting, financing and 
sustaining various armed conflicts in the country, including the current banditry and 
terrorism ravaging the North-West and North-Central regions of the country. It was 
recommended among other that the current legislation guiding the operation of the mining 
sector should be reviewed to give the states and local communities where such resources 
are found a sense of inclusivity and ownership which make them protective of such 
resources. The federal government should also take concrete steps towards modernizing the 
sector to meet the global standards and greater transparency and accountability should be 
entrenched in managing the country’s natural resources.