Udogbo, Samuel Terwase
(2021)
An Exploration of the Ogoni People’s Resistance in Nigeria:
A Participatory Action Research Approach.
PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Abstract
This thesis focuses on the Ogoni minority ethnic group in Rivers State, which forms part of
the Eastern Niger Delta, Nigeria. It explores the Ogoni people’s struggle for survival by
tracing the problems of the Ogoni to British colonial rule and its political effect on the
minority groups in Nigeria and the post-colonial reality of maintaining equality between the
majority ethnic groups and underprivileged minorities as the Ogoni people. The thesis
explores the Ogoni’s protest against Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and the
Nigerian government challenging the environmental degradation of their lands, and the
reason behind the socio-economic and political marginalization of the people since the
inception of oil extraction of oil and gas in 1958. The rights of Ogoni people to political and
economic self-determination which they claim as their legal right and fair entitlements to
proceeds of natural resources located within Ogoniland are key factors to the Ogoni struggle.
The contribution of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People- MOSOP (as agency
in this context) to achieve Ogoni self-rule within Nigeria is germane. Though a nonviolent
movement, it continues to face the state’s violent reaction against the entire Ogoni people -
the climax being the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa (founder of MOSOP) and eight other
Ogoni activists in 1995. The thesis draws heavily on Marxism and social movement studies;
the idea of social movement from below pursued by grassroots groups who through locally-
generated skills seek to challenge dominant structure of oppression. Rather than mainstream
social movement theory, the research adopts movement relevant theory, which relies on
activists’ experience to explain the everyday struggles of the Ogoni people; how their
collective nonviolent approach contributes to their fight for justice. To serve as an example to
the Ogoni struggle, the thesis discusses the principled and pragmatic nonviolent paradigms of
Mahatma Gandhi and Gene Sharp respectively. The research adopts a Participatory Action
Research (PAR) methodology and draws on 33 qualitative semi-structured and focus group
interviews and 9 participant observations across 5 kingdoms of Ogoni within the period of 5
months (plus 2 months of pilot). It includes a partially gendered-balanced cohort of
individual Ogoni youth, students, activists, farmers, graduates, chiefs and those living in the
city. The thesis is based entirely on primary material. Given the centrality of PAR, the
research reflects on the PAR learning cycle; the iterative and participative action process that
highlights the research constraints and provides an understanding as regards the research
context. Apart from the academic knowledge gained, the egalitarian, iterative and relatively
open-ended, sometimes serendipitous (Rudman et al. 2018) PAR process was beneficial for
the Ogoni participants. As the research findings show, though the Ogoni’s struggles seems
stalled, their campaigns against Shell and the Nigerian State continues. The research is a
learning process for the Ogonis and myself; hence it concludes with the recommendation to
take the study further until justice is achieved.
| Item Type: |
Thesis
(PhD)
|
| Keywords: |
Ogoni People’s Resistance; Nigeria; Participatory Action Research Approach; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
| Item ID: |
14945 |
| Depositing User: |
IR eTheses
|
| Date Deposited: |
19 Oct 2021 15:46 |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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