Godwin (Ife) Aka Social Science
Resource Conflict: Oil and the Nigerian Youth
Haas Scholar Program: The struggle of the Niger Delta people has been widely documented. The years of oil spills, unequal distribution of oil wealth, and marginalization of the people of this region both by the Nigerian state and the multinational oil companies, is known very well to those interested in this area. Because of the documentation of these conditions, academics who study this region often attribute the uprising that have emerged in the Niger Delta to some form of deprivation without studying these movements. My research explores why the Ogoni Movement of the 90s, and the militant movements of 2005-2009, occurred at the specific times that they did.
Major: Political Science
Mentor: Mentor: Professor M. Steven Fish, Political Science; Professor G. Ugo Nwokeji, African American Studies