Criminal Resistance? the Politics of Kidnapping Oil Workers
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Criminal Resistance? The Politics of Kidnapping Oil Workers Temitope B. Oriola CRIMINAL RESISTANCE? Interdisciplinary Research Series in Ethnic, Gender and Class Relations Series Editor: Biko Agozino, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia This series brings together research from a range of disciplines including criminology, cultural studies and applied social studies, focusing on experiences of ethnic, gender and class relations. In particular, the series examines the treatment of marginalized groups within the social systems for criminal justice, education, health, employment and welfare. Also published in this series Apartheid Vertigo The Rise in Discrimination Against Africans in South Africa David M. Matsinhe ISBN 978-1-4094-2619-6 Reconstructing Law and Justice in a Postcolony Nọnso Okafọ ISBN 978-0-7546-4784-3 Policing and Crime Control in Post-apartheid South Africa Anne-Marie Singh ISBN 978-0-7546-4457-6 W.E.B. Du Bois on Crime and Justice Shaun L. Gabbidon ISBN 978-0-7546-4956-4 Democratic Policing in Transitional and Developing Countries Edited by Nathan Pino and Michael D. Wiatrowski ISBN 978-0-7546-4719-5 Criminal Resistance? The Politics of Kidnapping Oil Workers TEMitope B. OriOla University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA © Temitope B. Oriola 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Temitope B. Oriola has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East 110 Cherry Street Union road Suite 3-1 Farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818 Surrey, GU9 7PT USa England www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Oriola, Temitope B. Criminal resistance?: the politics of kidnapping oil workers. – (interdisciplinary research series in ethnic, gender and class relations) 1. Petroleum industry and trade—Political aspects—Nigeria—Niger river Delta. 2.insurgency—Nigeria—Niger river Delta. 3. Oil industry workers—Crimes against— Nigeria— Niger river Delta. 4. Political kidnapping—Nigeria—Niger river Delta. 5. Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Organization) I. Title II. Series 322.4’2’09669-dc23 The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Oriola, Temitope B. Criminal resistance?: the politics of kidnapping oil workers/by Temitope B. Oriola. pages cm. — (interdisciplinary research series in ethnic, gender and class relations) Includes bibliographical references and index. iSBN 978-1-4094-4991-1 (hardback : alk. paper) — iSBN 978-1-4094-4992-8 (ebook) — iSBN 978-1-4724-0195-3 (epub) 1. Kidnapping—Political aspects—Nigeria. 2. Petroleum industry and trade—Political aspects—Nigeria. 3. Political violence—Nigeria. 4. Nigeria— Politics and government—1960– i. Title. HV6604.N6O75 2013 364.15’409669—dc23 2012043456 iSBN 9781409449911 (hbk) iSBN 9781409449928 (ebk – PDF) iSBN 9781472401953 (ebk – ePUB) IV For Pa Isaac Oriola. Ó dàbò o (goodbye) This page has been left blank intentionally Contents Foreword ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xv 1 “Dénouement” as Introduction 1 2 Kidnapping as “Public Good”: The Actors, Social Benefits and Harms of Nigeria’s Oil Insurgency 23 3 Criminal Resistance? Interrogating Political Kidnapping 49 4 Car Bombing “with due respect”: The Idea called MEND 83 5 Framing the MEND Insurgency 129 6 Master Frames in the MEND Insurgency 149 7 A Repertoire of Protest or Criminal Expropriation? 181 8 Summary and Conclusions 191 References 201 Index 231 This page has been left blank intentionally Foreword by Patrick Bond Professor of Political Economy University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa What is the nature of the often successful—albeit momentary—armed resistance to the world’s largest transnational oil corporations, in what is probably the most extreme case of eco-social exploitation on Earth? Does violence waged as a struggle tactic in the Niger Delta correspond to historical traditions of Maoist or Guevaraist guerrilla movements, to African nationalist armed struggle, and to Fanon’s considerations of anti-colonial violence? Or is there something so unique here, that a profound, fresh scholarship drawing on diverse local and global insights is required? Temitope Oriola’s concept of a ‘Resource Frustration’ trajectory is based upon his arguments about how ‘social banditry’ emerged in the Niger Delta. This book is a healthy corrective to the romanticized non-violence fetish of much social movement scholarship as well as that of solidarity movements which arose to support Ken Saro-Wiwa’s heroic fight against pollution and underdevelopment of the Ogoni people a quarter century ago. In part because of his tasteful stylistic approach, as well as the extremely rich information and his synthetic capacity, Oriola has produced amongst the finest works yet in the tradition of socio- political framing narratives. This book is, therefore, a vital addition to academic understandings of the Delta conflict, but much more, it offers lessons to anyone interested in Nigeria, Delta solidarity, the oil and security sectors, social movement mobilisation, and environmental justice strategies and tactics. Writing properly about this controversial subject requires not only a sophisticated politics, but also strong background analysis of conditions that led to widespread discontent. Oriola’s contribution to knowledge is understanding kidnapping as a pressure tactic not only in terms of criminology but as a sociological phenomenon in a power struggle between communities and state/capital. It is a highly innovative approach to an otherwise well-researched region of the world. The crucial challenge is to consider how far the kidnappers of various factions of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) degenerated into opportunistic activity, in contrast to politically-‘liberatory’ kidnapping. This is exceptionally complicated given claims and counter-claims. Divisions are rife amongst MEND constituencies and between MEND and various civil society organisations, not to mention state and capital. Opportunistic kidnapping is discredited because of the activities of those seeking merely financial reward, and x Criminal Resistance? other resistance tactics—oil bunkering and pipeline sabotage, for example—are similarly fraught given the collateral damage including explosions and ecological devastation. The weapons of the weak are blunt and often face inward. Why, then, does frustration with the Resource Curse generate such tactics? To get as deep as he does with this study, Oriola first covers international debates on violent/nonviolent social change, followed by a chronological perspective on MEND’s development. He then offers a strong narrative focus on the ‘framing apparatus’ based on rare interviews and focus group discussions, access to exclusive emails, close readings of statements available on the internet, and dissection of official documents. To this balanced assessment of primary data, he adds media coverage and applies sophisticated discourse analysis. The theory he deploys successfully fuses political process framing analysis, the resource mobilization thesis and political opportunity perspectives. It works well, given how many diverse and contradictory factors must be subsumed into the argument. Oriola’s is a complicated conclusion, namely that a combination of ‘benevolent leadership’ of MEND forces, plus the mix of openness and closedness in terms of Nigerian official avenues for expressing grievances meant kidnapping was a logical and often effective route for the most militant Delta activists. Diagnostic, prognostic and motivational framing strategies were deployed by MEND in order to gain support and a more universal understanding of the affected communities’ grievances. He skilfully explores a variety of factors feeding into those grievances: slavery and colonialism (and their legacies of violence), ethnicism and divide-and- conquer politics, the ineffectual character of non-violent resistance, opportunistic political entrepreneurship and corruption, notable instances of political repression, race and class divides, truncated opportunities for accumulation outside oil, ways oil companies and other business agents react and adapt, media coverage, anonymity and organisational fluidity, popular support for the insurgency, geographic terrain (creeks), religious and spiritual traditions, the roles of key individual leaders, gender relations, rhetorical skills, and North-South divisions within Nigeria, amongst others. From this comprehensive treatment we learn how kidnapping as a tactic developed from decades-old practices of community confrontations with oil companies. We see more clearly why the success of the tactic—especially in times when some MEND kidnap victims evinced a degree of Stockholm Syndrome in which they sympathized with their captors—led to its undermining: criminally- oriented hijackings increased after 2003. And this leads to further questions about what tactics logically follow, and how MEND and successor organisations will adjust their political framings. The limits of the kidnapping tactic also require strategic and analytical adjustments, because it is logical to move from a classical Not In My Back Yard perspective to broader Resource Curse critiques,