SUMMARY
The southern region of Nigeria, and especially the delta area, is where the crude oil that constitutes a substantial amount of the Nigerian revenues is located. The fact that the oil and the subsequent incomes that can be extracted from it are concentrated in this area has led to several violent episodes between ethnic groups contesting the ownership of land in and around the oil-rich delta area. The issue was further complicated since the inception of the civilian government in 1999. This led to several new actors and possibilities of organizing in order to enhance their political power. The fragile political system with weak institutions and a high level of corruption created a situation where political power became the easiest means of capital accumulation. Given these conditions, several groups mobilized and formed interest groups speaking on behalf of the ethnic group. This polarized the already fragile relations in the southern parts of Nigeria and led to a situation where contested ownership of land, taxation of land, or even number of employees at the oil facilities were all potential conflict issues.
The other dyads that belong to the same Southern land ownership cluster of non-state conflicts are; Adoni – Ogoni, Aguleri – Umuleri, Ijaw – Ilaje, Ogoni – Ndoki, Okrika – Eleme, Okrika – Ogoni”, Urhobo, Ijaw – Itsekiri and NDPVF – NDV.
The relationship of the Ijaw and the Itsekiri, two ethnic groups based in the Niger Delta, has a long history of tension and there have been repeated violent clashes between the two groups. The non-state conflict has both ethnic, political, and economic dimensions.
The Ijaw, an ethnic community with millions of members, and the significantly smaller Itsekiri group have been competing for resources and power in the Warri region for decades. Both groups, as well as a third ethnic group, the Urhobo, have claimed to be the original inhabitants and rightful rulers of Warri. The dominance of Itsekiri in local government institutions has been resented by the Ijaw, and led to clashes over how electoral ward boundaries should be drawn. Meanwhile, Warri is the second most important oil town in Nigeria, and much of the conflict has concerned access to oil revenues, through both legitimate (through political power) and illegitimate (control of oil theft rackets) means.
The Ijaw have claimed that the Itsekiri have unfairly used the influence that they had accumulated as middle-men for Europeans during the colonial era to gain a dominant position in the local government structure in the Warri region. After the discovery of oil, companies had reached agreements only with the Olu of Warri, the Itsekiri leader of the region, depriving other communities of benefits. The Ijaw argued that they had lived in the region as long as the Itsekiri and wanted more communities to enjoy the profitable "host community status" with the oil firms.
The Ijaw - Itsekiri conflict must also be viewed in the broader spectrum of the ethnic and religious non-state conflicts that have ravaged Nigeria in the past and intensified with the end of military rule, from 1999 and onwards. The conflicts throughout Nigeria have ethnic, political, economic, and religious components, which have become inextricably linked over time, pitting various groups and alliances of groups against each other along different dividing lines.
In the non-state conflict between the Ijaw and the Itsekiri, both groups have relied on loosely organized groupings to carry out violence against each other. However, in the clashes in 2003, the Ijaw organization FNDIC (Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities) took part in the fighting on the side of the Ijaw, the Itsekiri also deployed armed militia groupings in the clashes 2003.
In September 2004, the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo visited the area and talked to several leaders of the ethnic militias. While he did not change any electoral ward boundaries, several key Ijaw and Itsekiri militants were appointed to state and local government positions in 2004. In 2006, the federal government reserved a block drilling license for the members of the Ijaw FNDIC that had also been involved in the non-state conflict.
The non-state conflict between Ijaw and Itsekiri is first included in UCDP data in 1997. In April that year clashes between the groups resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
