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As highlighted above, the fall of the region actually occurred at the point when the Niger Delta people, who once had been known for the export of slaves (acting as middlemen) and were also famous for the export of palm oil, became subjugated by the British imperialists through deceptive treaties and through divide and rule tactics. In 1900, Sir Fredrick Lugard, who assumed the position of the high commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, ruled the North through indirect rule using the defeated rulers. Having ostensibly succeeded in achieving this in the North, he proceeded to the Southern part of Nigeria to do the same

(Palmer 1958). To implement his indirect rule, present day Nigeria was divided into three regions: Northern region, Western region and Eastern region. This newly imposed artificial structure set the stage for ethnic divisions and politics, including the agitation of ethnic minorities against perceived ethnic majority domination. As part of Lord Luggard’s strategy, in 1906 the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria and the Colony of Lagos amalgamated to form the Colony of Southern Nigeria. By 1914, the British effected the amalgamation of the colonies of southern and northern Nigeria to form the British Colony of Nigeria. Research marked this as the period when the Niger Delta communities lost their identity as separate political entities, having being subsumed by the majority tribes (Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba).

Furthermore, Lugard took steps to institute a uniform tax structure, based upon the traditional system that he had adopted in the North during his tenure. By 1929, there was general unhappiness with Britain’s heavy-handed methods and its growing intrusiveness into ethnic life. Within a few years, warrant chiefs who were leaders from the various communities appointed by the Colonial masters became increasingly oppressive. They seized property, imposed draconian local regulations and began imprisoning anyone who openly criticized them. Although much of the anger was directed against the warrant chiefs, most Nigerians knew the source of their power, the British Colonial administrators (Afigbo 1972; Adegbulu 2011:1).

Colonial administrators added to the local sense of grievance when they announced plans to impose special taxes on the Igbo market women. These women were responsible for supplying food to the growing urban populations of Calabar, Owerri and other Nigerian cities. They feared the taxes would drive many of the market women out of business and seriously disrupt the supply of food and non-perishable goods available to the populace. In November of 1929, thousands of Igbo women congregated at the Native Administration centres in Calabar and Owerri as well as other smaller towns to protest against both the

warrant chiefs and the taxes on the market women (Allen 1971). The British government’s reaction to the protest was brutal; more than fifty women were killed by British troops, who fired on crowds of demonstrating women at Opobo, Utu Etim, Akpo, and Abak (O’Neill 2007).

The brutality of the British Colonialists did not in any way deter the Niger Delta people, and the struggle continued with the demand for the creation of their own State out of the Eastern region (Agbese 2002). In the period of 1929 to 1935, the formation of ethnic and kinship organizations increased in the form of tribal unions. These organizations were primarily urban phenomena, made up of the large numbers of rural migrants that had moved to the cities. Alienated by the anonymity of the urban environment and drawn together both by ties to their ethnic homelands as well as by the mutual need for aid, the new city dwellers formed local clubs that later expanded into federations covering whole regions.

By the mid-1940’s, the major ethnic groups had formed such associations as the Igbo Federal Union and the Egbe Omo Oduduwa (Society of the Descendants of Oduduwa), a Yoruba cultural movement. The rapid growth of organized labour in the 1940s also brought new political forces into play. Three constitutions were enacted from 1946 to 1954 (Richardson Constitution, Macpherson Constitution and the Lyttleton Constitution) that were themselves subjects of considerable political controversy, but that inevitably moved the country toward greater internal autonomy, with an increasing role for political parties. Ethnic cleavages intensified in the 1950s. Political activists in the southern areas spoke of self-government in terms of educational opportunities and economic development. The preparation of a new federal constitution for an independent Nigeria was carried out at conferences held at Lancaster House in London in 1957 and 1958, presided over by The Rt. Hon. Alan Lennox-Boyd, M.P. and the British Secretary of State for the Colonies (Palmer 1958). Nigerian delegates were selected to represent each region and to reflect various shades of opinion. As the tempo of the struggle heightened, the Rivers State Chiefs and

People’s Conference (RCPC) was formed on 4 July 1956 to strengthen the clamour for the emancipation of the Niger Delta. In 1957, it received an invitation from the Colonial Office in London in 1957 to present its case for the creation of its own State. However, their hopes were dashed as the conference, rather than acceding to their demands, decided to refer them to a special commission called the Willink’s commission headed by Sir Henry Willink to look into their grievances.

The commission found evidence of domination and other problems alleged by the minorities, and acknowledged the genuineness of their fears and anxieties, but only deemed it fit to make a number of alternative recommendations, including the constitutional entrenchment of a bill of rights and the creation of a special commission to handle the

problems of the region (Osaghae 1986). It made particular mention of the fact that the Ijaw,

the largest ethnic group in the Niger Delta, was “poor, backward and neglected” and recommended that their land be designated a “Special Area” with a federal board to “consider” its problems for ten to twelve years. It also noted that the board should consist of representatives from the then eastern and western regional governments, “preferably Ijaws,” and four representatives from “peoples of the areas.” The report took special note of the “challenges of poverty, complex ethnic rivalries and geographical barriers posed by the rivers that crisscrossed the Delta” (Nnoli 1980p 258). 

The most dramatic event to have a long-term effect on Nigeria's economic development was the discovery and exploitation of petroleum deposits. The search for oil first started in 1908 but was abandoned a few years later. Shell and British Petroleum then restarted oil exploration again in 1937. These activities were intensified in 1946, but the first commercial discovery did not occur until 1956, at Olobiri in the Niger Delta. In 1958, exportation of Nigerian oil was initiated at facilities constructed at Port Harcourt.

Nigerian oil wells producing crude oil in commercial quantities were a development that would redefine the relationship between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the peoples of

the Niger Delta. Oil income was still marginal, but the prospects for continued economic expansion appeared bright and further accentuated political rivalries on the eve of independence (see section 2.5.1 where the discovery of oil is discussed further as one of the genesis of conflict).

Although oil has brought significant expansion to Nigeria’s economy, there has been no structural development in the areas where it is was found and exploited. Promises made to host communities have turned out to be mere rhetoric, for several decades after, they are yet to be fulfilled, with no hospital, no school, no maternity, no industries, no water, and none of the basic essentials of life have been provided for their use (Enogholase 2000).