The Niger Delta region of Nigeria has, since the 1970s, been engulfed by oil-related conflicts that have passed through different phases. The transformation of the conflict from one phase to another, despite development interventions by the Nigerian government, has elicited the concern of scholars and researchers who have engaged in an exciting debate on the challenges and opportunities for development in the region. The focus on development in conflict resolution is informed by the centrality of development to the conflict in the region. Thus, Niger Delta: Constraints and Pathways to Development explores the complex constraints and pathways to development in the region. Divided into eight chapters, and writing from the perspectives of the environment and sustainable development, good governance, public expenditure, public policy and participatory community development, the book attempts to explain and bring to the fore, the challenges to and options for development.

This book provides a Biblical and theological underpinning to the concept of ethnic liberation in Nigeria. It argues that the present economic, political, ethnic and religious structure of Nigeria represents injustice and oppression to those in the so-called “minority groups”. The situation has resulted in division, unrest and mutual suspicion among people of different ethnicities and religions. Bringing together liberation theology, biblical hermeneutical and social studies to foster dialogue between theories and human relations in Nigeria, the book presents an exegesis of Galatians 3:26-29, weaving out a theology of ethnic liberation. As such, it will be useful to theologians, students of religious studies and philosophy, and political historians, as well as the general reader interested in African studies.