War On Crude Oil Bunkering, "Friendship" With Solid Minerals Mining: Is Nigeria a Double-Faced State?

Abstract

Nigeria’s extractive economy is marked by a striking paradox: a militarised “war” on crude-oil bunkering in the Niger Delta unfolds alongside the state’s permissive stance toward the illicit solid-mineral mining in the North and Middle Belt. To unpack this contradiction, the study adopts a political ecology lens and a qualitative research design that is anchored in documentary and content analysis. The study utilized secondary data drawn from scholarly publications, government reports, policy briefs and credible media investigations, allowing for a critical interrogation of the narratives and silences that shape state responses to extractive activities. Findings reveal that selective governance in Nigeria is not a matter of weak institutional capacity but rather an intentional strategy of elite capture. Federal authorities deploy coercion and militarised violence when crude-oil revenues are threatened, yet tolerate and in some cases profit from informal solid-mineral extraction that sustains northern and central patronage networks. This asymmetric enforcement produces a geography of environmental injustice: oil-polluted creeks and devastated livelihoods in the Niger Delta on one hand and lead-poisoned mining communities in the North on the other. Beyond the ecological damage, the double standard normalises youth involvement in criminalised livelihoods, deepens regional grievances, erodes public trust in state institutions, and threatens federal cohesion. The article argues that such institutional hypocrisy inflates the long-term costs of environmental remediation and perpetuates inequitable resource politics. It concludes by recommending constitutional revenue reform, uniform environmental enforcement, transparency mandates, and community-centred remediation measures as essential steps toward transforming Nigeria from a “double-faced” to an equitable, accountable resource polity.