With a population of about 40 million people, the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, comprises of several minority ethnic groups and is Nigeria’s oil and gas belt, and host to the nation’s crude oil and gas reserves and exploitation infrastructure. This is also Africa’s largest wetland with extensive lowlands, swamps, estuaries, creeks and rivers. In spite of its resource endowment, the region has been plagued by development neglect, trickle natural resource benefits, and marginality in political representation and the oil economy. The oil and gas infrastructure has led to extensive environmental degradation, destruction of livelihood sources, socio-economic disruptions and extensive poverty. The overall objective of the study is to critically interrogate the amnesty and the political settlement leading to it, in terms of perceptions, discourses and conversations that under gird it; the nature of bargains, understanding and consensus constructed around it; the content and methods of the Amnesty; the nature of inclusiveness, equity, justness and gender sensitivity; the levels of legitimacy and sustainability of the settlement; the challenges of compliance, implementation and accountability, and the impacts on violence mitigation, conflict resolution, peace building and state building.
