Description
The 2009 amnesty offer to militant groups in the Niger Delta by the government of Nigeria following three decades of oil-related conflict seem to have achieved relative peace. However, a recent resurgence of oil insurgency raises questions about the consultation and inclusiveness of local agency in the peace processes, and the sustainability of the amnesty as a conflict resolution mechanism. This paper analyzes the amnesty policy from the conceptual lens of ‘the everyday’. It contributes to the broader study of peace and conflict, and unpacks the utility of ‘the local’, ‘bottom-up’, and ‘agency’ in conflict-affected societies. It interrogates the local narratives and everyday perception of what ought to constitute the peace measures of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP). The paper draws upon empirical evidence from a qualitative field research that involved the use of semi-structured and in-depth interviews of the conflict actors and stakeholders in three selected states (Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers) of the Niger Delta. The paper argues that the government’s focus on the PAP from a top-bottom approach to peace is unsustainable without local determinants and ownership of the peace process. It concludes that beyond the amnesty, the government should rethink its conflict transformation strategy from the primacy of the state as the sole referent to one that engages the everyday peace narratives of the local people as a panacea to sustainable peacebuilding.
