Abstract:
In history, self-determination efforts have in most cases been pursued through various forms of
protests, characterized by conflicts and crises that in most cases, lead to out-break of hostilities and
civil wars, when oppressed people rise up against their perceived oppressors.
Protests are used to express the desire for freedom, justice, equity, emancipation, self-actualization,
independence, and self-determination among others. Isaac AdakaBoro's 12 day revolution executed
on behalf of the Ijaws of Niger Delta was to secure freedom for them from the socio-economic and
political injustice there were under. This chapter examines AdakaBoro's 12 day revolution as an
instrument for self-determination in the Niger Delta and compares it to the recent militant protests.
The chapter concludes by showing that while Boro's revolution which was unarguably the precursor
of the recent protests in the Niger Delta, can be viewed through the prism of self-determination and
economic justice, the recent protests cannot be so viewed. The protests of the last one and half
decades are a mixed-bag of self-determination, resource control, and largely, pecuniary motives
evidenced by the pay offs of the amnesty program. |
