Contributions of post-Saro-Wiwa NGO-led activism to environmental/energy justice and transition in the Niger Delta

Governmental regimes of various stripes in Nigeria have promoted the idea of economic diversification from oil dependency to manufacturing and renewable energy sufficiency. Unfortunately, the energy transition has remained a policy on paper because of entrenched political and economic interests. Transitioning to renewables is one of the ways of ending environmental degradation/pollution and responding to civil society agitations for resource control, where resistance has developed into public demonstrations as responses to capitalist oil extractivism. The objective of this study is to examine the contributions of environmental non-governmental organizations to environmental advocacy and activism for justice, and renewable energy infrastructure provision in the Niger Delta, after the death of Saro-Wiwa. We adopted a mixed-method design: quantitative data collection from websites of selected organizations and eighteen qualitative interviews with community actors and representatives of ENGOs in Edo, Ondo, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers states in the Niger Delta. Solar energy provision dominates renewable energy projects, and governments and private industries have implemented more renewable energy projects than ENGOs and their funders. Findings show that ENGOs appear comparatively weak in renewable energy infrastructure provision, without the active agency of the state. Notwithstanding, ENGOs remain important contributors to environmental justice and to procedural, recognition and restorative dimensions of energy justice. Building on the data analysis, we therefore argue that transformations in environmental and energy justice in the Niger Delta will benefit from the active agency of government, coupled with monitoring and advocacy by ENGOs and their international networks.