Maritime Piracy and Socio-Economic Development in the Niger Delta Zone

The socio-economic development of third world countries of Africa, have been impeded by plethora of criminal activities and corrupt practices by both the governed and the governors as well as non-state actors operating within those climes. The criminal activities range from banditry, militancy, crude oil bunkering, through to illegal mining, kidnapping, maritime piracy and several others. This paper examined maritime piracy and socio-economic development in the Niger Delta zone of Nigeria. The Structural Conflict Theory was adopted as theoretical framework. The mixed research approach was employed as a strategy for collecting and analyzing data for the study. Sample size for the study was 400 respondents derived from a population size of 44,112,908 through the use of the Taro Yamene formula. The main instrument for data collection was a 4-point modified Likert scale questionnaire which was supplemented with information gleaned from secondary sources such as books and other textual materials. Collected data were analyzed via the use of simple statistics, while the single hypothesis which guided the study was tested using the chi-square. Amongst others; the revealed that, maritime piracy attacks have led to economic stagnation, environmental degradation, loss of lives and property, and this have impugned on the socio-economic development of the Niger-Delta zone. Accordingly, the paper recommends amongst others; that the government and it’s concerned agencies should strengthen anti-maritime piracy laws and forge a collaborative coordinated strategies with its neighbouring countries on how to tackle maritime piracy with the view to reducing or possibly eliminating its incidences in the waterways. This will help to not only restore economic sanity but also strengthen the nation’s internal security