Abstract

This paper offers a new and broader look at the violent agitation and domestic terrorism in the region highlights the missing link in previous studies and fills this gap in literature. Premised on projections and analysis based on experiential knowledge of facts on ground, this paper analyzes and explains the Niger Delta crisis within the Frustration-Aggression theory and argue that frustration is the bane of the recurrent violence in the region. This paper argues that most of the circumstances that generate the frustration and anger that degenerate into murderous militancy in the region is founded on a sense of injustice and also premised on the claim that the Nigerian state has continued to ignore the preceding factors, environmental security and infrastructural developmental issues that sparked the conflict in the first place.

Key words: Militancy, corruption, terrorism, Niger Delta, Nigeria, political leadership, security threat, Gulf of Guinea, MEND, frustration-aggression theory.