This article examines the challenge of democracy and development in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, using the example of Delta State, 1999-2014. Against the backdrop of an expansive literature on the region’s state of decay, poverty, and conspiracy between the Federal Government of Nigeria and MNOCs to deny the Niger Delta of the benefits of its God-given oil resources, with attendant insurgency, this micro study cautions against the pitfalls of sweeping generalization. Adopting the critical, evaluative method of contemporary history, built on secondary sources, this work is significant in drawing attention to the manipulation and diversion of insurgency initially directed against the local elite by an aggrieved community to achieve political relevance and primitive accumulation by the former, who failed to judiciously and transparently utilize the huge sums of money from statutory allocation and donor agencies to transform the state. The paper calls for a review of the conventional wisdom on the subject
Keywords: Contemporary Nigeria, Corruption, Democratic governance, Development, Niger Delta problem, Resource curse
