The Colonial Roots of Crime and Conflict in the Niger Delta in the Context of the Illicit Economies

This chapter explores the historical and institutional foundations of illicit economies in the Niger Delta, focusing on how colonial-era transformations disrupted indigenous systems of governance, resource control, and socio-economic organization. By tracing the shift from precolonial decentralized chiefdoms to extractive colonial regimes, the paper demonstrates how the disintegration of local economic autonomy—combined with the establishment of centralized, exclusionary governance—created fertile ground for informal and illicit economic practices. During colonial rule, British indirect governance undermined traditional authorities, commodified land and natural resources, and prioritized imperial economic interests over local development. These practices fractured community control over trade, water routes, and land, marginalizing local actors and fostering informal coping mechanisms. In the postcolonial era, the legacies of this system persisted: underdevelopment, state neglect, and militarized resource extraction encouraged the rise of armed groups, bunkering networks, and alternative governance structures. The article situates these dynamics within a historical institutionalist perspective, arguing that illicit economies are not merely a byproduct of contemporary state weakness, but a consequence of enduring colonial patterns of inward extraction and outward neglect. Thus, the Niger Delta’s illicit economy should be understood as an adaptive response to historical disempowerment, institutional erosion, and the uneven geography of petro-capitalism. *CORRIGENDUM on final page*