Government Policy Approach to Environmental Conflicts among the Niger Delta Communities: Implication to 2015 and Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals

The present study is focused on the public perception of government approach to the environmental challenges in the region of Niger Delta and its implication to environmentally-related conflict resolution and inclusive society. Four states were randomly selected while eight local government areas, 24 communities and 500 respondents (18+) were randomly selected for data collection. Our evaluation and analysis were focused on the public perception of the government policy approach in resolving the environmentally-related conflict in the region, support to this approach and the likelihood of youth involvement in violent agitation in the region. From our data, we pinpointed and demonstrated the weaknesses and unpopular nature of the dominant policy approach in the region as well as the latent energy of environmental conflict in the region. For policy relevance of the study, we ran a statistical cross examination on prevailing sociological issues in the region relevant to sustainable environmental and conflict resolution policy in the region. Our study established some factors relevant to inclusive society policy in achieving sustainable peace in the region such as public perception of government approach to their environmental challenges, socially-inclusive mode of consultation, age etc. in view of the strength of our data, the findings and suggestion of the study will help the Nigerian government to the threshold of people oriented and sustainable policies in dealing with the ceaseless conflict agitations in the region. The study aims to contribute in the current social scientific literature, the point of individual involvement in environmental conflict in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.