The Niger Delta Insurgency

Readers accused the nation's rulers of setting the stage for petro-turmoil by lining their pockets and exploiting the locals, thus depriving them of a share in the profits — and of hope for a better future

"Nigeria's deadly delta" [May 22] reported on the nascent insurgency in Nigeria's oil fields. The pervasive optimism that spread along with the re-emergence of democracy in Nigeria has been defeated. Poverty and corruption are still concomitant with Nigeria's struggling democracy, and unfortunately ethnopolitical opportunists have exploited the status quo for economic gains, as the Niger Delta crisis has illustrated. While politicians seem...