APCJ_1528_Win2010_00i_122_4 12/30/10 3:22 PM Page 34 34 AFRICA PEACE AND CONFLICT JOURNAL Niger Delta is conceptually and theoretically embryonic.8 The basic, underlying assumption is that oil and politics contribute to killing behaviours in the Niger Delta. As such, a process of transition from killing to nonkilling is needed to build a nonkilling political economy of oil to give new shape to the conflict between the government and oil companies and local justice and environmental groups in the region. NONKILLING THEORY Nonkilling theory is a relatively new conceptual framework advanced by Glenn D. Paige.9 According to Paige, nonkilling society is ‘a human community, smallest to largest, local to global, characterized by no killing of humans and no threats to kill; no weapons designed to kill humans and no justifications for using them; and no conditions of society dependent upon threat or use of killing force for maintenance or change’.10 A nonkilling society cannot be the result of force or terror; such a society would not have military industrial structures for manufacturing weapons. Paige argues that extant structures of society do not require lethality for change or maintenance. The premise for this formulation is to challenge the age-old belief that lethality is inevitable in human relations. Page insists that a nonkilling global society is indeed possible and in part cites the following as grounds for his position: • It is widely accepted that humans have potential for killing and nonkilling, and despite the ability and opportunity to kill, most humans have not killed other humans and are not likely to become killers. • Some social institutions have already demonstrated a capacity for making contributions towards realising a nonkilling society that if properly appropriated and supported could contribute even further to such a society emerging. • Given existing knowledge and evidence of the causes of killing and nonkilling, as well as factors responsible for the transition from killing to nonkilling, the various social, economic, psychological, and biological explanations for a nonkilling society promise ‘nonkilling transformative intervention’.11 Paige provides empirical evidence of places with characteristics of nonkilling societies and institutions to buttress his conviction that lethality can be overcome. He notes forty-seven societies around the world with experience in nonkilling. By 2001, there were twenty-seven countries without standing armies.12 8. Data were gathered for this analysis from textual materials and key informant interviews with members of youth, justice, and environmental groups, traditional rulers, staff of oil companies, the political class, and government leaders in the Niger Delta. The growing literature on the area provided a rich source of information. The quota sampling technique was adopted to determine the sample size of the populations to be interviewed and to ensure the inclusion of different strata of actors in the Niger Delta conflict. Two members of each of the above-mentioned groups were interviewed, for a total of twelve. Within each group, participants were selected for the simple reason of ensuring different perspectives. Additional interviews were conducted in the Port Harcourt and Yenegoa areas of the delta with two members of the Joint Military Task Force, the government security outfit responsible for securing oil facilities. 9. Glenn D. Paige, Nonkilling Global Political Science ([United States], Xlibris, 2002). 10. Ibid., 1. 11. Ibid., xii. A nonkilling transformative intervention refers to various efforts at interpersonal, institutional, policy, or governmental levels to transform a killing society or culture into a nonkilling one. 12. Ibid., 47.