Musical Narratives of Oil Exploration and Profit Manoeuvring in Post-Colonial Nigeria 1989-2022

Abstract

Anchored in Deprivation-Frustration-Aggression and Critical Discourse Theory, this study beams its searchlight on deep musical narratives of oil exploration, mobility, and profits manoeuvring in post-colonial Nigeria from 1989 to 2022. Several studies have examined the menace of oil exploration in Nigeria with little focus on musical narratives. Therefore, this study explores oil exploration activities and musical narratives to exhume the injustice in the Nigerian oil business and to awaken the stakeholders to proper oil wealth distributions. Qualitative design methods were employed with musical and textual analysis of three selected songs - “Niger-Delta” by Nneka Egbuna, “Black Tide” by Ubrei-Joe, and “Which Way Nigeria?” by Sunny Okosun, alongside available data on Nigeria’s oil revenue. The lyrics of the analysed songs were based on their relevance to issues of oil exploration, mobility, and profit manoeuvring, and they help to support the central argument of the Musical narratives in Nigeria.  Secondary data were sourced from relevant scholarly publications and books. Findings revealed that while militants engage in rebellious activities against the state, these musicians take a pseudo-neutral stand that prevents them from being soft targets by the state, while holistically addressing issues of injustice and uneven distribution of oil wealth. I conclude that there is a need for the Nigerian leadership to address the situations amplified by these artists through proper monitoring of oil exploration and profits; cleaning of the Niger-Delta environment; and judicious use of oil profits to benefit the entire citizenry.