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Item EXPLORATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND MILITANCY IN SELECTED NOVELS OF CHRISTIE WATSON AND CHIMEKA GARRICK(Covenant University Ota, 2025-08) Omesu, Modupeoluwa; Covenant University DissertationThis study critically explores the intersection of environmental degradation and militancy in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, as represented in Christie Watson‘s Tiny Sunbirds Far Away and Chimeka Garrick‘s Tomorrow Died Yesterday. The Niger Delta, though richly endowed with natural resources, has suffered years of ecological devastation and human suffering due to oil exploration and governmental neglect. Drawing on eco-critical theory, the study examines how these two literary texts represent the lived realities of pollution, poverty, and political alienation, and how these conditions give rise to various forms of resistance including militancy. The research highlights how literature is a mode of protest, capable of amplifying the voices of marginalised communities and exposing the complexities behind youth militancy not merely as criminality, but a reaction to systemic violence, economic exclusion, and environmental collapse. Through the characters‘ struggles, the novels reflect the despair, resilience, and resistance that shape life in the region. By foregrounding local voices and socio-ecological trauma, this work contributes to eco-critical and postcolonial scholarship while calling attention to the urgent need for justice both environmental and human. It affirms literature's capacity not only to document injustice but to humanise it, to bear witness, and to agitate for change.Item The Spectacle of Militancy in the Niger Delta in Habila’s Oil on Water(BU Journal of Language, Literature and Humanities VOL. 9, No.1,, 2025) Omesu, Modupeoluwa; Onwuka, EdwinThis study investigates Helon Habila’s Oil on Water, which depicts militancy as a sort of performance and spectacle in response to neocolonial exploitation and environmental degradation in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. While previous studies have concentrated on the novel’s ecological and political components, this study focuses on how militancy is intentionally staged to acquire awareness, question authority and reclaim agency. The problem this paper addresses is the insufficient scholarly attention to the performative and symbolic dimensions of militancy in Oil on Water, which are often overlooked in favor of interpretations that treat violence either as criminality or political protest. This gap in the literature necessitates a deeper exploration of militancy as a form of postcolonial resistance expressed through spectacle. Using postcolonial theory (Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Gayatri Spivak, and Homi Bhabha), the study investigates the hybrid identities and dramatized tactics of militants operating in a zone of marginalization and state neglect. Militant operations like as kidnapping, attack on oil infrastructure, and staged media interactions are interpreted as purposeful protests designed to recapture narrative authority and draw world attention. The methodology involves a close textual analysis of key scenes in Oil on Water that depict militant activities, with a focus on the symbolism and narrative techniques employed to dramatise resistance. Through this interpretive lens, militant operations are read as purposeful performances that aim to reclaim narrative authority, attract global attention, and highlight the injustices of oil capitalism and state negligence. By treating militancy as a symbolic and performative resistance, the novel offers a critical lens for understanding subaltern agency and the aesthetics of protest in postcolonial African literatureItem Exploration of Oil Bunkering in Chimeka Garrick's Tomorrow Died Yesterday(Exploration of Oil Bunkering in Chimeka Garrick's Tomorrow Died Yesterday, 2025-06-30) Onwuka, Edwin; Omesu, ModupeoluwaThis study examines the pervasive issue of oil bunkering in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria through a textual analysis of Chimeka Garricks' Tomorrow Died Yesterday. The Niger Delta, is a region abundant in natural resources, has been plagued by illegal oil extraction, environmental degradation, and sociopolitical disruption. Garricks' novel offers a nuanced literary portrayal of these crises, highlighting the interplay between economic desperation, militant insurgency, and governmental corruption. This study aims to examine the representation of oil bunkering in Chimeka Garricks' Tomorrow Died Yesterday as a central socio-political and economic concern in the Niger Delta. And to also explore how the novel critiques systemic corruption, government complicity, and the failure of legitimate structures, which enable the persistence of illegal oil activities. The study is a qualitative methodology that use the text as a reflection of the Niger Delta realities and also criticticlly examines the root causes of oil bunkering and the aftermath as reflected in the text Tomorrow Died Yesterday engages with themes of environmental destruction and political corruption, it does not extensively examine the intricate operations of oil bunkering and its socioeconomic networks. This study seeks to fill that gap by analyzing the novel's portrayal of oil bunkering, foregrounding it as a critical issue rather than a peripheral theme. Through a transactional reader reponse theory, this research unpacks the thematic concerns surrounding oil bunkering, shedding light on its ramifications for both the environment and local communities. The study underscores how Garricks utilizes narrative techniques, character development, and setting to critique the exploitative dynamics in the oil-rich region. By exploring the intersections of literature, socio-political commentary, and environmental justice, this research contributes to broader discussions on resource control, state violence, and ecological sustainability in postcolonial African literature. Ultimately, this study highlights how fiction can serve as both a historical record and a call to action for socio-envitonmental justice in the Niger Delta.Item REPRESENTATIONS OF OIL COMPANIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE IN CHRISTIE WATSON'S TINYSUNBIRDS FARAWAY(International Journal of Arts, Languages, Linguistics and Literaty Studies (JOLLS) Vol. 14 (3) 2025, 2025) Onwuka, Edwin; Omesu, ModupeoluwaThis study explores the representation of Western oil companies and environmental degradation in Christie Watson's Tiny Su.nbirds Far Away , situating the novel within the broader discourse of environmental degradation and socio-political unrest in the Niger Delta. Through the voice of the young narrator, Blessing, Watson crafts a poignant narrative that unveils the destructive impact of oil exploitation on both the natural environment and the lived realities of local communities. The analysis foregrounds the oil company not merely as an economic actor but as a faceless embodiment of neocolonial exploitation, ecological devastation, and systemic injustice. By highlighting the loss of traditional livelihoods, the rise of militancy, and the deterioration of health and social structures, the novel underscores the deep entanglement between environmental collapse and human suffering. Drawing on ecocritical perspective, this study shows how Watson's work, despite being authored by an outsider, amplifies silenced voices and confronts global complicity in the Niger Delta crisis. Ultimately, the research affirms literature's power to humanize ecological destruction, transforming statistics of oil spills and gas flares into lived experiences of pain, resilience, and resistance