ABSTRACT
As the first decade of the new millennium continues to unfold, Africa and Africans continue to face many serious problems. Among these are extremely high levels of poverty and deprivation, especially among rural communities; the absence of governance structures that adequately constrain the exercise of government agency and the ability of politicians and civil servants to engage in such opportunistic behaviors as corruption and rent seeking; the existence of resource allocation systems that stunt indigenous entrepreneurship and the creation of the wealth that Africans need to confront massive and pervasive poverty; and excessive exploitation of the continent’s environmental resources and, agro-ecological degradation. Recent events in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria have forced the world to take a serious look at ecological degradation and its consequences on the African peoples.
