Building Peace Economies? The Politics of ‘Patronage Peacebuilding’ in the Illicit Informal Economies of Bayelsa State and Rivers State, Nigeria

Although there seems to be a consensus on the importance of the informal economy in the context of conflict, the role of the informal economy remains ambiguous with regard to the political economy of peacebuilding. There are, therefore, important questions to be asked concerning the informal economy, in terms of its role in establishing or undermining sustainable peace, which is the focus of this thesis. This thesis draws on an extensive range of literature on the informal economy and peacebuilding and presents original empirical data. Six months of fieldwork research – which involved in-depth interviews and document analysis – was carried out in Bayelsa State and Rivers State. The analysis focuses on the peacebuilding activities of three main stakeholders, namely: the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP), the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) and the Nigerian government. The thesis argues that peacebuilding initiatives are not only failing to build peace, but are also potentially perpetuating the cycle of neopatrimonialism that is closely linked to the ongoing illicit informal economy. It highlights three contrasting perspectives on the peacebuilding agenda. Firstly, donor-based initiatives are donor-centric, leading to a reliance on foreign aid and donor regulations that are not regulated by the state. It also observed that state-led peacebuilding has reproduced the socio-economic hierarchical systems that existed during the conflict, creating an environment conductive to ‘patronage peacebuilding’. Secondly, state-led peacebuilding initiatives have resulted in the marginalisation of various local stakeholders, providing incentives for joining parallel and sometimes illicit power structures and activities within the informal economy, and leading to “positioning” for aid in the informal economy and the “performance of militancy”. Thus, the relationship between donor-based and state-led peacebuilding and the informal economy in Bayelsa State and Rivers State rather functions as a vehicle that keeps the wheel of neopatrimonial bargaining and power-sharing spinning. These findings raise important conceptual challenges not just for the political economy of peacebuilding but also for the evolution of the informal economy.