The Apostolic Church and the Management of the Niger Delta Crisis: In Gokhana- Land 1931-2010.

ABSTRACT The main aim and concern of the thesis were to evaluate the role and contributions of the Apostolic Church Gokhana in the management of the Gokhana crisis, and the Niger Delta conflict. The study employed the descriptive and historical methods of research in which issued were raised, described and critically evaluated in the context of the study. In the process of data collection the primary and secondary sources were used. The data collected through the primary and secondary sources, were collated, interpreted, analyzed and presented through the descriptive and historical style. The study found among other things that the agitation of the Gokhana people was that their lives, property and eco-system had not only been threatened, but destroyed due to the problem of oil exploration, exploitation and marginalization. And the resultant effect was that the people lived in oppression, dejection, depression, abject poverty and underdevelopment; furthermore, the study discovered that the church in general, and the T.A.C in particular was not actively predisposed and committedly involved and very supportive in the various attempts and endeavours to resolve the crisis. The Apostolic Church in Gokhana was the most affected, among all the denomination in the land, as her church buildings and economic investments were destroyed during the crisis. The study also showed that the major hindrance to the resolution of the conflict was the unhealthy leadership competition among the Gokhana elites both in church as well as in the civil society. It was in view of the fate suffered by T.A.C. that made them swing into action strategies towards the management of the crisis which is the main focus of this study.. The research presented the “Season of Change” as the emerging “church shift” paradigm necessary for the transformation of the Gokhana socio-political conflict.