Olugbobri on the Niger River Delta - On October 14, 2000, ten Ijaw youths were killed by soldiers guarding a flow station owned by Italian oil giant Agip Oil Company. The youths had planned to stage a protest at the site over the failure of Agip to carry out road work and area development projects promised to the local community as recompense for the company's intrusion on their land (Higonnet 2000). Although the Ijaw satisfied the criteria of legitimacy and urgency in stakeholder typology, they lacked the power to create a definitive position.
             Pressure from various stakeholders has led Multinational Corporations (MNCs) to acknowledge their social and environmental responsibilities in oil exploration. The Secretary General of Amnesty International stated, "while governments are still the primary bodies accountable for upholding human rights everywhere, the responsibility of the business community is inescapable" (Greathead 2002).
             The argument can be made for the inclusion of numerous stakeholders, including consumers, MNCs/stockholders and investors, financial institutions, media, indigenous communities, employees, local governments, industry bodies, and nongovernmental (NGO) and intergovernmental organizations (IGO). (See Exhibit 1 for Oil Company's Stakeholder Typology) However, the following groups are most influential and critical to the industry with regard to geopolitics: local governments, NGOs and IGOs, financial institutions, the indigenous communities and MNCs. These are mostly definitive stakeholders, possessing some, if not all attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency.
             Financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) fit this definitive stakeholder status. Their interests lie in profitability, financial security and consistency. They possess monetary powers providing financing for infrastructure and urgent financial relief to MNCs. In addition, ...