The Niger Delta: The Curse of Oil

With an estimated population of 130-140 million people, Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa. It is located in western Africa on the Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria has a total area of 356,669 square miles (923,768 km²); of that around 5,000 square miles (13,100 km²) is water. Nigeria has a 2,515 mile (4,047 km) border that it shares with Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The highest point in Nigeria is Chappal Waddi at 7,936 feet (2,419 m).  Nigeria is a beautiful country with a varied landscape. From the Obudu Hills in the southeast through the beaches in the south, the rainforest and savanna in the middle and the deserts in the extreme north; there is a lot of variety.2

 Nigeria however, never existed as a country until 1914. Before this particular date in history, Nigeria was mainly composed of different ancient kingdoms, clans or tribes which individually had their own different languages and culture. These ancient tribes or ethnic groups also had their respective attires, religious beliefs, system of government, trade systems, music and indeed perspective on life. There were sometimes clashes between communities but in the space of close to two thousand years, most of these communities lived in relative peace. Their geographical boundaries were known but not rigidly demarcated; the customs were very unique to each locality and this was often reflected in the indigenous art of the people.

 By the late 16^th century, Europeans came to the African continent and began to establish ports for slave trafficking. It wasn’t too long before this became a continent-wide phenomenon. In 1884, European countries got together and artificially carved up the African continent so as to forestall a clash of interests. This action did not have the benefit of deep sociological or anthropological scrutiny, and different nations were splintered by arbitrary colonial demarcation lines. The sad part of the commentary however was that component nations who ordinarily had their different and deeply ingrained identities were arbitrarily bunched together, stapled in the middle and given a European identity. In 1914, a British man (the Brits were the ones who inherited the geographical contraption known as Nigeria), joine3d together the Southern and Northern protectorates and this emergent entity was called Nigeria. The name was derived from the word “Niger”—the longest river in the country and “area”. To wit: the people of Nigeria were the people of the Niger area.

 There are three main ethnic groups by population size. Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. The Hausa occupies the Northern section of the country and they were mostly Muslims. The Yoruba can be found in the Southwest, and they were interestingly mixed: 45% Muslims, 45% Christians, 10% Animists. The Igbo occupied the Southeastern section of the country and they were mostly Christians with about 10% of the people practicing indigenous religions. The Niger river flows into the country from the Northwestern corner and then continues as a single huge body of water till it gets down to the southernmost portion of the country. As it approaches this southernmost part of the country, the river splinters into a vast network of smaller streams and creeks and eventually empties into the Atlantic. This delta is the oil-rich Niger delta. The South-southern part of the country however did not have a unified large ethnic group native to it. It is composed of many smaller ethnicities that despite their differences have lived in relative peace before the creation of the Nigerian state. The North is similarly made of smaller different nations/ethnic groups inhabiting the middle belt region of the country, however these ethnicities were united with the people of the core North on the basis of Islam.

 It is at once transparent why this diverse, heterogeneous and unwieldy colonial experiment did not need very much to become a combustible heap of aggrieved and entrapped nations. Here was a nation composed of radically different nations/ethnicities with totally contrasting outlooks on life. It was indeed a country that shared nothing but geographical barriers. In 1960, Nigeria officially gained her independence. Before Nigeria got her independence however, she was doing very well exporting cash crops. Not too long after the departure of the Brits, it was discovered that the Niger delta area of Nigeria was incredibly rich in oil. Exploration began in haste, and Nigeria enjoyed a brief period of plenty early in those days.

 A spell of visionless leadership:

Nigeria is incredibly blessed in both human and natural resources. Besides cash crops like groundnuts, cocoa, palm-oil, citrus fruits, maize, millet, cassava, yams and sugarcane which provided much of Nigeria’s foreign exchange before the discovery of oil, the country also had commercially exploitable deposits of coal, bauxite, tin, bronze, limestone, etc. When independence came around the corner—by which time, oil exploration was already a reality—it seemed that the new emerging crop of leaders for Nigeria, who should and ought to have been more concerned about building functioning  institutions were perhaps giddy about their newfound role as leaders in a young republic. The country fought a bitter civil war after just about 6 years in existence. Unfortunately however, since the end of this conflict, the country has been bedeviled by waves and waves of political, economic, cultural and religious unrest. It is rather underwhelming that the coterie of politician and military leaders in Nigeria’s checkered history have not been able to put aside unvarnished greed and reprehensible provincialism to chart a better course for this Nigerian ship. It was as a result of the devil-may-care nonchalance of the elite class, and their immoral disdain for the citizenry that nepotism and corruption gained prominence. When oil came into the system, all the realities changed.

The extent of elitist disregard for human life in Nigeria is best seen through the prism of successive government activities in the Niger delta.  Human Rights Watch states inter alia “Soldiers and Mobile Police are still posted in Yenagoa, Kaiama, Mbiama junction, and other locations in Bayelsa State, and are continuing to harass local people. During the period of the state of emergency, there was virtually no transport coming into Yenagoa, causing a food shortage and price inflation. Although the state of emergency was lifted quickly, large numbers of soldiers remained in the community and continued to harass local people and extort money. Boats at the waterfront were charged sums of several thousand naira as well as a _50 (U.S.55¢) landing fee for each individual, causing the market to close for some time, since boatmen and traders were no longer making money by coming to Yenagoa.”3 News articles are awash with expositions of government’s crass irresponsibility and marginalization of the people of the Niger delta.

 Unrest in the Niger Delta:

 Despite the fact that the Niger delta produces the oil from which Nigeria derives her petrodollar wealth, the country and particularly this region continue to live in abject poverty. These riverside communities in the south lack good roads, potable water, hospitals, electricity and many other simply amenities. It is unimaginable that these same areas are the areas from which Nigeria derives her oil wealth. Perhaps, the most appalling issue is Nigeria’s failure to enforce environmental standards which these multinational oil companies are expected to abide by. The result is that these communities suffer the compounded deleterious effects of over 40 years of gas flares, air, land and water pollution. Nigeria is supposed to have a federalist governmental structure, but alas, the powers that are concentrated in the center will not allow a natural devolution of power to the states. So the states that make up the Niger Delta are then required to turn over their main resource to the Abuja central government. In place of federalism whereby the Niger Delta controls her resources giving just a token sum to the central government, we have a situation where the Niger Delta states are now expected to tender a high portion of the resources into national coffers for a mere pittance.. The government promulgated a number of decrees with which it basically appropriated the Niger delta. By these decrees the government made it illegal for indigenes of this oil-rich region to claim the land of their ancestry. Refusal to obey these decrees formed during the years of military rule (which technically meant being a stranger in your own land) was often seen as an affront to the state and it attracted hefty penalties. So, over the years, the multinational companies have continued their odious despoliation of Niger Delta’s environment without any corresponding increase in government surveillance or for that matter any corresponding release to the local communities of corporate largesse.

 This has predictably given rise to not just deep disagreements but outright revolt. MEND or the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, was constituted with the sole task of wresting accountability from the federal government. It is true their methods are unconventional, but at least now soldiers will have their hands full if they entertain thoughts of bullying their way throughout the region. Furthermore, various insurgent groups are rising to resist the criminality of the government and the big multinational corporations.  Obasanjo’s government, it seems, will not permit any interruption to the flow of oil, therefore he is sending Nigerian troops to these parts to protect drilling and refineries facilities. From time to time, one would hear of violent skirmishes between the local insurgent groups and the Nigerian military; or the kidnap of a foreign worker as a leverage tool against a criminally negligent government that may not react if a Nigerian were to have been kidnapped. The situation is tense and the whole region is like a keg of gunpowder waiting for a match. If the government persists in flagrantly dismissing the yearnings of a people, it is going to be brewing the hot pot of tea that will eventually consume it.

 Conclusion:

 Indeed, the emergence of oil into Nigeria has been the bane of the nation’s existence. Agriculture suffered because it received little or no attention from the citizenry or the government. The oil boom of the 70s brought with it carelessness, an excessive dependence on oil to the detriment of local economies, lethargy towards other areas of the economy, and above all unbridled corruption in civil society. These problems need to be addressed immediately if the civil war looming over Nigeria is to be averted.

Works Cited:

1] http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/africa/lgcolor/ngcolor.htm 1

2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria

3] http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/nigeria2/Ngria993-04.htm#P185_45457