Local tribes demand benefit sharing and reduction of environmental damage
The social stability of Nigeria, one of the most populated countries in the world and the largest Economics in Africa, is of international concern because of its potential impact on continental and global security. Hence, a local conflict such as the one between the tribes of the Niger Delta and the Nigerian government over the exploitation of the area's abundant oil is closely watched from abroad.
▲The light area at the bottom of the satellite image corresponds to the Niger Delta oil facilities [NASA].
April 17, 2018
article / Baltasar Martos
The fierce dispute over energy resources at the mouth of the Niger River in southern Nigeria has been one of the most resonant African conflicts for decades. The marginalization, confinement and impoverishment of the Ogoni and Ijaw - as the ethnic tribes of the coastal provinces of Rivers, Bayelsa, and Delta are called - have contributed to escalating tensions between the locals and the federal government.
To understand the underlying problem, it is useful to first take a brief look back in time and discern the three chronological stages that have shaped the current landscape of the conflict, namely: the beginning of oil exploitation, the hegemony of Royal Dutch Shell and the post-independence period.
In 1903, in the southern coastal region of today's Nigeria, which became a British protectorate (1901) and later a colony (1914), a large deposit of minerals and hydrocarbons, such as coal, bitumen, oil and natural gas, was discovered. The British company Nigeria Properties Ltd. then began oil exploration and extraction activities, reaching a production of 2,000 barrels per day in 1905. Later, in 1937, and after the succession of several oil companies, the Anglo-Dutch multinational Royal Dutch Shell took over the monopoly of exploration activities for oil sources -and, to a lesser extent, other hydrocarbons-, reaching production fees of 5,000 barrels per day.
Three decades later, after independence and the official establishment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1960-1963), the military government of Yakubu Gowon embarked on a policy of nationalization and acquisition of foreign firms in the country, forcing them by legal mandate to re-register through joint ventures with state-owned companies. In this way, he succeeded in transforming this activity into the main strategic sector for the country's Economics . Furthermore, taking into account Nigeria's entrance OPEC in 1971, it is not surprising that the federal government today holds 60% of the capital stock of practically all the active oil companies, playing an important role as majority partner .
On the contrary, the civilian population in the area has result the big loser. The ethnic minorities most affected by prospecting, extraction and commercialization activities - with subsequent enrichment for some and environmental contamination for others - have been demanding government attention and legislative measures for environmental and social protection for decades [1].
On the one hand, locals call for "environmental justice," defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as "fair treatment and meaningful participation in political decision-making processes about activities that affect the natural environment of all peoples, regardless of race, color, culture...concerning the implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies."
The Ogoni and the Ijaw are peoples dedicated fundamentally to agriculture and fishing as a form of subsistence for whom the natural environment is the only and main source of wealth. They protest against the long-standing collusion (since independence) between the government and the multinational oil companies, calling them both "expropriators and polluters" and blaming them for the impoverishment of the region and the deplorable state of the rivers that flow through it. They also claim their rights to obtain and use, for their local communities, the corresponding part of the benefits from the exploitation of the energy deposits, since they are traditionally settled on a large crude oil reservoir [2].
Corruption, clientelism and the structural weakness of the government, added to its great interest in and dependence on this sector - which has come to represent a benefit for the national Economics of up to 55% of GDP in the mid-1990s according to World Data Bank statistics - make it extremely difficult for the president and his cabinet to agree to attend to the needs of these communities in the Niger Delta. The growing protests have led to a real conflict, which began in the last decade of the last century, pitting the civilian population against the federal government in cahoots with the multinationals. This confrontation has taken two sides, one peaceful and the other violent, and has attracted the media attention of a large part of the international community.
International attention
On the other hand, the Niger Delta conflict is a clear case of globalization, since oil extraction involves a set of transnational forces, non-state actors and interdependent processes. As a result of the long-standing unrest of the indigenous tribes in the area, two movements have grown up to denounce the profiteering by a government that barely invests in the development this region of the country, which is mired in poverty and withdrawal, and degraded by the exploitation of its natural resources.
On the one hand, there is the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), created as a result of the protests in the nineties and used as a model for other civil associations to publicly express their discontent with the negative impacts of the oil industry on the quality of life of the inhabitants of the area. This organization, initiated by the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and composed mainly of academics and teachers, peacefully denounces the joint action of the government and the corporations installed in the area and advocates for the civil human rights of the Ogoni people to decent housing conditions, environmental justice and legislation that respects and protects them from environmental threats.
On the other hand, there is the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (with the acronym MEND). It is formed by an amalgam of armed youth groups organized in local resistance militias, whose main goal is to fight for the control of oil profits for the minority ethnic groups settled in the area. It is a military branch of MOSOP that has already sabotaged oil pipelines and has kidnapped foreign workers from factories, demanding ransom from the government on several occasions.
The most important thing about both movements is that they have attracted the attention of a large issue of local and international Non-Governmental Organizations, which have allied with them and have started to promote and make their cause visible to the entire international community. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch or Niger Delta Human and Environmental Rescue Organization are some of the many entities that have opened a work space dedicated solely and exclusively to the Niger Delta issue. They advocate worldwide for the defense of the environmental rights of communities affected by the exploitation of resources and pollution of the natural environment. They have also succeeded in partnering with transnational media and human rights networks to extend the status the conflict to a global audience.
The joint denunciation of the "alleged violations of human and environmental rights of members of the Ogoni ethnic group in the Niger Delta" has resonated worldwide and has obtained a significant amount of financial support for the reestablishment of the settlements from which the indigenous peoples had been displaced, as well as for the promotion of environmental justice, the protection and guarantee of the civil rights of the locals to use the natural wealth of their area, the continuation of their economic activities and the safeguarding of their environment. The global impact of this conflict is likely to have an impact on how similar conflicts are resolved.
[1] Obi, Cyril. "Insights from the Niger Delta", Young, Tom. Readings in the International Relations of Africa. Indiana University Press, 2016.
[Botchway, Francis N., ed. Natural Resource Investment and Africa's Development. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011.
