The Oil Blanket of Nigeria

      “Oil companies do not value our life; they want us to all die,” said a Nigerian community leader. “In the past two years, we have experienced 10 oil spills and fishermen can no longer sustain their families. It is not tolerable” (Vidal). Since 2007, more than 55 million liters of oil have been pumped into the Niger Delta, and the devastation is apparent throughout the country.  Traditional farming and fishing industries have been damaged, and most of the population can’t even secure a water supply. 

      Shell and other industry giants haven’t been held responsible largely because of the lack of international attention on Nigeria’s crisis. The Gulf Spill near the United States received numerous headlines and immediately cleanup, yet it is dwarfed in comparison to the spills around the Niger Delta. A Nigerian citizen describes the U.S. as setting a double standard by aiding to clean up its own spills while ignoring the same kind of pollution in other parts of the world (Vidal).

      The negative impacts of Nigeria’s oil spills stem from corporate apathy and legal failure on the part of the Nigerian government. According to Amnesty International, Shell has failed to properly clean up contaminated land on four separate occasions. Contractors hired by Shell even admit that the “cleanup” process was merely a superficial shift in the soil. As a result, thousands of Nigerian citizens remain exposed to the pollution, and they will likely remain that way for the next few decades (“Niger Delta...”). The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency reports that families living in contaminated areas are forced to leave their homes for their own safety. Yet corporations still choose to shift blame from themselves, and, unfortunately, the Nigerian legal system cannot force Shell to clean up their pollution (Reed). Companies use the lax legislation to their advantage, prioritizing capital gain over protecting the environment and the citizens. Both the government and corporations have come to accept the overwhelming amount of contamination, and the country’s condition deteriorates as oil spills go unenforced and unmonitored.

      The prevalence of oil spills has exacerbated resentment between the community and oil giants, ultimately diverting attention away from proper cleanup. The growing number of oil spills caused by sabotage and theft shows the rising tensions among the Nigerian people. Although it is natural for citizens to resent large oil companies for their malpractice, sabotaging pipelines to prove a point only brings more suffering. Further evidence of this resentment can be seen when Nigerian fishermen rejected a $50 million compensation from Shell, claiming that it was not enough to restore their livelihoods (Zelman). More recently, the farming and fishing communities have actually filed a lawsuit against Shell, hoping for more repayment (Reed). As the Nigerian people are pushed further into poverty by the absence of vital industries, these legal battles are not doing anything to improve their conditions. The tension between citizens and oil companies has inadvertently halted cleanups since neither side is willing to compromise.

      Nigeria’s environmental crisis is caused by many factors including inaction from private companies, the government, and even affected individuals. It is clear that only proper cleanup can bring the Nigerian people out of their crisis. Not only does the Nigerian government need to be fully involved, many experts believe that the oil crisis, due to its large scale, can only be resolved with the help of other international actors. For now, “The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care and people must live with pollution daily. The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago. Nothing is changing” (Vidal).


Works Cited

    "Niger Delta: Shell's Manifestly False Claims about Oil Pollution Exposed, Again." Niger Delta: Shell's Manifestly False Claims about Oil Pollution Exposed, Again. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
    "Poor Oil Spill Clean-up Methods Affect Niger Delta Communities." IRIN. 06 Feb. 2008. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
    Reed, Stanley. "Shell and Nigerian Partner Are Sued in Britain Over Spills." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Mar. 2016. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
    Vidal, John. "Nigeria's Agony Dwarfs the Gulf Oil Spill. The US and Europe Ignore It." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 29 May 2010. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
    Zelman, Joanna. "Nigeria Fishermen Reject Shell's $50 Million." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.