When Blessing Becomes a Curse in the Niger Delta (Addenda)

The Niger Delta

The Niger Delta region is a coastal community facing the Atlantic Ocean, forming approximately seven per cent of the country’s land mass. It covers five main states in the region namely Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Akwa-Ibom and Cross Rivers. The Delta has been inhabited by the Ijaw, Ogoni, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Ikwere, Isoko, Andoni, Ndokwa, Kwale, Efik, Ibibio and Annag peoples. Since the successful discovery of an oil well in Oloibirin in 1956, the Delta has been eyed and explored by various multinational petroleum companies. The oil industry is responsible for over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s wealth. Despite such huge earnings, it is said that much of these proceed to only one per cent of the population. In addition to the environmental degradation and community displacement caused by the oil companies in the region, the corruption over oil revenues has been the source of various conflicts over the years.

Sources: ERA, Amnesty International (2009). “Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta.” URL: http://www.amnesty.org/en/
library/asset/AFR44/021/2009/en/3be47dff-af1f-4c8e-b7a6-960d229644f7/afr440212009en.pdf and Wikipedia (nd). “Niger Delta” URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_Delta and Urhobo Historical Society (nd). “Map of the Niger delta Showing Oil Fields and Pipelines.”
URL: http://www.waado.org/images/Maps/in_oildeltamap.gif

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Shelled Fishes

by Biobele Ademe

Fishing has been badly affected by the presence of the extractive industry in this community. In those days before Shell came to our land, when our parents bail their ponds, we used to get several buckets or baskets of fishes.

The story is different these days due to the slick of oil and other chemicals from the gas flare that has continued to pollute the ponds, swamps and creeks. Even the few fishes that we manage to catch often smell of crude oil.

In most cases, one will observe varying degrees of oil slick or other shiny matter on the surface of these ponds, burrow pits and even our creek, the Kolocreek.

We often notice that the oil companies sometimes allow their waste petroleum products and even crude oil that escape from their pipelines to flow freely into our creek. Due to the several construction works, these companies disturb the routes through which the fishes swim into our ponds. These fishes are now blocked by heavy heaps of mud.

Fishes find their way into the ponds during the rainy season and when the swamps are flooded. This is also their breeding period. We have studied these patterns over the years.

The various distortions on the topography by the oil companies have adversely affected us in many ways.

Yes, in those days we used to have up to ten or more buckets of fish when we bail the ponds. We left the ponds for two years before bailing. But these days, even if one leaves it for five years before bailing, one cannot get anything from the ponds. We are thus denied a veritable source of income. We now spend our hard earned money to buy imported frozen fish.

Apart from denying us of our fishing rights, we can no longer take a bath in the river. When one dives into the creek, one comes out with an an oily body.

We cannot even drink the water from the creek. Shell provided a borehole in our community but the water from the borehole is not fit for human consumption. When one fetches water and keeps it for a while, one will notice a thin silver-like colour over the surface and rusty sediments in the bucket.

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Flaring the Air

Although forbidden by national laws, the burning of unwanted gas continue with Nigeria contributing 23 billion cubic meters out of the 150 to 170 billion cubic meters of gas released in the atmosphere yearly. The latter amount is equivalent to the emissions of vehicles in the United Kingdom, France and Germany combined. Despite the 2005 Nigerian court injunction, Shell still flared 600 million cubic metres of gas in this country. In 2001, the amount it flared equaled to 40 per cent of gas consumption on the entire continent of Africa.

Source: John Donelly (2007). “Russia top offender in gas-flare emissions: US study uses satellite images for findings.” URL: http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/06/21/russia_top_offender_in_gas_flare_emissions/ and Shelltruth.org (nd). “Gas Flaring-Nigeria.” URL: http://www.shelltruth.com/case1_e.html Photo from Shellguilty.com

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In 2008, the Royal Dutch Shell made a US$15.5 million settlement in a case filed by families whose members were murdered, tortured and harrassed by military forces that were protective of the company’s operations. One of the leading campaigners of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), poet and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa group was hanged in 1995, along with eight other people from the Ogoni ethnic group.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell is Nigeria’s biggest oil operator, covering some 31,000 square kilometers. The company, under the name Shell D’Arcy was granted an exploration license in 1938 throughout Nigeria. After years of drilling, its first successful oil well was discovered in Oloibiri in 1956.

According to Amnesty International’s report, “Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta,” “Although SPDC operates within a delta system and oil infrastructure is frequently located close to farmland and waterways, few, if any, adequate protective measures have been taken by SPDC – pipelines have not been properly maintained and waste products have been released into the environment without adequate monitoring of the impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. Despite legal requirements to clean-up and remediate land and water swiftly and adequately, these actions frequently do not happen.”

Sources: Amnesty International (2009). “Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta.” URL: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR44/021/2009/en/3be47dff-af1f-4c8e-b7a6-960d229644f7/afr440212009en.pdf ; British Broadcasting Corporation (9 June 2009). “Shell settles Nigeria deaths case.” URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8090493.stm ; Shell Petroleum Development Company website. URL:http://www.shell.com/home/content/nigeria/about_shell/who_we_are/history/history.html