Ecocide in the Niger delta

Published on Pambazuka News (http://www.pambazuka.org)

Sub-Title: Western resource politics are a reason for flight and migration in Nigeria

60 million people are on the run worldwide, the majority coming from countries in the Global South.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), one third of
the refugees originate from Africa.

Wars, armed conflicts, human rights violations, political instability, discrimination, poverty as well as
the consequences of climate change and natural disasters are often named as causes for flight. But
there is also ecocide – the destruction of livelihoods through the ruthless exploitation of raw
materials and the subsidy politics of industrialized countries in the West. The ecosystems in many
African regions are being systematically destroyed in order to maximize profits and to secure and
expand the prosperity of the West. The peaceful use by the people who live in these areas has
almost become impossible. Life has become unbearable in most of the resource rich regions in
Africa, so that many people leave their homes desperately. Critics like the British lawyer Polly
Higgins have therefore requested the international community to acknowledge ecocide as the fifth
'Crime against Peace' for a long time. Others speak of 'Crime against Humanity'.

The curse of oil wealth

Environmental destruction and the destruction of livelihoods in Africa are not new. What is new is
that many experts regard the ecocide as the most important cause for flight and migration in light of
its devastating consequences. However, those who flee are not protected by the Geneva Convention
on Refugees. They are usually defamed as 'economic refugees' - while the consequences of criminal
economic activities by western companies are being camouflaged.

Poverty in the oil-rich Niger Delta in Nigeria, for example, is a direct consequence of an ecocide. Oil
extraction started in 1958, promised to the population to be the basis for future wealth. But the
announced blessing turned into a curse: 'Our oil, your prosperity, our death and extinction!' - the
slogan of the region is ever present. Indeed, today, the approximately 70.000 km² of Niger Delta are
one of the most polluted regions in the world - the results are devastation, expropriation, poverty
and social marginalisation.

Nigeria, with a population of approximately 170 million, is the most populated country in Africa and
is disposing of the largest African oil reservoir. With 2,5 million barrels per day, the country is the
biggest oil exporter in Africa and the sixth biggest of the world. The country’s economy is extremely
dependent on the black gold which provides 90 per cent of its public revenue. Despite the wealth,
nearly two-thirds of the population live in absolute poverty and a small corrupt elite plunders the
state’s treasury – in line with the motto, 'anyone who sits in the customs office without becoming
rich is stupid'.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and the

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Ecocide in the Niger delta
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Nigerian State, is responsible for the oil extraction. The actual extracting activities are, however,
conducted by several oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell (47 per cent), ExxonMobil (22 per cent),
Chevron Texas (19 per cent) and ENI/Agip (5 per cent).

During the last 50 years, nearly 7,000 oil accidents occurred in the Niger Delta, and the several
billion litres of spilled oil have transformed the former natural paradise into hell on earth. The area is
Africa’s third largest water reservoir, but its soil as well as its water are extremely contaminated,
with the soil being damaged up to five meters deep. Rusty and outdated pipelines run unprotected
and above ground across villages. Tank reservoirs are responsible for half of the damages followed
by acts of sabotage and oil extraction activities. Closed down drilling rigs and illegal diversion of oil
are further causes of the oil pollution.

The ground water is heavily contaminated. In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) found an
extremely high concentration of hydrocarbon, over 900 times higher than international standards
allow and 1000 times higher than the limits defined by the Nigerian State itself. Every year, more
than 400 million tons of carbon dioxide are set free into the atmosphere by burning gas. According
to the WHO, the air pollution is extremely dangerous to health. It is one of the main causes for
cancer in the world.

According to the United Nations (UN), it will take at least 30 years to remove the damages, which
would cost around half a billion Euros. And yet, a further 13 million barrels of crude oil contaminate
the Delta every year. The oil companies disregard all Nigerian environmental protection laws and get
away with it almost with impunity. To pay a ridiculously small penalty fee is more profitable than
following the law. Critics accuse the companies of racism and demand that they follow the same
operative standards as in their respective country of origin in the West. The corrupt political elites do
not act against the intrigues of the oil multinationals as they benefit massively from them.

At the end of the 1980s, the government took brutal actions against the peaceful protest against
multinationals and the changing military regimes. The Ogoni people were leading the protests
guided by the author and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. In order to suppress the emerging
protests, Shell-Nigeria asked the military for help. It came about immediately, followed by a
massacre, millions of imprisonments without charges as well as a mass exodus from the Delta. The
leader of the protest, Saro-Wiwa, was arrested and put in solitary confinement. Together with 8 of his
fellows he was sentenced to death on October 31 1995 and executed ten days later – despite
international protests.

More than 20 years after the executions, there has been little improvement in the Niger Delta,
despite the implementation of democracy. The devastation of the environment is continued
unimpeded. It is already referred to as an unprecedented ecological disaster. Nigeria’s poorest of the
poor live in the Delta region. Child mortality is at 20 per cent, and life expectancy is clearly under the
country’s average. Soil, rivers and water are contaminated to such a high degree that agriculture
and fishing, the former livelihood base of the people, are almost not possible any more. The
consequences are disastrous: high unemployment rates and hopelessness especially among youth,
mass exodus, extremely high crime rates, and forced prostitution. An end of the ecological horror is
not in sight.

In April 2010, the worst oil spill in US history occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting from an
explosion on the oil platform Deep Water Horizon which is run by the oil multinational BP. It evoked
protests and resentment all over the world. The owner BP was forced to clean the oil pollution as
soon as possible and to pay 20 billion US $ for compensation, or rather as a penalty. In the Niger
Delta, however, images like these have been the grim reality since the oil production started in
1958. In comparison to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the permanent and lasting ecological
disaster in Niger Delta receives almost no media attention.

Nigeria, like many other African countries, is a classic example of an ecocide linked to flight and
migration. The people from the Niger Delta who leave their homes towards big cities or foreign
countries are often labelled 'economic refugees' in Europe. Can politics be more hypocritical than
classifying people as 'economic refugees' without naming and prosecuting the 'economic criminals'
who are responsible? The Geneva Convention on Refugees needs to be revised. The question we

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Ecocide in the Niger delta
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have to ask is: Who are the economic criminals that are destroying the livelihoods of people in Africa
and force them to flee from their homes? The economy?! However, we are all the economy in the
end.

* Peter Donatus is a Nigerian freelance journalist, project and events manager and
human rights activist. As environmental activist and long-time critic of Shell, the 49-year
old has been fighting against the environmental degradation and the destruction of
livelihoods by oil companies in the Niger Delta in Nigeria for more than three decades.
After several months in solitary detention, he fled from Nigeria 26 years ago and lives in
Germany since then. Translation: Mona Niemeyer.

This article was first published in German by AfricAvenir and Südlink. It was written as part of the
project “Why we are here!? African perspectives on flight and migration” conducted by AfricAvenir in
2015/16.

With the friendly support of the Landesstelle für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit and Engagement
Global.

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Tags: Migration [4]

Nigeria [5]
Niger Delta [6]
Article Author: Peter Donatus [7]
Issue Number: 771 [8]
Article Image Caption | Source: justiceinnigerianow.org

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Article-Summary:
The majority of refugees comes from war and conflict zones, illegitimate states, areas of
natural disasters and economically weak countries. In many cases, companies from the
West destroy people’s livelihoods by acting ruthlessly. In Nigeria, the oil extraction and
production has devastating consequences for the people living in the Niger Delta. But the
Geneva Convention on Refugees is not effective in this case.

Category: Global South [9]

Article_Date: Thursday, April 21, 2016 - 16:45
Country: Nigeria [10]

Source URL: http://www.pambazuka.org/node/94315

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