Oil in the Niger Delta – out of sight, out of mind.

The Niger Delta, Nigeria. Much of this area has been subject to massive oil spills for the last 50 years. Heard about this through our media? Me neither. Image via Wikipedia

The response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico generated a massive amount of media coverage, as it quite rightly should have done. The pressure generated by the media and the ensuing public outcry compelled BP, finally, to do something to clean up the mess.

Their response was highly public and highly questionable. Eventually, BP turned to using a chemical dispersant, dumping over half a million
litres into the ocean.

They did this despite having no idea about the environmental impact of the dispersant used. I find it amazing that they didn’t have this knowledge to hand before the disaster, despite chemical dispersants having been available for use – a research – since the 1980’s. It seems likely that whilst dispersant reduced the visible impact of an oil spill – the surface of the gulf of Mexico now looks more or less clean – it does nothing to actually remove oil from the ecosystem, and may actually worsen the effects by breaking the oil into droplets which mix with water and are consumed by marine life. In short, the dispersant puts the oil out of sight and out of mind – but not out of the ocean.

Whilst BP have engaged with the local (human) community in large-scale compensation for those who’s livelihoods have been affected by the oil spill, the policy of “out of sight, out of mind” appears to apply widely across the oil industry.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. How many people know of the massive oil spills that are happening right now in that country? Not many. The disparity in media coverage between the spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the one in Nigeria is truly shameful. It seems that, if such an incident happens in such a place, we’re not interested in reporting it. It’s only Africa, after all.

What makes this even more amazing is the fact that the oil disaster in Nigeria is nothing new. It’s been happening for 40 years. Over 13 million barrels of oil have spilled into the Niger Delta in this time. To give an idea of scale, that’s the equivalent to one Exxon Valdez oil spill every single year, for nearly half a century.

The Niger Delta is criss-crossed with rusty, inadequate oil pipes. The spills do not occur as single blasts, as in the case of the Gulf of Mexico, but constantly seep through holes in the piping, large and small. Between 1970 and 2000, there have been over 300 of these spills every year. Idris Musa, head of Nigeria’s oil spill response agency, claimed that 2,405 spills by all major oil companies in the region have occurred since 2006.

No media coverage, no action, no compensation for the victims and no international clean-up effort. Clearly, the blame for this rests both with the oil companies involved – including Exxon Mobile and Shell – and with the world’s media for largely ignoring it. Credit must go to the few journalists who tried, and failed, to bring this catastrophe to global attention, such as the Guardian’s John Vidal.

Granted, the oil companies are not solely responsible for the spills. The area is rife with crime, poverty and militia groups, which sabotage the oil pipes and sell the spilled oil on the black market. By doing so, they can earn around $60 a day. The average income in the area is $2 a day.

An independent report has accused Shell of using this as an excuse for inaction. The real blame lay with the ancient, rusting infrastructure and lack of concern for safety. It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that this report hasn’t been followed up by concrete action.

Even taking Shell’s figure of 85% of all spills being caused by “routine militant attacks” (although this figure is hugely exaggerated), there are significant questions to answer. By stealing oil to sell on the black market, locals are essentially bypassing the middle-man – the oil companies – in order to make money out of their local resource. This is the only way in which they can benefit from the oil. In half a century of oil extraction in the Niger Delta, the locals have gained absolutely nothing from the wealth beneath their feet. Profits have been entirely soaked up by the oil companies and by corrupt governments. A simple way of stopping “routine militant attacks” would actually be to distribute a tiny increment of the $600 billion made from Nigeria’s oil to the local people. In this light, it is worth asking who is really stealing oil from whom.

It’s unclear what alternative sources of income the locals would have, if they were not selling oil. After all, the massive, continuous, unchecked oil spills in the area over the last 40 years have made agriculture and fishing non-viable, as the surrounding ecosystem has been destroyed. Locals could also be forgiven for taking a short-term, quick-profit view in stealing the oil, rather than planning for the future. After all, they don’t have long. Life expectancy in the surrounding area is only 40 years. Hardly surprising when your farm land, and the crops you eat, are soaked in oil.

John Vidal, one of the few journalists to draw attention to the catastrophe, interviewed local farmers and community leaders. Their words hardly need further comment:

“This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months.” Chief Promise, village leader of Otuegwe.

“Oil companies do not value our life; they want us to all die. In the past two years, we have experienced 10 oil spills and fishermen can no longer sustain their families. It is not tolerable.” Williams Mkpa, a community leader in Ibeno.

“In Nigeria, oil companies largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people’s livelihood and environments. The Gulf [of Mexico] spill can be seen as a metaphor for what is happening daily in the oilfields of Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

“This has gone on for 50 years in Nigeria. People depend completely on the environment for their drinking water and farming and fishing. They are amazed that the president of the US can be making speeches daily, because in Nigeria people there would not hear a whimper.” Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International.

Pretty hard to argue with that. You’ll forgive me if I’m sceptical of BP’s sincerity in cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico spill. The ongoing disaster in Nigeria highlights how Western-centric our media really is, how little large oil companies care for the environment and local people when the media spotlight isn’t on them, and how large scale industry provides absolutely no benefit to local communities and only supports instability and conflict in the areas they exploit. This instability only results in weaker local government and more corruption, and only makes it easier for the oil companies to irresponsibly exploit people, environment and resources.

The major spills of Exxon Valdez and the Gulf of Mexico pale into insignificance when compared to the Niger Delta. The first step in solving this catastrophe is to raise awareness and apply pressure. If we don’t, then Shell, Exxon et al. are more than happy to keep things as they are – out of sight, out of mind.

Need more evidence? Browse these images to your heart’s content.

Amnesty International is one of the few organisations currently campaigning on this tragedy. Visit their website to learn more, support the campaign, or make a donation.

Related Articles

• Make the Delta the test of Nigeria’s elections | Peter Cunliffe-Jones (guardian.co.uk)
• Craig and Marc Kielburger: With Attention on the Gulf, Niger Delta Oil Spills Continue (huffingtonpost.com)
• How Niger Delta crisis theatened Shell’s global brand | John Vidal (guardian.co.uk)
• N-Delta amnesty: Counting the gains one year after (vanguardngr.com)
• NGOs and BBC targeted by Shell PR machine in wake of Saro-Wiwa death (guardian.co.uk)