Contending Issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria - Journal of ...

Chapter IX: The Politics and Policies of Oil Deregulation in Nigeria:
Implications and Policy Suggestions
The impact of these conditions on oil-yielding communities has
been devastating. As Tell magazine captured it in one of its editions in
1993 thus:
What [the Niger Delta people] used to call upon for their
livelihood and well-being has been wrecked for eternity by
the coming of oil and its exploitation by the Nigerian state.
They cannot fish because marine life has been flushed out,
they cannot hunt because the game fled a long time ago,
thanks to the oil hunters and their land no longer yields
good harvest.
The destruction of ‘flora’ and ‘fauna’ has been compounded by
endemic poverty, the absence of basic social amenities, and at best
primitive health and educational facilities.
Why has the Nigerian government failed to address these
problems This, according to some observers, is so because it has
been totally at the beck and call of the multinationals. The Niger Delta
debacle is a classic case of collusion between international finance
capital and a corrupt and morally derelict state. "The Nigerian
government has no power," as asserted by Oronto Douglas of
Environmental Rights Action (ERA), based in the oil-refining city of
Port Harcourt. "Power lies with the oil companies." Soremekun,
echoes Douglas' view by positing that: "The Nigerian state is a shell,
and Shell [the Anglo-Dutch giant] is the Nigerian state."(Adebanwi,Op
cit).
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