Oil and Poverty in the Niger Delta
By Kenneth Egere
‘...the oil boom has become, to the people of the Niger Delta region, a doom, and years of official neglect has resulted in the Niger Delta Region of today being the epitome of hunger, poverty and injustice.’
Today the Nigerian government and the oil companies operationg in the Niger Delta will gross over US$120 million from pumping oil and gas in the Niger Delta. Tomorow will be around the same.
Every day, around 2 million barrels of oil are pumped from the Niger Delta. At $60 a barrel, that’s about $12 million. Increasingly, natural gas is also being exported from the Niger Delta, adding to the millions in revenues generated every day.
The International Monetary fund calculated that Nigeria earned over US$350 billion in oil revenues between 1965 and 2000, with oil prices soaring, billions more have been earned. The people of the Delta see this wealth being pumped from around them; the high security compounds of the foreign oil workers a reminder of the wealth being enjoyed y a few. What they get in return, and what they have gotten for the past 50 years, is pitiful. Not only have they received little but they have been made even more impoverished by the pollution, corruption and the conflict that oil production has brought in their midst.
Nigeria is among the fifteen poorest countries in the world and 70% of its people live below the poverty line yet is among the tenth largest producers of crude oil in the world. Oh what a rap of wealth. In fact, life expectancy is only 51.2 compared to the UK average of 78. In the Delta region, less than 30% of the people have access to safe water and the prevalence of mortality rate is the highest in Nigeria.
The villages of the Niger Delta, like many across Nigeria, lack basic amenities; running water, sanitation, health care and schools. The cities overflow with slums. There is no quick fix to the problem of poverty in Nigeria and the vast Niger Delta. There is no shortage of money. In fact, many observers comment that is the vast sums of money generated by the oil and gas that keeps Nigeria poor. They provide irresitable bounty for corrupt politicians and civil servants to fight over. They allow for massive waste in the operation of state.
The corruption that eats away Nigeria’s oil wealth is not carried out in isolation. Multinational oil companies are complicit. For 50 years, shell has done business with every corrupt official and military dictator that has happened to be running Nigeria. It has always been part of the system that rather than enriching Nigeria impoverishes it. Likewise, Chevron, ExxonMoil, Agip and Total, along with hundreds of smaller oil companies, contractors and service companies have done what ever it takes to do business in Nigeria.
Facilitating the epic theft of Nigeria’s oil wealth is an international system of tax havens that enables Nigeria’s elites to disappear billions of dollars without a trace. The UK and US are at the heart of maintaing that system; a system that benefits the rich and harms the poor. If I may ask, my must we remain poor? Is poverty are birth right? Can’t we fight for our fundamental human right and enjoy social amenities like pipe borne water, good roads, sanitation, constant power supply, stable educational like others?
By Kenneth Egere
‘...the oil boom has become, to the people of the Niger Delta region, a doom, and years of official neglect has resulted in the Niger Delta Region of today being the epitome of hunger, poverty and injustice.’
Today the Nigerian government and the oil companies operationg in the Niger Delta will gross over US$120 million from pumping oil and gas in the Niger Delta. Tomorow will be around the same.
Every day, around 2 million barrels of oil are pumped from the Niger Delta. At $60 a barrel, that’s about $12 million. Increasingly, natural gas is also being exported from the Niger Delta, adding to the millions in revenues generated every day.
The International Monetary fund calculated that Nigeria earned over US$350 billion in oil revenues between 1965 and 2000, with oil prices soaring, billions more have been earned. The people of the Delta see this wealth being pumped from around them; the high security compounds of the foreign oil workers a reminder of the wealth being enjoyed y a few. What they get in return, and what they have gotten for the past 50 years, is pitiful. Not only have they received little but they have been made even more impoverished by the pollution, corruption and the conflict that oil production has brought in their midst.
Nigeria is among the fifteen poorest countries in the world and 70% of its people live below the poverty line yet is among the tenth largest producers of crude oil in the world. Oh what a rap of wealth. In fact, life expectancy is only 51.2 compared to the UK average of 78. In the Delta region, less than 30% of the people have access to safe water and the prevalence of mortality rate is the highest in Nigeria.
The villages of the Niger Delta, like many across Nigeria, lack basic amenities; running water, sanitation, health care and schools. The cities overflow with slums. There is no quick fix to the problem of poverty in Nigeria and the vast Niger Delta. There is no shortage of money. In fact, many observers comment that is the vast sums of money generated by the oil and gas that keeps Nigeria poor. They provide irresitable bounty for corrupt politicians and civil servants to fight over. They allow for massive waste in the operation of state.
The corruption that eats away Nigeria’s oil wealth is not carried out in isolation. Multinational oil companies are complicit. For 50 years, shell has done business with every corrupt official and military dictator that has happened to be running Nigeria. It has always been part of the system that rather than enriching Nigeria impoverishes it. Likewise, Chevron, ExxonMoil, Agip and Total, along with hundreds of smaller oil companies, contractors and service companies have done what ever it takes to do business in Nigeria.
Facilitating the epic theft of Nigeria’s oil wealth is an international system of tax havens that enables Nigeria’s elites to disappear billions of dollars without a trace. The UK and US are at the heart of maintaing that system; a system that benefits the rich and harms the poor. If I may ask, my must we remain poor? Is poverty are birth right? Can’t we fight for our fundamental human right and enjoy social amenities like pipe borne water, good roads, sanitation, constant power supply, stable educational like others?
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