A major militant group in Nigeria’s troubled Niger Delta announced a sixty day ceasefire yesterday after the government released a top commander earlier in the week. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has been behind most of the region’s recent troubles and are responsible for several high profile kidnappings and attacks on oil installations in the area. In May, the military launched a counteroffensive that successfully destroyed some MEND bases, but also found civilians unwillingly caught in the middle of the conflict. The release of top official Henry Okah was a key demand made by MEND, and along with the political amnesty that the government offered last month, many are hoping that this long-standing conflict may be coming to an end. But many other observers have serious doubts since the major issue plaguing the oil-rich region is not political problem, but rather an economic one.
Viable oil deposits were first found in the Niger Delta in 1956 and were quickly exploited by foreign oil companies. This being Nigeria, the government took its share as well. Subsequent legal amendment under various regimes reduced the property rights of the Delta’s indigenous population, forcing many to abandon their agricultural land in favor of oil exploration with little to no compensation. The end result has been that while Nigeria is today one of the world’s largest exporters of oil, the local population whose land once sat above the oil have consistently become poorer over time, not benefiting from the oil production and having to deal with the massive ecological damage that has resulted.
The militant groups in the Delta seek the economic opportunities that they have been denied and proper compensation for their land in the form of oil royalty back payments from both the government and key international oil companies, namely Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron. While they advocate this position in less than savory ways (kidnapping, property destruction, murder, etc.), they are legitimate grievences that are not likely to go away. A recent report from Amnesty International summed up the situation by stating:
Pollution and environmental damage caused by the oil industry have resulted in violations of the rights to health and a healthy environment, the right to an adequate standard of living (including the right to food and water) and the right to gain a living through work for hundreds of thousands of people . . . The Niger Delta is one of the world’s 10 most important wetland and coastal marine ecosystems and is home to some 31 million people. It is also the location of massive oil deposits, which have been extracted for decades by the government of Nigeria and by multinational oil companies.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) describes the region as suffering from “administrative neglect, crumbling social infrastructure and services, high unemployment, social deprivation, abject poverty, filth and squalor, and endemic conflict.” This poverty, and its contrast with the wealth generated by oil, has become one of the world’s starkest and most disturbing examples of the “resource curse”.
The problem with the amnesty offered by the government is that it does not address any of these problems. Instead, it appears to be a superficial attempt to bribe the militants to stop fighting, thereby allowing oil production to return to previous levels. The current conflict has reduced oil production in the region by as much as 20%, but has the potential to be much worse. Currently, it does not appear that the government plans to open a dialogue with MEND or any other militant group, but instead expects them to accept the amnesty and continue living under these conditions. This will not work. But it is also not just the responsibility of the Nigerian government to find a solution to the problem. The Niger Delta represents just one more place where “blood oil” trumps all other considerations and where foreign corporations are allowed to act with impunity. This is a mindset that we need to change not just individually, but as a global society. Otherwise, it is unlikely that conflict will truly end in the Niger Delta and we will continue to support these massive human rights abuses with every tank of gas we purchase, and that should be unacceptable.
