Nigeria and the Oil Crisis
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
The petroleum industry in Nigeria is the largest industry and main generator of GDP in Africa’s most populous nation. Since the British discovered oil in the Niger Delta in the late 1950s, the oil industry has been married by political and economic strife due to a long history of corrupt military regimes and the complicity of multinational corporations, notably Royal Dutch Shell. However it was not until the early 1990s, after the Nigerian state execution of playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, that the situation was given international attention, leading to the immediate suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations. Nigeria is identified as a major concern regarding human rights and environmental degradation by the international community and the firms that operate there. The Nigerian government, oil corporations, and oil-dependent Western countries have been criticised as too slow to implement reforms aimed at aiding a desperately underdeveloped area and remediating the unsustainable environmental degradation that petroleum extraction has caused.
The Niger Delta, as now defined officially by the Nigerian government, extends over about 70,000 km² and makes up 7.5% of Nigeria’s land mass. Historically and cartographically, it consists of present day Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers States. In 2000, however, Obansanjo's regime included Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River State, Edo, Imo and Ondo States in the region. Some 31 million people of more than 40 ethnic groups including the Bini, Efik, Ibibio, Annang, Oron, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Isoko, Urhobo, Ukwuani, and Kalabari, are among the inhabitants in the Niger Delta, speaking about 250 different dialects. The Niger Delta, and the "South South Zone", which includes Akwa Ibom State, Bayelsa State, Cross River State, Delta State, Edo State and Rivers State are two different entities. While the Niger Delta is the oil producing region the South South
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
The petroleum industry in Nigeria is the largest industry and main generator of GDP in Africa’s most populous nation. Since the British discovered oil in the Niger Delta in the late 1950s, the oil industry has been married by political and economic strife due to a long history of corrupt military regimes and the complicity of multinational corporations, notably Royal Dutch Shell. However it was not until the early 1990s, after the Nigerian state execution of playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, that the situation was given international attention, leading to the immediate suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations. Nigeria is identified as a major concern regarding human rights and environmental degradation by the international community and the firms that operate there. The Nigerian government, oil corporations, and oil-dependent Western countries have been criticised as too slow to implement reforms aimed at aiding a desperately underdeveloped area and remediating the unsustainable environmental degradation that petroleum extraction has caused.
The Niger Delta, as now defined officially by the Nigerian government, extends over about 70,000 km² and makes up 7.5% of Nigeria’s land mass. Historically and cartographically, it consists of present day Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers States. In 2000, however, Obansanjo's regime included Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River State, Edo, Imo and Ondo States in the region. Some 31 million people of more than 40 ethnic groups including the Bini, Efik, Ibibio, Annang, Oron, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Isoko, Urhobo, Ukwuani, and Kalabari, are among the inhabitants in the Niger Delta, speaking about 250 different dialects. The Niger Delta, and the "South South Zone", which includes Akwa Ibom State, Bayelsa State, Cross River State, Delta State, Edo State and Rivers State are two different entities. While the Niger Delta is the oil producing region the South South