Our Oil, Our Life.

by Eze Eluchie

One more reason why we are where we are and the rest of the world are where they are: As a result of an oil spill at Chevron facility in Brazil, the Brazilian Government has halted all Chevron prospecting and crude lifting operations in Brazil. In addition to criminal and civil suits filed against British Petroleum by the United States Government over the 2010 Gulf oil spill, a U.S. District Court awarded well over U.S.$7 Billion in damages in partial settlement to some persons affected by the same spill – this figure is bound to rise astronomically as the total impact of damages gets assessed.

 

Faced with much larger oil spills and the worst environmental destruction in human history, what do the kleptocrats manning the Nigerian government do?

 

Our goons deploy Nigerian troops and security operatives to shoot, kill and terrorize locals who dare express disapproval for the inhumane activities of oil prospecting activities in Nigeria and intent on rubbing the injury in, award national honors to officials of multinational oil firms - a 'keep-up-the-destructive-work' kind of award. With millions of barrels of crude routinely being spilled all over the Niger Delta region, destroying our ecosystem, further pauperizing the locals in the areas in question.

 

The oil conglomerates hire personnel of Nigerian national security agencies (the Army, Navy and Police) to turn their guns on the hapless citizens any time the said citizens dare to complain of the sordid effects of oil spills.

 

Under our present dispensation, rulers who ascended to office sequel to very violent militant agitations for 'resource control and equity' by people from oil producing areas, one would have thought there would have been some positive changes. No way, the situation is now far worse.

 

Are the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians living in the oil-rich Niger Delta region being wasted of less value than the lives of those living in oil producing areas elsewhere? 

It definitely is possible, as has been proved in other climes, for oil exploratory and drilling activities to be executed in a sustainable manner.

Does the situation in Nigeria have to be any different?

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/23/world/americas/brazil-chevron/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Picture: Oil spill in Nigeria's Niger delta region