Environmental pollution, variegated violence: the fizzling bond of Delta State diaspora from their homeland

Abstract

Since crude oil was discovered in Oloibiri, present-day Bayelsa State in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, its exploration by the multinational oil companies has continued unfettered. With this exploration resulting in wanton environmental destruction, the consequences are manifested in several ways. For instance, in Delta State, one of the constituent states of the Niger Delta, people’s socio-economic lives have plummeted owing to the discontinuance of their traditional farming and fishing trades. Indigenes have continued to migrate in the search for greener pastures, as a way of mitigating their socio-economic challenges. While it is expected that those who move out of the state would express empathy towards the homeland and justify the developmental agency arrogated to them, these migrants (who also fit the bill of diaspora) end up displaying ethnic ambivalence. Following a qualitative research design, data collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 Delta State diaspora living in London, and five victims of environmental pollution in the state, were subjected to descriptive analysis. In addition to the established causes, this study identifies environmental pollution as causal factor of ethnic ambivalence, and concludes that the consequences go beyond the obvious to destroy the relationships that give meaning and essence to human existence.