Oil Producing Communities Research Articles

Oil exploitation and human rights violations in Nigeria’s oil producing communities

This work found that the continuous violations of human rights of the people to- gether with the poor regulation of oil MNCs in Nigeria are caused by a combination of several factors including: an inadequate legal framework which denies local inhabitants of their rights to land and natural resources; scant regard for environmental considerations; poor enforcement of the relevant environmental laws meant to protect the people and the environment; the Nigerian state ́s over-reliance on oil; prolonged military rule; a high level of corruption in the oil industry and the entire body polity of Nigeria; non-justiciability of the right to a clean environment; and weak institutions such as the judiciary and the National Human Rights Commission. All of these deficiencies continue to date. Coming at a time when governments worldwide are striving to ensure corporate accountability for their activities in host nations, this work is unique in that it incisively analyses how the national and regional institutions could be strengthened to provide effective protection against human rights abuses and ensure corporate accountability. The strengthening of these institutions and the promotion of a rights-based approach to environmental justice in the Niger Delta region therefore deserves concentrated attention and efforts by all actors in the industry.

Oil exploitation and human rights violations in Nigeria’s oil producing communities

With the wind of economic globalisation blowing across the globe, human rights are currently exposed to violation in great proportions by powers other than the State, including multinational corporations (MNCs). Unfortunately, a lot of States, most especially developing countries, including Nigeria, hardly regulate the activities of the MNCs for several reasons, thus creating a regulatory vacuum. Under these conditions, the existing catalogue of civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights of the people, as expressed in both domestic and international human rights law, are adversely affected by the activities of these MNCs. This book, developed from the author’s doctoral/PhD thesis at Ghent University, Belgium critically examines, among others, the various human rights violations and environmental damage associated with oil exploration activities in the oil-producing communities of Nigeria, the international codes of conduct and norms, and the roles and responsibilities of the major MNCs in respect of these violations. Coming at a time when governments worldwide are striving hard to ensure corporate accountability for their activities in their host nations, this work is unique in that it incisively analyses how the national and regional institutions could be strengthened to provide effective protection against human rights abuses and ensure corporate accountability. It discusses in-depth how the human rights concept of environmental protection can be used by victims of environmental harm to promote and achieve environmental justice. The book will, therefore, be of great interest to academics, researchers, legal practitioners, courts, legislators and policymakers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), human rights activists, multinational corporations and their advisors, oil-rich nations, regional and international institutions, and students in law and other related disciplines.

Oil Producing Communities’ Initiatives and the Dynamics of Conflict and Peacebuilding in Niger-Delta

Local initiatives in the dynamics of conflict and peacebuilding are germane in understanding the actions and inactions of a people towards their plights and sustainable development. This study therefore adopts a qualitative methodology in investigating local communities’ initiative in the unending conflicts and peacebuilding processes in Nigeria, using Gokana, Onelga, and Etche communities in Rivers State as case study. Major findings revealed that the roles and networks of key indigenous institutions such as elder’s council, ruling houses, mothers of the land, traditional healers and witch-doctors were vital in directing the affairs of the communities. However, they were often sidelined by government and the multinational corporations. This reality has continuously hindered the development of the region. Similarly, the use of technocrats, educated elites and the relative neglect of local leaders in negotiating peace were discovered as a missing link in the quest for peace and sustainable development in the region. Lastly, the study recommends that peacebuilding and development initiatives should take a bottom-top approach and be devoid of politics for a realistic sustainable development.

Assessment of Radionuclide Concentrations and Absorbed Dose from Consumption of Community Water Supplies in Oil and Gas Producing Areas in Delta State, Nigeria

A survey of radioactivity concentration in water supplies used for domestic and industrial purposes in the oil and gas producing communities of Delta State, Nigeria was carried out using a well-calibrated High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector system. The study area was partitioned into ten sections and a total of two samples per partition were collected for analysis. Samples of water from a non-producing area were also collected as control. In all, a total number of forty three samples were collected and analyzed. Each sample was acidified at the rate of 10 ml of 11 M HCl per litre of water to prevent the absorption of radionuclides into the wall of the container and sealed in a properly cleaned container for at least one month so as to attain a state of secular radioactive equilibrium before analysis. The photopeaks observed with reliable regularity belong to the naturally occurring series-decay radionuclide headed by 238U and 232Th, as well as the non-series decay type 40K. The mean specific activity obtained for 40K was 49 ± 15 Bq L–1 with a range of 6 - 177 Bq L–1 while for 238U, the mean specific activity was 3 ± 1 Bq L–1 with a range of 1 - 12 Bq L–1 and the mean specific activity for 232Th was 3 ± 2 Bq L–1 with a range of 2 - 10 Bq L–1 and the total annual effective dose, which vary between 0 - 2 μSv y–1, did not show any significant health impact.

Violence and National Development in Nigeria: The Political Economy of Youth Restiveness in the Niger Delta

One element in the contradictions underpinning Nigeria's development crisis is the marginalisation of the youth. This article examines the factors that influence youth restiveness in Nigeria's Niger Delta region. It discusses the impact of conservative elite politics and the oil-centric political economy characterised by the impoverishment, neglect and the repression of the oil-producing communities on the youth in the region. The article raises pertinent questions on the violence–development dialectic, drawing upon the context, dynamics, explanations and impact of youth violence in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta. It examines the contradictions and injustices existing against the ethnic minorities of the oil-bearing communities in the region, from the centralisation of oil revenues by the federal centre and how these have generated marginalisation and violent conflict in the region. Detailing the repressive responses by the Nigerian state and the forms of violence that have occurred in the region between 1999 and 2007, the article discusses the implications of youth violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta for national development in Nigeria. It provides a context for understanding the connection between youth involvement in violent conflict and its deleterious impact on Nigeria's development. Tapping into issues of ethnicity and high-stake elite politics, it locates violent youth behaviour in the politics of exclusion and proffers suggestions for restoring the trust of marginalised youth as a necessary step toward development and peace in Nigeria.

Poverty and Poverty Status in Oil Producing Communities of Ondo State, Nigeria.

This paper examined poverty and poverty status in the oil producing communities of Nigeria; using oil-producing communities of Ondo state, Nigeria as a case study. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to collect data on economic characteristics of the household. In the first stage, oil-producing communities were identified. Three communities from coastal areas and three communities from freshwater areas were purposively selected. In each of this area, one hundred and eighty households were randomly picked. This gave the same size of 360 households and where 300 households were successfully and used for further analysis. Twenty- seven percent of the households' consumed 100% of their farm/fish output. Some 50.34% often sold less than 50% of their outputs and 22.33% sold above 50%. Revenue from farming/fishing was estimated to be N159, 624.00 and loss of N175, 350.00. Households that made income losses from farming/fishing activities were 22.66% more than the number of those who did not lose. The results revealed that 60.18 percent of the households fell below the poverty line. Poverty gap index revealed 26.8% and 11.1% for severity of poverty. The majority of the identified poor households depended more on income from farming/fishing livelihood activities. The findings thus, revealed that majority of the households that do not diversified to non-farm livelihood activities were in the poor category. The different poverty levels were attributed to the intervention of oil pollution that led to decrease or loss of livelihood activities in farming/fishing, leading to poor incomes earned. Development of non farm rural activities (NFRA), education, improved health care facilities among other things are recommended as a way of alleviating extreme poverty situations in the area of study.

Transnational Corporations, Civil Society Organisations and Social Accountability in Nigeria's Oil and Gas Industry

Civil agitation against the irresponsible behaviour of transnational corporations (TNCs) engaged in the extraction of oil and gas in Nigeria has intensifi ed in the recent past, a development which has been aided by several factors. Nigeria is ethnically diverse and so, vast arrays of competing interests are always at play in oil and gas-related issues. Also, political events in Nigeria appear to have fostered a modestly active civil society. Nigeria had, in the recent past, been ruled by a seemingly endless number of military dictators. In response, a number of civil groups were formed to provide opposition to the dictatorships. With the advent of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, some of these groups have now channelled their energy and resources to other causes, including corporate responsibility and accountability. Most signifi cantly, civil agitations in Nigeria’s oil producing communities are as much political as they are social. These communities are perhaps the least developed in Nigeria even though they produce almost all of the country’s oil and gas wealth. This has led to their understandable struggle for development and for access to natural resources on their land. This Article considers the potential for civil society groups and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to play useful roles in the regulation of the environmental and social practices of oil and gas companies in Nigeria. Part II provides an overview of conventional regulatory strategies in Nigeria, including public regulation and self-regulation by oil companies. In Part III, the role of NGOs in regulating the conduct of oil and gas companies is analysed, including their impacts on the behaviour of the companies, the government and the judiciary. Part IV dwells on factors hindering the participation of NGOs in the regulatory process in Nigeria. Finally, Part V examines how the regulatory potential of these groups may be enhanced.

Understanding Oil Company – Community Conflicts in the Niger Delta (Nigeria)

This paper examines the contradictory realities that have thrown up the conflicting relationship between oil companies and oil producing communities in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. To achieve this objective, the paper, after the introduction which provides the background and framework of analysis, situated the conflict in its political setting. It established that the privatization and ethnicisation of politics in Nigeria, has resulted to a resource distribution system that alienates Oil Producing Communities from the oil wealth. State legislations on the oil industry and manipulations of the revenue allocation system have made this possible. The article demonstrates that although the causes of the conflicts are complex and interrelated, material deprivation is central to the conflicts. It highlights oil based environmental degradation induced productivity losses and occupational disorientation, inadequate compensation for damages caused by oil industry activities, poor channels of communication by the oil companies, failed community development programmes of the oil companies, among others as causes of the conflicting relationship. The paper notes that current policies have not addressed these factors that motivate conflict. In addition to compensation, the paper suggests the integration of the people into the oil economy, and the direction of public resources to public good as the likely solution.

Physico-chemical and bacteriological quality of rainwater in Egbema, Imo state, Nigeria

Egbema is one of the oil-producing communities in Nigeria and has no access to pipe-borne water, and thus resorts to rainwater as a source of water supply mainly during the rainy season. Physico-chemical and bacteriological quality of rainwater in Egbema was determined with samples harvested directly, from zinc roof, thatched roof and asbestos roof, at different periods of the rainy season namely, Early, peak and late rains. The values of the physico-chemical parameters were on the higher side at the early rains, but moderate (within acceptable range) at the peak and late rains. The values of copper, turbidity, total iron, total hardness and total solids were lowest in rain water harvested directly and highest in that harvested from asbestos roof throughout the rainy period. Generally, the values of the parameters measured in samples from different sources tended to increase in this order: asbestos > thatched roof > zinc roof > direct. The heterotrophic bacterial load was highest at the commencement of rains ranging from 0.45 x 103 cfu/ml to 7.40 x 103 cfu/ml. Also the total coliforms count and fecal coliforms (Escherichia coli) count ranged highest at the early rains between 10 – 22 cfu/100ml and 2 –4 cfu/100ml respectively. The values of heterotrophic bacterial load, total coliforms and fecal coliforms, were within the acceptable range in rainwater samples collected at the peak and late rains. However the bacterial count recorded highest in the samples harvested in the thatched roof and lowest in samples harvested directly direct at the early, peak and late rainy season. This study reveals that rainwater collected at the peak and end of rains from zinc roof and directly if well handled, can be used for drinking and any other domestic purposes. International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences Vol. 2 (4) 2006: pp. 372-376

Sexuality, lifestyles, and the lures of modernity: Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) of female adolescents in the niger delta region of Nigeria

Using interviews, focus group discussions, and case histories, the lived experiences of female adolescents in oil-producing communities of the Niger, Delta region show the negative outcomes of crude oil explorations and petroleum refinery. For many female adolescents, petroleum activities translate into multiple sexual partners, teenage pregnancy and illegal abortion, high exposure to STDs including HIV/AIDS, increasing rate of high school drop-out, and impoverishment due to high unemployment, and low education. Strategies recommended to improve the lived experiences of female adolescents include the protection and defense of the sexual and reproductive rights of female adolescents, which require policies and programs to improve education about adolescents’ sexuality, encourage schooling, and reduce adolescents’ vulnerability.

Socio–economic and environmental impact of crude oil exploration and production on agricultural production: a case study of Edjeba and Kokori communities in Delta State of Nigeria

The study examined the socio-economic and environmental impact of oil exploration on agriculture with particular reference to Edjeba and Kokori communities of Delta State, Nigeria. Both communities are oil-producing communities and agriculture constitutes the primary income generating activities of the indigenes. A 15 item close-ended questionnaires was used to elicit responses from 100 animal, crop and fish farmers. This sample was made up of 55 and 45 farmers randomly drawn from Edjeba and Kokori communities respectively. The results showed that oil exploration and production activities have caused damage to farmlands and water bodies as a result of oil spillage leading to a decrease in agricultural output and hence the income earning capacity of the people has declined appreciably. The results also showed an increase in the occurrence of health hazard, air/noise pollution and heightened deforestation in these communities. It is recommended that regular inspection of oil pipelines, monitoring of oil fields, adequate and timely compensation payments, provision of farm inputs including agricultural extension services and improved seeds be made available to host communities for improved agricultural production. Keywords : socio-economic effects, environment impact, oil production, agriculture, Delta State Global Journal of Environmental Sciences Vol. 4(2) 2005: 171-176

Development Efforts Of Oil Companies As Perceived By Rural Households In Selected Oil Producing Communities Of Rivers State, Nigeria

A total of 120 respondents participated in the study to determine the perceptions of rural households toward oil companies' efforts to reach the hosts (rural dwellers) in 40 randomly selected oil-producing communities of Rivers State. Findings indicated that a lot of efforts have been geared by oil companies to reach their hosts (rural communities) however, 50% of the respondents agreed that such efforts are inadequate and ill-distributed to meet the expectations of the people. About 90.8% of the respondents disagreed that the host communities are highly satisfied with companies' efforts (projects and services) to them. Based on these findings, recommendations were made. Key words: Oil producing communities; oil exploration/production; company's development efforts; Journal of Agriculture and Social Research Vol.4(1) 2004: 60-71

Conflict over Control of Natural Resources in Nigeria: The Case of the Oil-Producing Niger Delta Communities of the South-South States, 1990-2004

Conflict over Control of Natural Resources in Nigeria: The Case of the Oil-Producing Niger Delta Communities of the South-South States, 1990-2004

Analyzing African Formations: Multi-national Corporations, Non-capitalist Relations, and 'Mothers of the Community'

The West gazes hard at the continent it is has exploited for so long. Reflecting Western discourses of Africa as that ‘dark other’, texts use epithets immersed in preconceptions of Africa’s inequality: differences of race and religion, with Western ‘civilization’ standing for, and justifying, unequal power relations of apparent antiquity. Nineteenth-century Royal Geographical Society audiences, enthusiastic supporters of Britain’s growing empire and overseas Christian missions, learned from distinguished travelers about ‘the slave trade’, ‘ju-ju’, ‘paganism and devil worship’, ‘Mecca’, ‘the import-export trade’, ‘white traders’, and ‘black middlemen’. Favorite twentieth-century discourses included ‘black nationalism’, ‘weak states’ and ‘African indebtedness’, ‘corrupt government’, ‘ruthless multi-national oil companies’, ‘environmental pollution’, and ‘poverty’. Twenty-first-century researchers write of ‘endemic violence’ coalescing around inter-state international borders or intra-state ethnic boundaries; ethnic militants fight for ‘ethnic sovereignties’, jostling to wrest from the nation-state customary rights of ownership and control over ‘our god-given’ oil, clashing with giant multi-national corporations that lease from nation-state governments—not oil-producing communities claiming customary ownership—vast blocks of swamp, desert, and sea under which lies ‘black gold’ (Ifeka 2000: 452; cf. Hertz 2001: 194ff.).

Global monitor

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Geoffrey Robertson, QC, Crimes against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice, 2nd edn (Penguin, 2002), p. 473. Reed Brody, Smita Narula, Arvind Ganesan, Joe Stork, Joseph Buttigieg, Jacinda Swanson & Neve Gordon, ‘Human Rights and Global Capitalism: A Roundtable Discussion with Human Rights Watch’, Rethinking Marxism, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2001), pp. 52–71. For example, the Human Rights Watch Arms Project report, Exposing the Source: US Companies and the Production of Anti‐Personnel Mines (April 1997), received specific funding from Radda barnen (Swedish Save the Children). At the time of the report's publication, the Arms Project also acknowledged funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ploughshares Fund and the Ruth Mott Fund. This section is based on much of the information available from the Human Rights Watch website. See http://www.hrw.org for additional information. See http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/china0803/ See http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ukraine0803/ See http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/angola0803/ See Michael Ignatieff, ‘Human rights, sovereignty and intervention’, in: Nicholas Owen (ed.), Human Rights, Human Wrongs (Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 52–87, for a more wide‐ranging discussion. Jeri Laber, The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age with the Human Rights Movement (Public Affairs, 2002), p. 134. See http://www.hrw.org/annual‐report/1998/20years6.html Human Rights Watch World Report 2001, ‘Introduction’. Mary Kaldor, Global Civil Society: An Answer to War (Polity, 2003). Polly Toynbee, ‘Who's afraid of global culture', in: Anthony Giddens & Will Hutton (eds), On The Edge: Living With Global Capitalism (Vintage, 2001), p. 197. Anthony Giddens & Will Hutton, ‘Fighting back’, in: Giddens & Hutton, On The Edge, p. 222. See, for example: Sacrificing Women to Save the Family?: Domestic Violence in Uzbekistan, July 2001; Promises Betrayed: Denial of Rights of Bidun, Women, and Freedom of Expression, October 2000; and Hatred in the Hallways: Violence against Gay, Lesbian, and Transgendered Students in the U.S. Schools, May 2001. See, for example, Spreading Despair: Russian Abuses in Ingushetia, September 2003. See, for example: ‘Iraq: Mass Graves Still Unprotected’, available at http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/05/iraq051103.htm; and The Mass Graves of al‐Mahawil: The Truth Uncovered (May 2003), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/iraq0503/ See http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/05/drc052103.htm Alex de Waal, ‘Becoming Shameless: The Failure of Human Rights Organizations in Rwanda’, Times Literary Supplement, April 1997, pp. 3–4. Brody et al., ‘Human Rights and Global Capitalism’. See also David Rieff, ‘The Precarious Triumph of Human Rights’, The New York Times Magazine, 8 August 1999, section 6, p. 37. See Sanford F. Schram, Words of Welfare: The Poverty of Social Science and the Social Science of Poverty (University of Minnesota Press, 1995), p. 80. One forum for such censure has been the UN Commission on Human Rights, which has been criticised, however, in recent years for allowing a number of violating governments to assemble in the hopes, HRW would argue, of dampening its influence. Brody et al., ‘Human Rights and Global Capitalism’, p. 55. Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project of Human Rights Watch Asia, The Small Hands of Slavery: Bonded Child Labor in India (September 1996), pp. 5, 6. Scared at School: Sexual Violence Against Girls in South African Schools (March 2001), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/safrica/. Double Standards: Women's Property Rights Violations in Kenya (March 2003), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/kenya0303/ ‘Editorial’, Rethinking Marxism, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2000). Robertson, Crimes against Humanity, p. 347. See http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/us.htm Robertson, Crimes against Humanity, p. 369. See http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/us.htm See http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/docs/ken‐icc0909.htm Kaldor, Global Civil Society, p. 7. Afghanistan: The Massacre in Mazar‐i Sharif (November 1998), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports98/afghan/ Humanity Denied: Systematic Violations of Women's Rights in Afghanistan (October 2001), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghan3/ James D. Ross, ‘Promoting Human Rights’, Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 16, No. 2 (2002), pp. 27–32. See also Closed Door Policy: Afghan Refugees in Pakistan and Iran (February 2002), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/pakistan/ Human Rights Watch, September 11: One Year On, A Message to the Human Rights Watch Community, available at http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/09/sept11.html See http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/september11/opportunismwatch.htm Michael Ignatieff, ‘Is the Human Rights Era Ending?’, New York Times, 5 February 2002. See The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities (January 1999), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/nigeria/index.htm See http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/04/ecuador0425.htm See The Enron Corporation: Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Violations (January 1999), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/enron/ Ibid. Peter T. Muchlinski, ‘Human Rights and Multinationals: Is There a Problem?’, International Affairs, Vol. 77, No. 1 (2001), p. 32. See, for example, U.N.: New Standards for Corporations and Human Rights, available at http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/08/un081303.htm No Financing for Russia's War in Chechnya (December 1999), available at http://www.hrw.org/press/1999/dec/chech1215.htm See http://www.hrw.org/asia/china.php See http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/06/ang0622.htm Muchlinski, ‘Human Rights and Multinationals’, p. 35. Additional informationNotes on contributorsAlison M.S. Watson Alison M.S. Watson, Department of International Relations, University of St Andrews, United College, North Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL, Scotland, UK. Alison M.S. Watson, Department of International Relations, University of St Andrews, United College, North Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL, Scotland, UK.

The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities

The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities

Right to a clean environment: the case for the people of oil-producing communities in the Nigerian delta

Commercial exploration and exploitation of Nigeria's petroleum resources began in 1956 when large deposits of hydrocarbon were discovered at Oloibiri in the present Rivers State of Nigeria. Since the delivery of the first consignment of crude oil to Europe in 1958, activities in Nigeria's oil industry have witnessed a dramatic increase. As the sixth largest producer in OPEC, Nigeria contributes nearly two million barrels of crude petroleum to the global oil market. Petrodollars from the sale of crude oil in the last four decades have brought a phenomenal change in the country's economy. Ironically, the oil industry, which has brought development to many parts of Nigeria, has become a source of misery to the people of oil-producing communities whose existence is now threatened by the scourge of oil pollution.