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Vol. 5, No. 1 i
A F R I C A N A SPECIAL ISSUE: THE NIGER DELTA
Volume 5, No. 1
Editor-in-Chief A. Curtis Burton Managing Editor Christopher LaMonicaIT Consultant Mariko Hemmingsen
Board Members:
John Akokpari Masse NdiayeLere Amusan Stanley Naribo NgoaPriya Chacko J. Shola OmotolaMourtada Deme Karen SmithIbaba Samuel Ibaba Kathryn Sturman
Christopher LaMonica Françoise UgochukwuVictoria Mason Douglas Yates
A F R I C A N A
Boston UniversityAfrican Studies Center
232 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02210U.S.A.
Print: ISSN 2155-7829On-line: ISSN 2155-7837
www.africanajournal.org
http://www.africanajournal.org/http://www.africanajournal.org/http://www.africanajournal.org/
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Africana is printed by Country Press, Inc., Middleboro, MA USA
www.countrypressinc.com
COVER PHOTO: © Paulhenk | Dreamstime.comBoy on a boat on the Niger river Photo taken on: November 17th, 2008
© Africana. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any form without permission in writing from the publisher.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the articles contained in this publication
do not necessarily represent the views of anyone affiliated with Africana or of
anyone at the African Studies Center at Boston University.
http://www.countrypressinc.com/http://www.countrypressinc.com/
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Vol. 5, No. 1 iii
CONTENTS
v To Our Readers and Supporters
vi From the Editors
1 Oil and Cultural Crisis: The Case of the Niger Delta,
Nigeria
S.O. Aghalino, PhD
22 Environmental Justice, Democracy and the Inevitability
of Cultural Change in Nigeria: A Critical Analysis of the
Niger Delta Dilemma
Kelly Bryan Ovie Ejumudo, PhD
49 Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) Proliferation
and Instability in the Niger Delta: An Analysis of the
Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR)Process
George I.J Obuoforibo, PhD
74 The Minorities and Resource Allocation in a Transitional
State. The Nigeria Experience 1960-1999
Ekanade Olumide, PhD
108 ‘Agony in the Garden’: Incongruity of Governance and
the Travails of Port Harcourt City, Niger Delta, Nigeria,
1912-2010
Akachi Odoemene, PhD
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140 The Nigerian Press, The Public Sphere And Sustainable
Development: Engaging the Post Amnesty Deal in the
Niger Delta
Uzoechi Nwagbara
164 Charting Pathways to Development in the Riverine Areas
of the Niger Delta Region
O.J. Offiong and Jude Cocodia
189 Armed Militancy in the Niger Delta: Quintessential Play-Off of Sub-Regional Economic Disparities
Franklins A. Sanubi, PhD
216 Amnesty Programme and the Niger Delta: Overview of
Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR)
Strategy for Sustainable Peace
Atare Otite, PhD and Nathaniel Umukoro
238 Amnesty and Peace-Building in the Niger Delta:
Addressing the Frustration-Aggression Trap
Ibaba Samuel Ibaba, PhD
272 External Challenges to Moving Toward Sustainability in
the Niger Delta Region: Why a Critical Assessment of the
Classical Epistemologies and Developmental
Assumptions of External Actors Matters
Christopher LaMonica, PhD
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To Our Readers and Supporters
During the month of February 2011 the Editorial Board of Africana
was reconstituted. A number of former Board Members graciously
stepped-down to welcome a new group and, beyond the full list of
their names provided above, an overview of their professional
affiliations and research interests is now posted at
http://www.africanajournal.org , our new and improved web-page.
As part of this process, the former Editorial Coordinator, Yilma Tafere
Tasew, was formally replaced by A. Curtis Burton, who has a lifetimeof experience and interest in literature, writing and editing. Suffice it
to say here that the backgrounds, credentials and talents of our new
Editorial Board are impressive by any standard.
To all of those who supported Africana in the past, a sincere ‘thank
you,’ and to all of the new members of our team, a warm ‘welcome.’
With this Special Issue we inaugurate a new and exciting era for
Africana. We have the support of an incredibly talented group ofdedicated scholars, who are involved in the peer review process and
many other supportive roles that help to make an exciting journal like
this one possible. In addition, we are greatly aided by the capable
support of our IT Consultant, Mariko Hemmingsen. Together with A.
Curtis Burton and Françoise Ugochukwu, Ms. Hemmingsen has
developed a new web-page design (effective March 2011), which will
undoubtedly provide even greater appeal and exposure to all future
Africana publications. I am truly excited about the continued success
of the journal and very much look forward to working with all of you.
Christopher LaMonica
Managing Editor, Africana
Boston, MA U.S.A.
http://www.africanajournal.org/http://www.africanajournal.org/http://www.africanajournal.org/
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From the Editors
It is with great pleasure that we present to you this Special Issue of
Africana.
This compilation of scholarship on the Niger Delta Region (NDR) has
been over a year in the making; it is very unique and very special. For
starters, the contributors are almost exclusively from Nigeria and
from the Niger Delta region, specifically. These are not the words of
dispassionate scholars who work under a pretense of objectivity; eachone of the contributors writes about this subject because they care
deeply about the ongoing and seemingly endless plight of the NDR.
Tragically, far too many in African/Africana studies scholarship are
required to operate under a veil of objectivity, something that
continues to dominate all of mainstream approaches to the social
sciences. We fully understand and appreciate the push, some would
say ‚need,‛ for ‚scientific‛ approaches to the study of all social woes
and those very methodologies are employed here. All of thecontributors to this Special Issue have included careful consideration
of ideas and data from, for example, academia, governments, NGOs,
international organizations, and others. But there is no pretense of
having been offered a proverbial ‚hat‛ with random social science
questions scribbled on little pieces of paper from which each
contributor has chosen from. The very social science issues that all
social scientists research and write about, and become ‚experts‛ in ,
are due to quite random and personal life circumstances. Most often
we are touched by one or another aspect of human struggle – often
our own – and delve into all forms of study with an innate human
sense for what is right and what is wrong.
The Call for scientific rationality and methodologies will sometimes
downplay the aforementioned, somehow assuming and promoting
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the view that those human senses are inherently dangerous and
therefore should not be a part of social science inquiry. We firmly
believe that human sensitivity toward and empathy for our fellow
man is tragically undervalued in the social sciences. Following in the
logic of philosopher George Santayana, the late Edward Said, and
Canadian critic John Ralston Saul, we believe that the lessons of the
Enlightenment have been hijacked by a world of thinkers and
practitioners who are, in their pursuit of rational scientific inquiry,
neglecting that other important lesson of the Enlightenment:
reasonable-ness , i.e. that each of us by virtue of being human hasinalienable rights and, as such, must be included as a critical factor in
all discussions of policy. Modes of rational scientific inquiry, now and
in history, have all too often neglected that basic fact: each of us
matters.
It is perfectly understandable that many feel empowered by scientific
methods and productive outcomes – to include those of the oil
industries; indeed the entire world is being transformed as a result!But we cannot forget our common human-ness along the way; we
cannot set aside enormous populations on this Earth and simply write
them off as a cost of our rationalist scientific enterprise. Let us put
this even more bluntly: Hitler and Stalin were similarly ‚justified‛ in
their scientific pursuits of Nazism and Communism, respectively. We
all know – all of us – that ‚breaking a few eggs to make an omelet ,‛ as
Stalin infamously put it, is wrong. Yet this is fundamentally the
‚logic‛ of far too many who are now engaged in African affairs. Andso we remind our readers that that approach, so evident in a place like
the Niger Delta Region, is wrong, inappropriate, and in the words of
so many who inspired the Spirit of the Enlightenment: unreasonable.
The test of reasonable-ness makes us think of things that are often
listed as ‚costs‛ in an otherwise more practical or pragmatic mode:
human lives, the quality of life, the environment, arts, cultures,
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identities, aesthetics, purpose and meaning. These need not be mere
impediments to development, as they are so often portrayed; they
must be carefully considered, particularly by those who currently
hold the reins of power. Looking at tragedies in regions like the Niger
Delta some simply throw their hands in the air and conclude that
those industrial and governmental leaders, those policy-makers, will
have to some day ‚answer to a higher power‛ for what they have
done. To that we would add that there should always be a test of
‚reasonable-ness‛ on their minds and, if there continues to be
evidence to the contrary, an increasingly aware Nigerian andinternational public will endeavor to hold them accountable for their
wrongful actions.
With that objective in mind, we firmly believe that this Special Issue
could be one of the best sources currently available on the subject of
the Niger Delta. The submissions that were ultimately selected by
Africana’s Editorial Board address a range of timely themes related to
the dramatic pace of change and challenge within the NDR. The first,entitled ‚Oil and Cultural Crisis: The Case of the Niger Delta,‛ by
S.O. Aghalino , of the Department of History, University of Ilorin,
Ilorin, Nigeria, is a heart-wrenching discussion of the ongoing
challenges that the petro-business has wrought on the region’s
indigenous norms and cultures. Aghalino draws on the extant
literature and local news sources to describe the horrors that have
accompanied the oil industry’s impacts throughout the region:
displacement of people, a rise in crime and prostitution, a rise ofethnic conflicts, and the steady decline of local chief authority.
Understandably, Aghalino refers to this as a ‘cultural crisis’; all of it
needs to be documented and heard.
The next piece, entitled ‚Environmental Justice, Democracy and the
Inevitability of Cultural Change in Nigeria: A Critical Analysis of the
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Niger Delta Dilemma,‛ by Kelly Bryan Ovie Ejumudo of the
Department of Political Science, Delta State University, Abraka,
Nigeria, quickly demonstrates the range of thinking that takes place,
within Nigeria, over these very issues. Here the term ‘cultural
change’ is portrayed as inevitable but the author is similarly
concerned with how effectively those in power – within what she
terms ‘Nigeria’s pseudo democracy’ – will address the Niger Delta’s
many challenges. She applies general principles of democracy and
emerging concepts of ‘environmental justice’ to these problems and
provides an important snapshot of where the region is right now – what she terms: shallow democratic institutions, weak culture, and
environmental injustice.
We follow this with a reminder of the life-and-death challenge of
small and light arms proliferation in the region by George I.J.
Obuoforibo. His article is entitled ‚Small Arms and Light Weapons
(SALW) Proliferation and Instability in the Niger Delta: An Analysis
of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR)Process.‛ Obuoforibo is an academic that specializes in International
Relations and Political and Administrative Studies in the Department
of Social Sciences at the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State,
Nigeria. We are infinitely grateful to him for his contribution. As he
rightly points out, the problem has been recognized internationally.
Yet far too little has been done to address the problem: researchers
note!
This is followed by yet another aspect of the problem: the politics of
revenue sharing. Ekanade Olumide , of the Department of History
and International Relations at Redeemer’s University, Nigeria, has
submitted an article entitled ‚Minorities and Resource Allocation in a
Transitional State: The Nigeria Experience 1960-1999,‛ that highlights
the politics of fiscal federalism in Nigeria and how it has adversely
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impacted the Niger Delta region. Providing key data on revenues
from an historical perspective, he argues that the politics of revenue
sharing has marginalized the interests of minorities in the region.
Akachi Odoemene’s piece, entitled ‚Agony in the Garden:
Incongruity of Governance and the Travails of Port Harcourt City,
Niger Delta, Nigeria, 1912-2010,‛ reminds us that Port Harcourt,
Nigeria’s Garden City, was a desirable home for all. In recent times,
he argues, ‚it has been transformed into a city with a rough and
tumble character.‛ He looks at the problem from an historian’sperspective, documents a range of comments made during the
aforementioned transition and concludes, as so many others have,
that oil is at the root of so many of the region’s problems. Readers
beware: like Aghalino’s piece, Odoemene’s discussion of social
violence and other problems in the region might well leave you, as it
did us, wringing your hands in frustration.
Uzoechi Nwagbara introduces yet another way of thinking of theregion and that is from the perspective of the effectiveness and/or
ineffectiveness of the Nigerian press. With the undoubted power of
today’s media, in Nigeria as elsewhere, Nwagbara’s message is an
important one: ‚In order to achieve peace and good governance in the
region, serious grassroots and national information dissemination so
as to guarantee objectivity and fairness in news reporting thereby
impacting on the regime’s governance is required.‛ In his discussion,
Nwagbara masterfully takes us to the ideas of Habermas on thecrucial importance of having a ‘rational-critical debate’ in the ‘public
sphere.’ Nwagbara’s ultimate concern and hope is for having
Nigeria’s media support peace in the wake of the Amnesty deal
brokered by President Yar’Adua.
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Still others, like O.J. Offiong (University of Benin, Benin City,
Nigeria) and Jude Cocodia (Niger Delta University, Wilberforce
Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria), look to the problem of ‘development’
in their piece entitled, ‚Charting Pathways to Development in the
Riverine Areas of the Niger Delta Region.‛ They point to Ken Saro
Wiwa’s comments that suggest ‚the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria is a
paradox.‛ Indeed, the region has not fared well in terms of local
development, while the holders of power (they focus mostly on the oil
MNCs, whom they term as the ‚worse culprit of the quick money
syndrome‛) have assuredly benefited handsomely. Their point is toemphasize the importance of improving local human resource
development, something which has thus far eluded the leaders of oil
MNCs, the Ministry of the Niger Delta, and the Niger Delta
Development Commission. Our reading of this well-written piece
leaves us with the impression that oil MNCs could really do more to
make sure that, somehow, this is made to happen.
Franklins A. Sanubi , of the Department of Political Science, DeltaState University, Abraka, Nigeria, has submitted a piece entitled
‚Armed Militancy in the Niger Delta: Quintessential Play-Off of Sub-
Regional Economic Disparities.‛ In it he reiterates some of the
messages mentioned earlier in this issue: sub-national marginalization
of the region and the problem of growing economic disparities. But
Sanubi suggests that the problem of armed militancy should not be
over-simplified as being due to economic disparity alone; the problem
is much more complex and leaves many within the region feelingfundamentally marginalized. He reminds us of this simple fact:
‚Three dominant ethnic groups – the Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Ibo –
call the shots in Nigeria’s political determinism since independence
and none of the major ethnic groups in the Niger Delta fall into these
three.‛ Moreover, Sanubi carefully demonstrates that the federal
government continues to enjoy the lion’s share of oil revenues.
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Sanubi concludes that Abuja’s meaningful inclusion of heretofore
marginalized groups, and not cynical moves motivated by a
continuation of the same, is the path to peace.
Atare Otite and Nathaniel Umukoro , also of the Department of
Political Science at Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria, return to
the issue of Amnesty in a piece entitled ‚Amnesty Programme and
the Niger Delta: Overview of Disarmament, Demobilization, and
Reintegration (DDR) Strategy for Sustainable Peace.‛ In a careful
presentation of the DDR and secondary data, Otite and Umukorosuggest that ‚sustainable peace can only be ensured if the root causes
of violence in the Niger Delta are identified and ameliorated.‛ They
rightly remind us of the simple if tragic fact that the people of the
Niger Delta are deeply concerned about the problems of rising
poverty, unemployment, social strife, and environmental decay and
want to see these issues somehow, some way, improved. On this
same subject we have included a piece by Ibaba Samuel Ibaba , who
specializes in the Niger Delta conflict. Ibaba frames the issue in whathe terms the ‚frustration-aggression trap‛ and highlights the
challenges it poses to peace-building. Similar yet different, these two
papers provide important insights into local academic thinking on the
prospects for peace in the Niger Delta.
The last contribution, entitled ‚External Challenges to Moving
Toward Sustainability in the Niger Delta Region: Why a Critical
Assessment of the Classical Epistemologies and Developmental
Assumptions of External Actors Matters ,‛ comes to us from
Africana’s Managing Editor, Christopher LaMonica, of the
Department of Humanities, Government Section, United States Coast
Guard Academy. LaMonica argues that most external actors are
solely focused on changing the internal dynamics of Nigeria (e.g.
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internal corruption, the dominance of particular ethnic groups) and
tend to ignore the broader, global picture. He argues that more
emphasis should be placed on the lack of international responsibility
for the current crisis in the NDR. External actors working for oil
companies, international ‚watchdogs‛ like the International Energy
Agency, and donor states, have only helped to create the crisis by
focusing solely on their own respective interests. LaMonica argues
that mutually beneficial results can be achieved if a longer-term and
ultimately more sustainable perspective is employed. Achieving that
aim will require a critical assessment, by all, of the ‚classic‛assumptions that external actors make about commerce and
development. In other words, the developmental problems of the
NDR are largely rooted in the ‚waste land‛ assumptions that many
external actors make when engaging stakeholders in an oil-rich state
like Nigeria.
As outside observers we are certain of one thing: the world needs to
know more about the plight of the people of the Niger Delta.Hopefully this Special Issue will help to make that happen.
As always, we thank you for your continued interest in Africana.
A. Curtis Burton
Editor-in-Chief, Africana
Washington, D.C. U.SA
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Oil and Cultural Crisis: The Case of the Niger Delta
Dr. S.O. Aghalino1
Key Terms: Nigeria, Niger Delta, oil industry, migration, petroleum,
prostitution, spillage.
Introduction
The Niger Delta is one of the ten most important wetland and
coastal marine ecosystems in the world. It is home to some 31 millionpeople. (Report of the Niger Delta Technical Committee, November
2008:102). The Niger Delta is also the location of massive oil and gas
deposits, which have been exploited since 1956. Oil has generated an
estimated $600 billion since the commercial exploitation of oil in
Nigeria. Despite this, the majority of the people in the oil bearing
enclave of the Niger Delta are conspicuously poor. The United
Nations Development Programme (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’ (UNDP , 2006).
What the UNDP failed to add is that the region is also embroiled in
cultural crisis engendered by the activities of the oil majors.
The Niger Delta remains one of the critical fault lines of Nigerian
politics. Not only is it the region that holds Nigeria’s predominantlyoil reserves and therefore, the national wealth, it has assumed a new
geopolitical importance in the context of global oil politics. Like many
oil producing countries, the region has not been spared the agony of
recurring violent conflicts associated with the management of oil
resources (Oyefusi, 2007).
1 S.O. Aghalino, PhD , is with the Department of History, University of Ilorin,Ilorin, Nigeria. His e-mail is [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]
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Since the mid 1990s, there has been on-going violence and uprising in
the Niger Delta region with a renewed call for self-determination and
/or local control of oil resources. These conflicts, often attended by
kidnapping of foreign oil workers for ransom, vandalization and
sometimes blow-up of oil installations, have taken on a frightening
dimension over the years. According to a report by Hamilton and
others (2004), violence in the Niger Delta alone is estimated to have
killed about 1000 persons a year between 1999 and 2004. This chapter
focuses on one dimension of the crisis in the Niger Delta: the cultural
crisis. Attempt is made to dissect and explicate the nature of thecultural crisis in the region. Conventional analysis of the crisis in the
ND seems to down play the ancillary impact of the oil industry with a
focus on the flora and the fauna. This, as it were must have blurred
the intricacy of the issues in contention. Thus, a holistic assessment of
the crisis must also take cognizance of the culture of the people that is
constantly violated and has subsequently engendered a strange sub-
culture detrimental to every life in the region. Our analysis charts the
common ground of oil induced behavioral modification that seems to be impairing a hitherto tranquil and harmonious society. In this light,
a concise discourse of the oil industry in the region is undertaken to
lay a background to the cultural crisis in the area. This is done against
the backdrop of an analysis of the precise causes of the social
disequilibrium and the resultant break down of culture in the region.
Petro-Business in the Niger Delta
The Niger Delta region has been defined in terms of geology,geography and ethnography (Onokerhoraye, 2000). There is hardly
any controversy over the geological, geographical and ethnographical
description of the Niger Delta Region (NDR). With the ascendancy of
crude oil, the NDR is synonymous, in the perception of many
Nigerians, with oil provinces of the delta. The NDDC Act, 2000, and
the OMPADEC Act of 1992 would seem to have accentuated this
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perception (Ekuerhare, 2006). The Niger Delta region has a population
of 27 million, covering an area of 70,000 square kilometers, with 5,000
communities, 50 ethnic groups and 250 dialects. The region is not only
rich in oil and gas but in other natural resources like timber and wild
life. The significant feature of the Niger Delta is the general state of
underdevelopment, not only by world standard but also in relation to
many parts of the country. Currently, Nigeria is the eighth largest oil-
exporting country in the world with oil revenue accounting for about
80 % of total government revenue, 95 % of foreign exchange earnings,
40% contribution to GDP and about 4 % of employment. Nigeria is thelargest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, with about 32 per cent and
34.2 per cent of Africa’s oil and gas reserves respectively, the fifth
largest exporting country in the OPEC and the fifth largest oil
exporting country to the US (eia.doe.gov). Nigeria’s proven reserve
are estimated to be 36 billion barrels while the country’s natural gas
reserves are even bigger, estimated at well over 100 trillion cubic feet
(Tell, February 18, 2008:33 ).What to note is that the Niger Delta
region of Nigeria is the goose that lays the golden egg as oilexploitation is concentrated in the region.
So much wealth is derived from the bowel of the region yet, the
scourge of poverty in the region is grim with people lacking basic
human needs and the environment willfully and constantly degraded
by oil companies (Dafinone David, 2008).When the World Bank
carried a comprehensive study of the region in 1995, it arrived at the
following conclusions: The Niger Delta is the least developed area ofNigeria. Per capital income was less than $280 per annum, with a
high-rising population. Indices of development such as education,
health, sanitation, job creation, water and other physical
infrastructures, were far below acceptable standards. Environmental
resources were gradually being degraded, and there was an extremely
poor human capacity and basic skills. In the same vein the 2006 Niger
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Delta Human Development Report by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP, 2006) arrived at the same bleak
conclusion. This contrasts sharply with Qatar, a country of one million
people, has the highest per capital income in the world, put at $80,000.
(Tell, July 14, 2008:30). By the 1990s, these long years of neglect and
deprivation, as well as failures of addressing the development
challenges prevalent in the region, had created a volatile atmosphere
where youths disrupted oil production activities at will and
communities frequently engaged, with little provocation, in
destructive inter and intra- community strife (Aghalino, 2010). Intandem with this social disequilibrium is a concomitant cultural crisis
in the region which has denuded the societal umbilical cord and has
also engendered a ‘cash-and carry’ subculture.
Oil and Cultural Crisis in the Niger Delta
Section 1 of the Cultural Policy for Nigeria (1998) defines
culture as the totality of the technical products, philosophers’ worldview, institutions and creative/artistic practices which a people
fashion to cope with the challenges of living in their environment. It
is these elements which distinguish one people from another (Darah,
1995). According to Taylor (1871), culture taken in its widest
ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which included
knowledge, art, morals, laws, customs, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as a member of society (Fayeye, 2009).
UNESCO, 2002) presents culture as distinctive spiritual, material,intellectual and emotional features of society or social group, and that
it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of
living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs. Indeed, culture
refers to a configuration of learned and shared patterns of behavior
and of understanding concerning the meaning and value of things,
ideas, emotions and actions. As noted by Darah (1995), the technical
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dimension of culture comprises the instruments and tools designed
and produced to enable a people exploit the resources of their
environment to satisfy their basic needs.
There is a considerable corpus of literature on culture of the Niger
Delta (Darah, 1995; Azaiki, 2003). It is to be noted that colonial rule
and later Christianity had put tremendous pressure on all layers of
society, leading to diminution of cultural identity and self esteem.
Cash crop agriculture and the capitalist economy had introduced a
modicum of social organization and behavior that relatively alteredthe traditional indigenous system. Yet it must be noted that at this
stage, industrialization was low so rural solidarity, moral purity and
social values were still intact. Before the incursion of the oil industry,
there was relative stability in the demography and social relations of
the communities. Most people had access to the basic things of life
because oil-induced inflation had not set in. Communities in the
region organized communal festivals whose program featured
religious ceremonies, purification rites, the launch of new dance steps,masquerades and other artistic activities. These artistic institutions, as
observed by Darah, helped to mobilize energy to reinforce social
solidarity and to identify, train and promote talents in song
composition, performance, and organization of events and the hosting
of visitors. The idyllic society where culture moderated daily activities
was to be completely shaken and devastated by the incursion of the
oil industry.
The link between unsustainable petroleum exploitation in the Niger
Delta and the destruction of the indigenous homeland and culture of
the people is undeniable. Traditional lands have been sacrificed on the
altar of irresponsible oil policies. The point of interest is that the
environmental degradation occasioned by oil pollution and gas
flaring is instrumental to the cultural crisis in the region. It would
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appear a concise discussion of the cultural crisis in the Niger Delta
cannot be adequately tackled without perfunctory references to land
issues. Oil industry activities are largely predicated on their unrestrained
access to land because they derive their oil from the earth crust. The
oil-bearing enclave on the other hand, depends on land to grow their
food, fish and hunt. Land is central to the social system of the people of
the Niger Delta as well as other parts of Nigeria. In this respect, clashes
between the people and oil firms are inevitable.
The acquisition of land by the oil firms for pipelines rights of ways,flow lines, flow stations and gas flaring sites normally engender
acrimony between oil firms and host communities. Shell, for example,
has over 6,200 kilometers network of pipelines and flow stations spread
over more than 31,000 square kilometers of the Niger Delta (Shell,
1995). One major feature of land in the Niger Delta is the
predominance of pipelines that transverses footpaths, farmland and
community ponds. These networks of pipelines disrupt foot
communications and farming. They have also altered the pristine landtenure system of the people. Farmers could no longer engage in bush
burning because of the presence of oil and gas pipelines, which are
highly inflammable. From the face value, it would appear that "land
take" by the oil firms is insignificant. Shell for example claims that it uses
about 400 square kilometer of land, which is about 0.6 per cent of the
entire land of the Niger Delta. Most of the land acquired by Shell is for
long term use, such as well sites, offices, but some for the short term
only, such as seismic lines. As at the end of 1998, there was a total of1,513 well sites within the company's operations out of which a total of
906 contained producing wells (Shell, 1998). While the total land-take
may appear small in general terms, the effect of the land acquired can
be serious on individual land holding as well as the community in
general depriving them means of subsistence. A tacit manifestation of the
seriousness of the impact of land -take on the people of the Niger Delta is
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seen in the incessant land disputes and the consequent litigation
between individuals, groups, communities and the oil firms. In
most cases, these disputes are fuelled by the quantum of
compensation paid to land owners as well as payments of
compensations to the wrong families (Fekumo, 1990; Frynas, 1998;
Aghalino, 2005).
Arguably, land disputes may occur due to ethnic conflict, but in some
areas, oil firms aggravate existing land disputes because of their
ignorance of existing feuds. Closely related with the above, is thewanton degradation of the environment of the region and its
attendant social and cultural impact. For the people of the Niger
Delta, environmental quality and sustainability are fundamental to
their well being and development. According to the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), more than 60 per cent of the
people in the region depend on the natural environment for their
livelihood. According to a study carried out by a team of Nigerian
and international environmental experts in 2006, the Niger Delta is‘one of the most world’s most severely petroleum –impacted
ecosystems’. It is reported that the damage from oil operations is
chronic and cumulative, and has acted synergistically with other
sources of environmental stress to result in severely impaired
ecosystem and impoverished the livelihood and health of the
regions impoverished residents (Amnesty International, 2009:14).
As noted by Amnesty International, the people living in the Niger
Delta have to drink, cook with, and wash in polluted water; they eatfish contaminated with oil and other toxins. The health of the
environment and the lives of the people are intertwined with the
health of the water system. The food, water and cultural identity of
many local people are closely related to the delta ecosystem. More
importantly perhaps is the fact that tens of thousands of families in
the Niger Delta rely on fishing on inland rivers as well as offshore
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for both income and food. The activities of the oil companies have
engendered land hunger and subsequently distorted the cultural
practices of the people that are tied to their land.
In the traditional Niger Delta setting, such as the Ogoni area, when
a woman gets married, her husband is required to give her a piece
of land to farm. The woman is expected to feed her family and
grow for food for sale in order to buy other staples from the parcel
of land. This tradition allowed the woman to enjoy a measure of
economic independence. However, the constant land-take for oilactivities, and the resultant pollution from the industry, has left
women in the region with little or no means to feed or support
their families in this otherwise symbiotic arrangement. Women
have to go further away from home to find unpolluted land and
water for their domestic chores (Diana).
As is the case in most Nigerian communities, women play
prominent role in the management of health of the household because as agents of fertility, they have specific knowledge of local
medicines. Their knowledge of herbs, tree barks and other local
cures were acquired during their ‘fattening’ room period. This
starts after the birth of the first child and lasts for one year. During
this period, she is not allowed out of the family compound.
Besides being a time to rest, it is also a time of informal schooling
when she learns how to look after her child and home. She is
attended to by women from her family and older women in thecommunity. As pressure grows on young women, forced to deal
with shrinking agricultural resources, very little time is left for
them to acquire the specialized health knowledge traditionally
gained through a fattening room period. For those who still
practice this tradition, it rarely exceeds two months after which
they must return to farming (Diana).
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Lergborsi (2007) has shown that there is destruction and possible
extinction of medicinal plants and herbs that are rooted in
traditional medicine and spirituality of the people as a result of the
incursion of the oil industry. The extinction is brought about by the
fact that most of these herbs and plants are found in sacred groves,
shrines and forests, which have fallen under direct destruction in
the course of oil exploitation and the toxicity of oil pollution.
Seismic workers, in the process of cutting lines, trees, shrines and
groves are tampered with these pharmaceutical herbs. As the case
may be, even ancestral ponds are desecrated while detonatingexplosives for seismic data acquisition. This is done with outright
impunity as the people are hardly paid farm- gate compensation.
As it were, under Nigerian Petroleum Law, juju shrines, sacred
bushes and other venerated objects are classified under ‘Fructus
Naturale’. Special permission is sought from the state authority
before such objects could be destroyed (Etikerentse, 1985;
Atsegbua, Akpotaire and Dimowo, 2003).
Aside from the land question, there is also a moral issue in the
analysis of the oil-induced cultural crisis in the Niger Delta. There
is alarming evidence of a drop in morality in the region, which
hitherto used various taboos to check social misbehaviour. It
would appear there is a scandalous and promiscuous social
concubineage between oil company workers and girls in the host
communities. The influx of comparatively rich and almost "alien"
workers from the affluent oil industry has escalated prostitutionin previously "isolated" and stable communities. Others (Tell
February 23, 1998, Anikpo, 1996; Aghalino, 2009; Ekine (1999) have
confirmed that ‘prostitution is on the increase and that in the Niger
Delta, many towns and villages have seen influx of male workers
from other parts of Nigeria as well as a large expatriate community,
and notes that the situation, together with poverty, illiteracy and
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lack of any alternatives has led many young girls into prostitution
and are made to engage in bestiality by some expatriates
(Adalikwu, 2007:164; Semenitari, 1998; Brisibi, 2001). More
importantly perhaps is the fact that because men have migrated
away in search of greener pastures, their wives become susceptible
to the seduction of the oil men. When eventually they return to
hear gory tales of the escapade of their wives, the men in return
disown their wives and consequently swell the already large pool
of ‘free women’ willing to engage in commercial sex. In fact, break
down of marriages is a serious aspect of the cultural crisis in theNiger Delta. There is also an emerging army of ‘fatherless children
‘in the region. This is not unconnected with the high wave of
prostitution enunciated above. As the young and impressionistic
girls fall victims to the itinerant oil workers, they are made to bear
the burden of caring for the children who unfortunately are rejected
by the oil men. Indeed, it may not be out of place to stress that the
children today are the arrow heads of the militants in the region.
The argument may be made that the young girls are equally guilty
since it takes two to tangle. But when one discovers the level of
social awareness in the region, one would easily exonerate them.
These are materially impoverished folks living far away from urban
communities and hence ignorant of more dignifying means of
livelihood after their farmland had been degraded by oil
multinationals (Aghalino 1999). The teenage girls are attracted to
the steady flow of cash from their transient lovers andsubsequently ignore going to school as it is seen as time wasting. It
is therefore explicable why the young girls are highly susceptible to
the ‘oil men’ who can lure them with little sums of money but
which unfortunately appear enormous in the eyes of the girls
(Teilanye, 1997:25).
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A follow up to the wave of prostitution in the region is the
prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the Niger Delta is among the
highest in the country, higher than the average for Nigeria. The
Niger Delta has an average prevalence rate of 5.3 per cent,
compared to the national average of 5 per cent. The impact of
HIV/AIDS has been particularly harsh in the region. It is well
known that the disease wreaks greater havoc where there is
poverty, social inequality and general political marginalization. The
weakening of livelihood and the social fabric in areas prone to oil
exploitation creates additional problems in terms of care andsupport (UNDP, 2006:316). Before the incursion of the oil industry,
purity amongst women was highly revered and social miscreants
were lampooned. But the break down of culture in the region has
facilitated the wave of prostitution in the region.
The oil industry in the Niger Delta has also engendered cultural
conflict in another way. Migration into and out of the Niger Delta
during the pre-colonial and colonial period were dictated by theneed to farm, fish and trade (Otite, 1979; Aghalino 1996). The oil palm
belt as it were, attracted people from the densely populated and
agricultural land-lacking area of the core-east. The emergence of
petroleum as a major resource in the region introduced a new
dimension to earlier forms of migrations. Oil industry induced
migrations involve young men and girls in search of greener pasture
in the major urban areas of the Niger Delta (Legborsi, 2007: 11).
Perhaps, it may be stressed that an urban-rural divide was alreadyshowing in the region by the time oil became a dominant feature of the
Nigerian economy. The oil boom years sharpened it with a
consequent decline in rural population. Migration out of the oil-
bearing enclave in the Niger Delta seem to be the major radical
adaptable mechanism put in place by the people whose source of
livelihood is threatened by oil spills and gas flaring. In point of fact,
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migrations in the Niger Delta are also informed by the wish to move
elsewhere because of unbearable pollution of water ways and land
as well as the inflationary trend institute by oil field workers.
Others are searching for opportunities to re-establish trading
activities as a result of the lost of their farmland to oil pollution. It
seems that Nigeria's oil boom has turned the "Petroleum producing
areas to centrifugal centers of oil doom where people leave rather
than live in". (Adeniyi, et al.1983). It is easily conjectured that the
rapid migratory wave to cities and oil enclave had denuded the
population of the Niger Delta, dislocated the active stratum of societyand had consequently disoriented social networks that previously
sustained a virile cultural life style in the region (Darah, 1995).
Decline in artistic and socio-cultural and religious performances
illustrate the above development. Hitherto, the vibrancy in artistic life
was a prominent feature of the Niger social outlook. An urban-rural
was already showing in the Niger Delta by the time oil became a
dominant feature of the economy. The oil boom years sharpened it.Rural-urban migrations intensified with a consequent decline in rural
population. The sharp decrease in rural population caused a decline in
the number and frequency of annual or seasonal performances and
observance of important cultural ceremonies, especially festivals. The
cultural space lost to traditional festivals is now filled largely by
elaborate obituary ceremonies. In point of fact, burials of the aged
were always elaborate in the region as the forum was used to reenact
culture and tradition. What is new is the conduct of funeral in form ofcarnivals even for young people. This has engendered cultural crisis as
these burials entails extravagant spending, especially the ‘spraying’ of
currency notes on the children of the deceased.
An adjunct to the above is that a majority of households in the region
is now headed by women as a result of the migration of their
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husbands out of their villages. This is a clear distortion of the culture
of the people which ensured that the man was the head of the home.
The result is that the jobs of caring for the family now rest on the
women (Okoko, 1998). The cultural crisis caused by this development
can only be imagined when women now have to preside over family
issues. The influx of ‘stranger’ elements from other parts of the
country and abroad has further diluted local cultures and safeguards.
As for the environment and natural resources, this means that
traditional arrangements for resource use and management have
virtually broken down. Clan rulers, villagers elders and family headscan no longer be relied upon to enforce traditional practices, which
have negative consequences for the environment(UNDP 2006:306).
One characteristic of the migrants is that most of them are out in
search of paid employment. This trend has engendered a subtle
proletarianization of the labour force in the region. Proletarianization
in this context is applied to mean a shift away from self-employment
mainly in agriculture to wage labour. It also suggests that smallholders are being pushed out of agriculture into wage labour; rather
than being pulled by new employment opportunities (Jayaraman
and Lanjonw, 1999). This new but flourishing trend in the region is
probably a function of gross poverty in spite of the vast oil wealth in
the region. Moffat and Linden (1995) have shown that the Gross
National Product (GNP) per capita in the region is below the national
average of US$280. They assert that the high salary paid to oil workers
cannot mitigate the stark poverty in this region, it can onlyexacerbate it . Poverty in this region goes beyond the physical. It is also
psychological as there is a total erosion of dignity and self-respect
(Duning, 1990).
The displacement of people and villages when oil spillages occur is
another major cultural crisis occasioned by the oil industry. The
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point to note is that the link between unsustainable petroleum
exploitation in the Niger Delta and the destruction of the
indigenous homeland and culture is undeniable. Traditional land
has been sacrificed at the altar of irresponsible oil practices. The
displacement of Igolu village in Isokoland which result from the
massive spillages in 1973 at Shell's location 13 and 18 had untold
physical and psychological impact on the people. In the same vein, the
September 1999 oil spillage disaster at Ekakpamre also in Delta state
impacted negatively on the people. The spill not only destroyed rivers,
wide expanse of agricultural land but also rendered the peoplehomeless. In addition, the spill created a new surge of displaced person
as well as environmental migrants. This surge was intensified with
the Jesse fire disaster, which claimed almost a thousand lives (Oil
Times, June 2001; The Punch, December 7, 1998).The displacement of
people had its attendant problem of removing people from their land as
the people’s ways of life are tied to their land (Aghalino,2010).
One other dimension to the cultural crisis in the region is youth unrestand the emergence of militant groups. These groups are increasingly
challenging community leaders, who in the past were unquestionably
followed. This has led to a loss of societal values and the loss of
traditional structures of authority. In earlier times, youth were
typically at the bottom of the hierarchy. Today however, traditional
rulers and elders in the various communities have lost control over
youths. They have worked out their own largely unsustainable ways
of reaching and dealing with the oil companies, government at everylevels, and national and international organizations (UNDP,
2006:306). Before the oil armada, the social value of labour and hard
work was celebrated. People with unquestionable wealth were
subjects of ribald songs and infamy. Today, the incursion of the oil
industry has totally distorted the culture of hard work and quick
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wealth is the in-thing. The quest for quick money must be
instrumental in the high wave of crime in the region.
The cultural crisis in the Niger Delta is also found in the form of a
resurgence of violent conflicts in the region. The region has witnessed
a rash of violence within the past two decades. Between 1990 and 2004
alone, over 1000 cases of violent crises were reported resulting in
more than 300,000 deaths. In the 2002 World Bank governance
rankings, only 19 countries out of a total 179 ranked below Nigeria in
terms of political stability and the absence of violence (AAPW,2006:7). In an environment of insecurity, agitation, mistrust and even
wealth distribution, criminal elements have become strong in the
Niger Delta. These are armed, well organized and protected by
powerful patrons. They steal sections of oil pipelines, well heads and
vehicles, engage in illegal oil bunkering, attack small crafts on the
rivers, intimidate communities and companies to extort money and
protect their network (AAPW, 2006:22).
The point to note is that the spread of Western ideals of capitalism,
the quest for money, and immediate gratification has overshadowed
the respect for traditional authority. Consequently, in view of the
impact of oil exploration activities, the deep sense of community,
morality, social cohesion and solidarity hitherto enjoyed by the people
is being eroded, making it easy for families and communities that
have co-existed peacefully before the commencement of oil business
to come into conflict with each other over oil royalty and ownershipof land. Internal divisions within communities also seem to have
increased. These divisions are instigated by greed, a by–product of
social disintegration. The observable internal divisions are most
frequently between the youths and chiefs, between youths and the
communities’ urban and local elites, between youths and professional
claims agents and the community, as well as, between different youth
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groups. Interestingly, the youths play crucial role in the formation of
factions. Thus, in most cases, the conflict is directed against the chiefs
who are seen as the focal point of authority and patronage.
Age grades were important institutions which helped to mobilize
community energy and reinforce solidarity. The age grade also
performed economic functions in the form of clearing bush paths as
well as bailing of ponds. But with the advent of the oil industry, the
pre-colonial and colonial functions of the age grades changed. Age
grades are now used as forum for resisting the atrociousenvironmental regime of the oil firms. They galvanize themselves in
presenting common front in the struggle for compensation from the
oil firms .They organize and stage protests. In the extreme, they
barricade flow stations, subtlety engage in the sabotage of oil
installations and engage in outright kidnapping in order to obtain
ransom. Discipline which was a hallmark of age grades when it was
culturally regulated has now fizzled out. The result is frequent
disruption to peaceful community life and disruption of oilindustry activities. Before the advent of the oil industry, youths
unquestionably followed the dictates of the elders (Aghalino, 1999).
But with the realization of the wealth that could be from oil industry,
traditional chiefs threw caution to the wind and began to assume the
final point of authority and patronage by the oil industry. With time
the youths discovered that they were colluding with contractors to
falsely certify jobs completion in order to share a percentage of the
contract sum to the detriment of their communities. The youth are becoming so vocal. The result is a complex and dynamic
fragmentation of communities characterized by frequent power shifts.
This makes it difficult to build relationship as well as negotiate
compensations for land acquisition, damages and spills.
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Conclusion
This paper has attempted to examine the cultural crisis
induced by oil exploration and production in the Niger Delta. The
point was adumbrated that it is conventional for scholars to view the
crises in the Niger Delta from the binoculars of environmental
deterioration occasioned by oil pollution and gas flaring without
taking cognizance of the cultural crisis as these are intertwined. The
environment of the people of the region cannot be divorced from their
every activity which is embedded in their culture.
Thus, the cultural crisis in the region is explicated by the break down
of pristine ways of doing things and this is reflected in the violation of
land rights, degradation of cultural artifacts such as shrine, groves
and even burial sites. The cultural crisis in the region is acute as it
affects women and their access to land, water and pharmaceutical
product derived from land. More importantly perhaps is the wave of
migration, resurgence of crime as attested to by youth militancy and
disdain for constituted authority. There is structural and socialdislocation of society as epitomized by high wave of prostitution,
acceptance of spirit of rugged individualism and strained inter-group
relations. Our point of departure is that although the federal
government is making concerted effort to tame the Niger Delta crisis,
this must be done from a holistic perspective by taking into
consideration the cultural dimension of the crisis. This, in fact, entails
social re-engineering and cultural re-orientation to integrate the
people back to their society.
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Environmental Justice, Democracy and the
Inevitability of Cultural Change in Nigeria: A
Critical Analysis of the Niger Delta DilemmaDr. Kelly Bryan Ovie Ejumudo2
Key Terms: Nigeria, Niger Delta, oil, environmental justice,
democracy, land use.
Abstract
Globally, environmental justice principles are in tandem with
democratic ideals and practices. This is because environmental justice
seeks to analyze and overcome the power structures that have the
potency of thwarting and militating against the principles of fairness
and equity which democracy both represents and enforces. In the
Third World, poor and shallow democratic institutions and culturehave engendered environmental injustice typified by imbalance
between access to environmental costs (pollution, unemployment,
social and economic dislocation and crime) and environmental
benefits (food security, clean air and water, health care, educational
opportunity, transportation facilities and gainful employment). In the
Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, environmental injustice that has almost
assumed a crisis dimension is a product and a manifestation of the
unsettled democracy and the stunted and stifled democraticinstitutions, especially as environmental policy decisions are a
reflection of the political process. This paper therefore examines how
Nigeria’s pseudo democracy has both occasioned and reinforced the
prolonged and protracted environmental injustice that is yet plaguing
the Niger Delta. The paper that relied on relevant secondary sources
2 Kelly Bryan Ovie Ejumudo, Ph.D. is with the Department of PoliticalScience, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria. E-Mail:[email protected].
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]
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of data concluded with useful recommendations including the
creation and entrenchment of ideal democratic institutions and values
with cultural change as an imperative.
Introduction
Environmental justice is an increasingly important element of
policy making and it is fundamentally about equity and fairness
toward the disadvantaged individuals, groups, communities,
societies, institutions, regions and nations. Environmental justiceoffers the opportunity for merging two difficult agenda at both the
national and international levels, by seeking to resolve the conflict
between environmental and social goals and focusing on tackling
environmental problems as part of the social exclusion agenda. There
has been considerable progress on integrating the economic and social
goals with far-reaching programme on social exclusion and
neighborhood renewal, but there has been much less on integrating
the environmental with the social; this is where environmental justicefocus is both desirable and inevitable. Environmental justice
principles and practices, therefore, require a focus on the needs of
future generations, for environmental justice will not be pragmatic if
this were achieved at the expense of people in future generations. This
is essentially as a result of the fact that social and economic concerns
and goals that fail to recognize and accommodate the critical
environmental element and consideration will reduce the ability of the
environment to provide non-substitutable resources and services(labeled critical natural capital by environmental economists).
In the face of the recognized and acceptable efficacy of environmental
justice principles and practices across communities, societies and
nations, particularly in the third world, there is still massive
environmental degradation such that the rural, urban and generally
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neglected areas have experienced large scale erosion and water-
quality deterioration, deforestation, declining soil productivity and
socio-economic dislocation. Worse still, majority of the people
especially the youths have little or no access to the benefits derivable
from production activities that should expectedly mitigate the
negative effects and costs of the environmental degradation to which
they have been perpetually subjected. As a consequence, they cannot
lead a life that they value and cherish and their potentials are hardly
actualizable and realizable. In the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, the
costs of environmental pollution and degradation that is borne by themarginalized, oppressed and pauperized people as well as the
benefits that should flow to them in the form of employment, skill
acquisition programmes, educational scholarship schemes, provision
of basic social amenities and other pro-poor life-enhancing
programmes are heavily disproportional so much so, that the
principles of fairness and equity that underlie or underpin
environmental justice are impaired with one likely hazardous
consequence, environmental crisis.
Critical to the environmental injustice problem in the Niger Delta is
the shallow, flawed, failed and pseudo democracy that is in practice in
Nigeria. The justification for the above position is that true,
consolidated and functional democracy presupposes an institutional
and governance climate that encourages and upholds fundamental
human rights, guarantees equity and fairness and promotes
responsible, accountable and representative governance that are theheart of environmental justice. The creation and entrenchment of ideal
democratic institutions and values, the expediency of environmental
justice and the true recognition, acceptance and practicability of
cultural re-orientation are therefore a desideratum.
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Environmental Justice: A Conceptual Understanding
There is a growing evidence of the links between
environmental problems and social injustices; environmental justice is
the idea that brings them together. The term ‚environmental justice’’
otherwise called ‚environmental equity‛ has featured prominently in
the environmental debate for over three decades, but it only surfaced
in the legal parlance in the 1990’s ( Lazarus 2000:17). It focuses on the
disproportionate sharing of environmental benefits and burdens
between different states, institutions, organizations, groups and
individuals. It is based upon the recognition that environmental costsand benefits are not in a fair and equitable manner and that
traditional environmentalism has not been sufficiently concerned with
very divergent local situations and the plight of minorities (Bullard
2000:45). The term is concerned mainly with the side effects of
industrial activity, such as the citing of waste disposal facilities, the
proximity of industrial pollution and workplace exposure to
industrial toxins and in-house lead exposure, in particular for children
(McDermott 2004:62) . Environmental justice seeks to redefine thetraditional environmental movement by incorporating the concerns of
minorities within environmental policy making thereby engendering
environmental equality or equity (Torres 2000: 31). The main thrust of
environmental justice is a shift in focus from the environment to the
people, for it underscores the need for environmental protection not
to be planned within a vacuum and for environmental goals to take
into account social, political and economic realities.
In a broad sense, environmental justice is about positive
discrimination because it seeks to achieve a redistribution of the costs
of environmental justice so as to lower the disproportionately high
burden borne by some segments of society. In effect, it is shifting the
focus of environmental protection towards taking into account the
needs of the poorer sections of society that have suffered the
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environmental consequences of industrialization more than others
(Gadgil and Guha 2004: 53) . It also addresses the extent of linkages
between environmental and social injustice and asks whether it is
practicable to tackle both social exclusion and environmental
problems through integrated policies and development. It therefore
follows that by looking at social justice issues through an
environmental lens and simultaneously by analyzing environmental
issues more clearly in terms of social justice, new and more effective
ways of dealing with each can be developed.
Environmental justice is equally the confluence of social and
environmental concerns that deals with the inequitable environmental
burden born by groups such as racial minorities, women and youths.
It is a holistic effort to analyze and overcome the power structures
that thwarts and militates against the principles of fairness and equity.
This phenomenon views the environment as encapsulating where we
live, work and play and seeks to redress the imbalances in the
distribution of environmental benefits and costs. By implication,environmental justice seeks to achieve an accommodation or balance
between access to environmental costs or burdens (pollution,
unemployment, social and economic dislocation and crime) and
environmental benefits (nutrients food, clean air, and water, health
care, education, transportation and safe jobs). Environmental justice,
which is not a panacea to all social problems, especially as
environmental and social goals can be in conflict, has two
fundamentally basic premises; first, that everyone should have theright and be able to live in a healthy environment, with access to
enough environmental resources for a healthy life and second, that it
is predominantly the poorest and least powerful people who are
missing these conditions. These two premises connotes environmental
rights and responsibilities that focus on the inevitability of ensuring
that a healthy environment exists for both the present and future
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generations and that countries, organizations, institutions and
individuals do not create environmental problems or distribute
environmental resources in ways that damage other people’s health.
Environmental justice is therefore a core element of and, as a
consequence, it is critical to achieving social justice goals, particularly
as it is concerned with ensuring the environment part of the social
justice goal. The underlying causes of environmental injustices
include institutionalized racism, the commodification of land, water,
energy and air, unresponsive, unaccountable and repressive
government policies and regulation and lack of or inadequateresources in communities or regions like the Niger Delta. Thus,
environmental justice prevails when the environmental risks, costs
and hazards or investments and benefits are equally distributed. It
does not question the current path of development and its associated
environmental foes, but seeks solutions in order to mitigate the
problems caused by the current development process. Environmental
justice principles are thus expected to serve as a guide for organizing,
networking and relating to governmental and non-governmentalorganizations' demands. This implies that environmental policy
decisions are a product of the political process (Field and Field
2006:18).
Environmental justice affirms the sacredness of the earth, ecological
unity and the interdependence of all species and the right of people to
be free from ecological destructions and demands that public policy
be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples free from anyform of discrimination or bias. It also emphasize the right to ethical,
balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the
interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things and
calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction,
production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and
nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land,
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water and food. Environmental also seeks to promote the
fundamental right of all people to political, economic, cultural and
environmental self-determination and to participate as equal partners
at every level of decision-making, including needs assessment,
planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation. It equally
protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full
compensation and reparations for damage as well as quality health
care and affirms the need for urban and rural environmental policies
aimed at cleaning up and rebuilding cities and provide fair access for
all to the full range of resources. Environmental justice similarly callsfor the strict enforcement of principals of informed consent, opposes
the destructive operations of transnational corporations and requires
individuals to make personal and consumer choices to consume as
little of the earth’s resources and to produce as little waste as possible
and to make conscious decisions that will ensure the health of the
natural world.
The essence of environmental justice is the capacity of the earth tosatisfy the intra and inter generational needs of society.
Environmental justice is recognition that access to clean and healthy
environment is a fundamental right of all human beings
(Cunningham et al 2007:587). A long history of international law even
argues that we all have an inalienable right to sustainable
environment. The 1982 World Charter for nature, for example, asserts
that man’s needs can be met only by ensuring the proper functioning
of natural systems and it is an essential human right to redress itwhen the human environment has suffered damage or degradation.
(Cunningham 2007:541). The 1987 World Commission on
environment and development went further in stating that all human
beings have the fundamental right to an environment adequate for
their health and well-being. In fact, of all the nations of the world, 109
now have constitutional provisions for protections of the environment
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and natural resources and 100 of them specifically recognize the right
to a clean and healthy environment and the state’s obligation to
prevent environmental harm (Cunningham et al 2007:542).
Paying attention to environmental justice makes sense for two
reasons: ethical and pragmatic. The ethical dimension concerns
whether distribution of risks, benefits and costs is in accordance with
the norms of social justice. The desire for just policies is therefore a
conventional complement to the desire for efficient policies. The
pragmatic dimension, on the other hand, emphasizes the relationship between the distributional burdens. Policies and programmes that are
perceived as unfair will therefore stand little prospect of passage even
if they enhance the prospects for efficiency and sustainability
(Tietenberg 2005:501). The political conflicts in which many natural
resource issues get embroiled are, as a consequence, often related to
the fact that the groups who enjoy the benefits are not the same as
those who bear the costs (Field 2005:145). These are matters of equity
or fairness which is why they can become so controversial. Anotherimportant aspect of distributional fairness in resource programmes is
how they impact people with different income levels. This is a major
issue in the environmental justice.
Democracy: A Conceptual Discourse
According to George Orwell (cited in Mahajan 2008: 793),
democracy does not have an agreed definition and the attempt toprovide one is resisted from all sides. Democracy could be defined as
a high-flown name for something that does not exist. In a similar vein,
Lucas (1976:29) opined that democracy is a noun but should be an
adjective. It therefore implies that democracy is nothing but different
doctrines in different people’s minds or perhaps the most
promiscuous word in the world of public affairs and it could be
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