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Niger Delta Black Gold Blues: Can Writers Bring About Environmental Justice Where Slow Violence Has Proven So Devastating? or A Cautionary Tale for Environmental Sacrifice Zones Worldwide

Malnourished child during Biafran War

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Post-colonial Nigeria: Civil War, Fragmentation, Neocolonial Corruption, and Environmental Exploitation 40 image_header 2016-06-06T14:27:43-07:00
By Casey Max

The Nigerian Civil War
Because of Nigeria's newfound independence in 1960, there were a few years of harmony between the states. However, by the mid 1960s, Post-Colonial Nigeria is riddled with corruption and the exploitation of the environment and people that live there. This corruption and exploitation can be traced back to the Nigerian civil war (1967-70) and its relationship with oil. According to Margery Perham's article "Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War," the war started with years of political unrest within Nigeria, culminating in assassinations of Northern Nigerian officials (231-232).

At the same time, the production of oil in Nigeria was just getting started. Chibuike Uche, fellow at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, accredits the mass discovery of oil in Eastern Nigeria in 1958 for weakening the region's benefit to the Nigerian government (116). Oil became a large player for all parties involved in the Civil War.

Perham states that the rift between the north and east solidified when it became known that the assassins were all from the Ibo (or Igbo) tribe, primarily in the east. The Ibo were not tried, and many escaped unscathed. The new military head of state (Ironsi) was also Ibo and "abruptly put forward a plan for a much more unified Nigeria" (233). The North did not react well to these changes, which led to massacres of Southerners and the assassination of General Ironsi (233).

The massacres and assassinations in southern Nigeria led to the creation of Biafra. According to Perham, "Biafra was born in massacre and bred in starvation" (234). The leader who took over after Ironsi was assassinated, Odumegwu Ojukwu, decided to secede 3 of the 12 Nigerian States (234). Uche asserts that oil became a player when the Nigerian government realized that an independent Biafra (a land rich with oil, as it was in east of Nigeria) would cut down the government's oil revenue substantially. This led to a civil war between the Nigerian Federation and Biafra (121).

The Nigerian Civil War ended in 1970, with the surrender of Biafra. According to Dr. Kairn Klieman, associate professor at the University of Houston, "it is estimated that three million people died, mostly due to starvation and disease" (163). After the war ended, many oil producing areas claimed that they weren't being given a fair share of the oil revenues. This particularly impacted micro-minorities.

"Virtually every inch of the region has been touched by the industry directly through its operations or indirectly through neglect" - Michael Watts, "Sweet and Sour" 43

The Nigerian Oil Boom
According to Kairn Klieman, the oil boom for Nigeria is usually said to be in the 1970s, however she argues that the boom actually occurred between 1964 and 1965 (157). During that short time, the oil output in Nigeria skyrocketed. Oil in Nigeria had exploded and everyone wanted a piece of it as "Crude output increased from 84,000 barrels per day in January 1964 to 301,352 barrels per day in August 1965" (Klieman 157). From that time on, Nigeria became known as one of the biggest oil producers in the world. The oil business also proved lucrative, Klieman points out, as there was a large "increase in export revenues from £20 million to £60 million" (157). While it would make sense that the Nigerian population would benefit greatly from the oil production happening around them, that is not the case.

The Ogoni and Oil Devestation
The Ogoni people are a particularly distinct indigenous group in the Niger Delta. Looking at the devestation in Ogoniland is a good example of how oil companies have exploited minority indigenous groups. According to Barisere (Rachel) Konne, "despite the revenue generated from areas like Ogoniland, which reached an estimated total of $30 billion, relatively little has trickled down to the indigenous communities" (182). As inhabitants of an area rich with oil, the Ogoni people should be receiving compensation. Because of the corrupt political system, however, little money is reaching them. Rob Nixon, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, adds to the evidence of financial corruption by pointing out that "of the 50 percent constitutionally due to them, the Ogoni have been awarded a mere 1.5 percent, and in effect not even that" (106).

In addition to the lack of financial compensation to the Ogoni people, their land has been completely destroyed. Konne writes that the Ogoni people's land has been subject to "oil spills, gas flares, and significant environmental pollution that has destroyed farms, streams, and fishing— key resources on which the indigenous people depend" (182). The havoc that has been wreaked on Ogoniland is extensive and is extremely harmful to the inhabitants. Prompted by the havoc that oil wreaked to the Nigerian environment, as well as the injustice done to Nigerian inhabitants, Ken Saro Wiwa created the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP).
"Most Nigerians are poorer today than they were in the late colonial period" - Nwafejoku Uwadibie (qtd. in Watts 44)

Works Cited
- Klieman, Kairn A. "U.S. Oil Companies, the Nigerian Civil War, and the Origins of Opacity in the Nigerian Oil Industry." Journal of American History 99.1 (2012): 155-65. Web. Academic Search Premier. 31 Mar. 2016.
- Konne, Barisere Rachel "Inadequate Monitoring and Enforcement in the Nigerian Oil Industry: The Case of Shell and Ogoniland," Cornell International Law Journal 47.1 (2014): 181-204. Web. Academic Search Premier. 31 Mar. 2016.
- Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2011. Print.
- Perham, Margery. "Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War." International Affairs 46 (1970): 231-46. ProQuest. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
- Uche, Chibuike. "Oil, British Interests and the Nigerian Civil War." The Journal of African History 49.1 (2008): 111-135. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 March 2016.
- Watts, Michael. "Sweet and Sour." Ed Kashi and Michael Watts, eds. Curse of Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta. Brooklyn: PowerHouse Books, 2008: 36-47. Print.