The Niger Delta region has been a flashpoint in the world’s most populous African nation, Nigeria. Unremitting social unrest and ethnic discord in the Niger Delta have become a mainstay of contemporary life and there is strong reason to believe that there is mutually causative relationship linking such phenomena with the process of social change referred to as development and underdevelopment. The rising agitation by the people of the oil rich Niger Delta attempts to draw national and international attention to social, political, economic and environmental injustices in the region.

The nightmarish result of more than three decades of corruption and mismanagement of revenue accruing from oil from Niger Delta, Nigeria is the present unrest in the region. Almost every fortnight, several boatloads of heavily armed Ijaw militants overruns an oil facility in the Niger Delta and seize some oil workers. The militants led by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) are protesting the environmental devastation caused by the oil industry, as well as the appalling conditions in which most Niger Delta inhabitants live. There are no schools, clean drinking water, good paying jobs, medical clinics, or social services in most delta villages. People eke out a living by fishing in polluted waters while, all around them, oil wells owned by foreign companies pump billions of dollars' worth of oil a year.

Despite the increasing number of environmental groups and agitation for environmental justice for the people of the region, not much success has been made. In fact, the worrying dimension is that the act of violence is threatening to overshadow the genuine attempts to address environmental degradation that I am forced to ask; is environmental justice as currently defined by developed countries applicable to developing countries in general and Niger Delta in particular? This piece demonstrates how environmental problems cannot be solved without addressing the questions of economic and social injustice, especially at the intersection of ethnic nationalism and corruption in Nigeria.

Some of the wrong narratives of environmental activism in developed countries that was exported to developing countries that led to the birth of environmentalism in Niger Delta include the idea that public support for environmental action is relatively a simple reaction to visible pollution. So, because of damage caused by gas flaring and oil spillage that led to destruction of their food crops, fish and opening up of the forests to erosion; the populace in Niger Delta will rise and embrace the clarion call for action.

In fact they did, not so much because they care about the environmental degradation than because the very resources they depend on – water, land, forest – for economic survival was being polluted. After few years of struggle for ‘environmental justice’ as defined by the global North and faced with the political realities on the ground that led to the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa , the Odi massacre and other acts of brutality, the game plan moved back to economic survival. As a result the present acts of kidnapping and armed militancy.

It has to be pointed out at this junction that environmentalism in America emerged in the 1960s following the prosperity of the post-war era that saw Americans becoming increasingly rich and secure before worrying about air and water quality as well as protection of wilderness. Given that prosperity is the basis for ecological concern, the political goal towards environmental justice in Niger Delta must be to create a kind of prosperity that moves the population up Maslow’s Pyramid as quickly as possible. The basis of Maslow's theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. Thus physiological needs like food, shelter, water, law, stability, order and warmth needs to be taken care of first before the higher needs of self-actualization and esteem that includes responsibility, achievement and care for the environment can be contemplated. For according to Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger in Break Through – From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics o Possibility - however bad pollution and loss of non-human natures may be, hunger and insecurity are almost always more strongly felt.

It was the failure to articulate, incorporate and comprehensively address these primary physiological needs – the preconditions - before championing the course for a cleaner environment in Niger Delta that resulted in the present madness and spate of kidnapping. Given the undeniable connection between ecological concern and socio-cultural context that makes it possible, environmental strategists and founders of environmental movements in Niger Delta should be focused on caring for the social and political ecology that are necessary preconditions for an effective and powerful environmental politics.

While not supporting the despicable acts of unregulated activities of oil companies in Niger Delta and the governments blind eye attitude, one should not however forget the inter-relationships between economic activity and politics. The superior position of government and vested interest of multinational oil corporations also plays a huge role. That is why law suits brought against these oil companies are either not being properly prosecuted and when judgment is passed, there is no enforcement. It is very unfortunate that the money accruing from the crude oil sale meant for economic growth and infrastructural development needed to meet the threshold conditions for environmental justice ends up being embezzled.

Despite what may have been suggested and done to resolve this lingering unrest in Niger Delta, the underlining truth is that the resolution of the complex Niger Delta crisis is dependent on the resolution of the Nigerian question. What then is the Nigerian question? The questions are: What happened to true federalism, rule of law and Social Justice? What should be done to this present legislative bungling, administrative incompetence, misadministration, regulatory disarray, and crippling corruption? What should be done to the giant of Africa that is still learning how to crawl?

The setting up of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) or the recent creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta are all cosmetic approaches that will end up redistributing the loot to the same political elites. Resolving the Niger Delta crisis will require far greater commitment on the part of the government at all levels and the oil companies operating in the region in ensuring that these preconditions are met.

In the final analysis, there is no denying the central role that prosperity has played in giving rise to the politics of environmentalism. The first place to channel environmental activism in Nigeria should be at political and economic institutions that will first guarantee social justice, eradicate poverty, curb corruption, reduce illiteracy, develop infrastructures, provide employment and provide economic freedom not just to the oil rich people of Niger Delta but to the entire country. Environmental justice advocated in Niger Delta should thus not see the environmental degradation through green tinted glasses that filter the social context for the narrow outcome they desire. Until then, the current unrest will be without end.

churchill.okonkwo@gmail.com

Robot  # 1 | 19.03.2009 23:47

Physiological needs like food, shelter, clean water, law, stability, order and warmth needs to be taken care of first in Niger Delta before the higher needs like care for the environment can be contemplated. This piece demonstrates how environmental problems cannot be solved without addressing the questions of economic and social injustice, especially at the intersection of ethnic nationalism and corruption in Nigeria. ...Read the full article.