Violence is posing a threat to Nigeria’s chief source of income. John Vidal reports from Port Harcourt on the fight for the country’s oil wealth
The Niger delta, which provides more than 80% of Nigeria’s income, 8% of United States oil imports and 22-million tons of oil a year to the European Union, faces a new crisis as violence flares and resentment mounts against Western oil companies which extract an estimated R940- billion worth of oil a year from below the villages of some of the world’s poorest people.
The oil companies, rights activists and environmental organisations report a rapidly disintegrating society plagued by summary executions, shoot-outs, inter- ethnic violence, pollution, riots, occupations of oil facilities and demonstrations.
The oil companies warn that unless the government acts quickly the industry will be hit hard. Some campaigners warn that chaos in the delta could lead to the break- up of Nigeria.
President Olusegun Obasanjo admits that the unfair distribution of oil wealth has led to “grave injustice”. He is sending troops to control hot spots, but this is only exacerbating the tension: the armed forces are accused of human rights abuses and extortion.
Shell, by far the largest oil operator in the region, says the situation is tense and the company is “fire-fighting in all directions”.
“What is happening is alarming,” says Bobo Brown, a senior executive of the company. “Social disintegration is taking place.
“Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni [the author hanged by the military regime in 1996 for opposing Shell, and his people] served a warning shot to the region and the rest of Nigeria. They were the tracer bullet ahead of a night of battle which is starting to take place now and is centred on environmental and human rights. The momentum is building.”
Travelling through the delta is a depressing and eerie experience: in devastated communities with next to no work and no access to electricity or hospitals the tension is palpable. Oil spills, due to either sabotage or neglect, are being reported at least twice a week and giant flares light the night sky as oil company helicopters fly overhead. In Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa state, the army patrols the streets as gangs of youths congregate.
The scale of the chaos is only now becoming clear. In the past year more than 200 people have been killed in oil-related riots or in largely unreported clashes with the state police and the military. Shell says there have been 50 kidnappings of its workers in the past six months, and its operations are disrupted at least once a day.
In the same period 150 Shell installations, depots and pumping stations have been occupied, closed down or halted, mostly by youth movements demanding aid, compensation for oil spills or work.
Chevron, Mobil, Texaco and Agip are less affected by the civil commotion because they work mainly off-shore, but they admit there has been an escalation of kidnappings and disruptions.
Much of the trouble centres on the 11- million Ijaw, the largest ethnic group in the region. Inspired by the Ogoni, its youth groups are leading a non-violent struggle for the right to share their land’s oil wealth. All the oil companies have been banned from operating in Ijaw territories. But several splinter groups have turned to extortion, hijacking, sabotage and kidnapping for private gain.
“Many live in the maze of creeks in the delta, armed with everything from guns to machetes and bows and arrows. Others are disaffected university graduates,” says Azibaola Robert of the Human and Environmental Rescue Organisation.
After a lull this year when democracy was restored to Nigeria, the trouble is now spreading to all the minority ethnic groups in the delta. “The Ijaw, Itsekari, Ogba, Ikwerre, Urhobo and Andoni are now all opposed to the oil companies and demanding change,” says Robert. “They have had enough of pollution, grinding poverty and promises. They see they have no tomorrow. They are entering a new stage in their struggle for self- determination.”
Meanwhile, the police and the security services, who are working with the oil companies to clamp down on the youth groups, fear the unrest will continue to grow. A Rivers state police document says that the police are preparing for a big conflict.
Calling rights activists and environmental and community groups “the enemy”, it says the safety of oil workers cannot be guaranteed.
State intelligence services, it says, report that Ijaw activists “intend to close down all oil installations and force all expatriate staff to leave and stop work at all flow stations”. This is denied by the Ijaw youth council.
According to the report, an army brigade has been placed on red alert and more than 2 500 police have been mobilised to join the guards employed by the companies.
The oil companies and the campaigners agree that violence is growing. Last month 50 people from the Egbesu group based in Yenagoa were reported killed by the security services.
‘It was genocide,” said Isaac Osuoka of the youth council. “Nigerian soldiers are stripping, torturing and harassing innocent people. They have been rounding up people in the streets for identification. Those identified as Ijaw were then driven away in military trucks for summary execution.”
Human Rights Watch claims that there is some evidence of companies accepting human rights abuses as a cost of doing business in Nigeria.
In January four people died when military forces used helicopters and other equipment belonging to Chevron to attack two communities in the western Niger delta after a peaceful occupation of an oil facility.
Several thousand people died at Warri last October when fire broke out after a pipeline was ruptured.
Earlier this year seven helicopter gunships were moved to the delta and 500 soldiers were sent to one community at the invitation of Mobil after youths seized a helicopter and 14 rifles. Elsewhere Chevron was forced to shut down part of its operation after an occupation.
“People eat, breathe and think poverty,” says Anyakwee Nsirimovu of the Institute of Human Rights.
“There is now a great yearning for self- determination across the delta. People are not ready to lose the momentum. They are willing to the point of dying to continue their struggle. What happens here will determine whether Nigeria continues to exist or not.”