Care and Carelessness in the Niger Delta: Nature’s Gift, Humanity’s Ineptness

ABSTRACT

This piece looks at the environmental endowments of the Niger Delta region against the backdrop of environmental devastation, in the area, as occasioned by human activities. While the former has been aptly described as nature’s gift, the latter has been classified as humanity’s ineptness. The approach was simply theoretical with an expansive review of cognate secondary data. By way of applying precepts to concepts, it was inferred that the environmental beauty of the Niger Delta region has been lost at the altar of a global thirst for fossil fuel exploration. This act of carelessness by humanity has engendered a biodiversity deficit. In order to restore the glory and beauty of the region as occasioned by care it is recommended that news media organizations should frame the environmental endowments of the region as matters of great concern, nurture, and attention while discouraging acts of carelessness that fall within the conspectus of environmentally harmful practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Care
• carelessness
• environment
• humanity
• ineptness

Overview

Caring for the environment animates expressions like environmental sustainability, preservation, and conservation while not caring for the environment gives vent to aphorisms like environmental degradation, environmental pollution, and environmental degeneration. Environmental beauty is anchored on an unfailing care for the environment. Beauty with respect to the environment is either an act of divine design or the orchestration of humanity. The former goes with the appendage of nature while the latter goes with the appellation – artificial/human made. The environment in its natural state requires balance which many may refer to as a state of equilibrium. Incidentally, this drive for balance often times becomes an elusive ideal in a world driven by humanity’s quest to dominate. The scenario painted above aptly captures the interplay in the Niger Delta region.

Galal (2023) posits that Nigeria as of 2022 was rated the leading oil producer in Africa with an oil production estimate of about 69 million metric tons with Libya, Algeria, and Angola following. For those less familiar with the region of the Niger Delta, this sedimentary basin of Nigeria, located in the southern area of the country, has been drilled for oil since the mid-twentieth century (Okon, 2015). Geographically, the region is bounded in the East by the Calabar flank, on the West by the Benin flank, on the South by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Guinea, and on the North by the Anambra anticlinorium. The socio-economic map positions the Niger Delta region as the economic mainstream of Nigeria, bearing in mind the fact that it is the site of the country’s number one natural resource – crude oil.

Besides oil and gas, the Niger Delta region also provides significant natural resources such as silver nitrate, coal, glass, sand, timber, kaolin and more. It is interesting to note that the region boasts of huge investment opportunities in tourism and agriculture. Climatologists opine that the daily average temperature of the region is 31* Celsius with high humidity and hot temperature. The weather is pleasant with a dint of tropical humidity.

As a scholar of media framing in Nigeria, I long have written about this region (Okon, 2013, 2014; 2015). In this brief reflection/ essay, I want to consider the tension between the Niger Delta region as a gift of nature and as a site that reveals humanity’s ineptitude. While I do not resolve this tension it speaks to the theme of this special issue on care and carelessness in environmental communication.

Nature’s gift

Nigeria was named after the NigerRiver, a word most believe came from the indigenous nation of Tuareg before European colonization of the nation. EncyclopaediaBrittanica describes river Niger as the principal river of West Africa and the third longest river in Africa with an estimated stretch of 2600 miles. The river may have been named after the Tuareg phrase – gherngheren – shortened to ngher which means river of rivers. This espouses the exceptional character the natives attribute to it. The Niger Delta region is a vast low-lying area through which the waters of the Niger River drain into the Gulf of Guinea through massive tributaries which can best be described as delta hence the geographic entity known and referred to as the Niger Delta region. Characteristic landforms in this region include oxbow lakes, river meander belts, and prominent levees with large fresh water swamps. The mass body of water with scenic aquatic life, lush vegetation and unhindered waterways fall within the purview of nature’s gift. It is not in doubt that the nations within the region feel endowed by reason of the fact that the body of water is laden with prospects to support human and non-human life.

Colonizers initially agreed that the Niger Delta landscape is a marvel to behold. In his description, as cited by Anderson and Peek (2002, p. 1), Allen (1848, p. 178) notes that:

The universal of stillness of the scene was very imposing, unbroken as it was by any sound, save the dashing of our own paddle-wheels- and the clear musical cry of the leadsman. The large umbrageous trees with their festoons of orichidae and purple and white convolvuli hanging from the branches formed a combination of forest scenery, so striking, novel and interesting as enabled us to forget that the much talked of Delta of the Niger had been fairly entered upon. (p. 1)

The Niger Delta creeks have in other quarters been described as beautiful scenery embellished in serenity and surrounded by greenish courts. Others note that the creeks on an ideal note can become great tourist attractions. Allison-Oguru (2016) notes that the many islands, rivers, creeks and other water bodies that are found in the Niger Delta region impressed the early Europeans who took several centuries to discover the great material beauty of the area.

Commentary by the Voice of Africa news post opines that “before the war and before there was oil, the Niger Delta must have looked like paradise being one of the most bio-diverse parts of Africa, the creeks and rivers are like a spider web on a lush swampy jungle” (para. 3). Izah (2018) observes that the Niger Delta region has several freshwater creeks and cricklets and they are called by several names. For instance, in Bayelsa State, some notable water bodies include Epie Creek, Taylor Creek, Sagbama Creek, Ikoli Creek, Nun River among others. Most freshwater resources in the area are linked to estuaries from where they empty into the Atlantic Ocean. The absence of humanity’s exogenous forces did not last, however.

Unfortunately, appreciation for this beauty became overshadowed by a global thirst for fossil fuel exploration and exploitation. Oil exploring and exploitation have taken the center stage in the region and this on its own has attracted huge economic and industrial activities. Bodo and Gimah (2020) opine that the processes of petroleum exploitation over the years have resulted in the destruction of the Niger Delta ecosystem. Edegbene and Akamagwuna (2022) observe that the Niger Delta region hosts numerous oil exploration activities contributing to water quality deterioration and biodiversity loss.

The Niger Delta region does not only play host to oil exploration activities but sits the bulk of crude oil deposits in Nigeria. The presence of oil attracted humans. It was obvious that humanity was faced with the task of maintaining equilibrium in the environment but may not have fared well in that light. Oil was first discovered in Nigeria in 1958 and, ever since the 1960s to date, has become the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy.

News of conflicts in the region hit the global stage in the 1990s when Ken SaroWiwa and the Ogoni 8 were killed. Ken SaroWiwa (1941–1995) was a central figure in the struggle to stop the devastation of the Niger Delta region by reason of oil exploration activities. He engaged extensively in the campaigns for social and environmental justice. Ademambo (August 13, 2016) posits that in 1993, Ken SaroWiwa led a peaceful movement for the environmental and human rights of Nigeria’s Ogoni people (a nation in the Niger Delta region) whose oil-rich land has been exploited by multi-national oil companies. Ademambo (August 13, 2016) also notes that in 1995, Ken SaroWiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni people’s rights movement (popularly known as the Ogoni 9) were hanged in Port Harcourt in the face of international outrage for a selfless cause that was meant to restore the hopes and aspirations of the Ogoni people.

Since the increased presence of oil drilling has continued to spoil the land while leading to a host of criminal activities with the attendant offshoots of gang wars and lots of other criminal activities such as illegal refining of crude oil popularly known as bunkering. As I have argued before, oil exploration activities in developing countries like Nigeria often exert negative reverberations on the environment (Okon, 2015). These reverberations are sometimes borne out of unsafe practices that culminate in oil spills and other forms of environmental degradation. Ratcliffe (2019) notes that the vast area of the region’s waterways and mangrove swamps-one of the most diverse ecosystems in Africa-have been destroyed or put at risk. Farmlands have been cloaked in oil, contaminating crops and exposing people to high levels of heavy metals such as chromium, lead, and mercury.

Aminu (2021) espouses that one cannot deny the fact of having a touch of human contribution to this. Aminu (2021) in his piece further notes that an investigation by Amnesty International reveals that the reasons behind oil spill and gas flaring include poor maintenance and negligence. Iyorah (2022) avers that all those cherished memories of the Niger Delta people have been consigned to the dustbin. According to him, today, the narrative from the Niger Delta region is that it is a restive people and it is a heavily polluted environment where people can no longer do fishing activities because the fishes they catch are now poisonous.

Adebayo (June 26, 2023) alerts that a new oil spill at a shell facility in Nigeria has contaminated farmlands and a river, upending livelihoods in the fishing and farming communities in part of the Niger Delta region, which has long endured environmental pollution caused by the oil industry. It has been further averred that oil spills that are frequent can be attributed to a lack of maintenance to pipelines. Numbere et al. (2023) uphold that the reckless actions of oil industries have added a substantial quantity of pollutants to the soil, air and water of the Niger Delta region.

It is no longer in doubt that the natural beauty of the Niger Delta region especially its creeks have been mismanaged. Restoring the beauty and glory of the Niger Delta region may never be on the agenda of the political leaders bearing in mind the fact that the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) recommendation on the clean-up of Ogoni land is yet to gather momentum. Profit at the expense of environmental responsibility has become the name of the game. Successive governments in Nigeria care less about the environment.Okon (2015) opines in the light of the foregoing that spread on a chronological parameter, it appears no doubt that the promises by Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari with respect to the clean-up of Ogoni land were mere rhetoric.

The downside of oil prospecting in the region is that there is wide-scale unemployment with poverty taking a second index. A World Bank report shows that the oil-producing states of the Niger Delta region have some of the highest levels of youth unemployment in Nigeria (documents1.worldbank.org/curated/681711468297564975/pdf/NG000p133071).

As a basic calling, the people are agrarian in nature taking primarily to fish farming and crop farming. There is a widespread ideology that the huge exploration activities polluted the waterways making aquatic life and sustenance unviable while the arable lands have become devoid of crop nutrients thereby making it impracticable to cultivate at a level above subsistence.

Incidentally, issues of the environment translate into the standard of living. A clean environment is health to its inhabitants. Unfortunately the destruction of the environment often times is irreparable. The Nigerian government as a complaint nation has still not been able to clean up Ogoni land as recommended by UNEP. Things have never been and may never be the same in the Niger Delta region. Nature’s beauty once lost is lost completely. The destruction and pollution of the environment in the Niger Delta region has become a cause of great concern to many. Agitations for a better deal for the region have been on the front burner for decades. Government’s efforts to make life bearable for the people of the region have really not yielded the desired results. The optics show a double tragedy for the people-with the beauty of the creeks polluted, hunger and poverty walk on all fours. Since drastic moments call for drastic measures, urgent steps have to be taken to holistically address these perennial issues so as to let in a whiff of fresh air in the area while restoring the glory of the Niger Delta region.

Recommendations

The trend of environmental degradation if not checked most of the time assumes a downward tilt. There is no doubt a ray of hope that if proper measures are put in place the Niger Delta region may rebound in the lush and splash of its nature’s gift. To this end, a few recommendations may suffice:

1. There should be an enduring capacity by news media outlets to frame the Niger Delta creeks as well as other endowments of nature in the region as matters that deserve great care, nurture, and attention while discouraging acts of carelessness that fall within the purview of environmentally harmful practices.

2. The news media must deploy advocacy platforms to crusade for best practices in the oil industry such that artisanal refining activities and pipeline vandalism will be brought to the barest minimum.

3. News media organizations should endeavor to give bite to the watchdog role of the press by holding government agencies and oil industry regulators accountable when they fail in their responsibility of ensuring a safe and healthy environment for the people of the Niger Delta region.

Post script

Humanity’s inhumanity is intrinsically expressed in environmental degradation. The environment is central to all human activities especially those that border on wellness. The environment is not to be exploited, it is to be nurtured and cared for. The best humanity can get out of life is to maintain balance in the ecosystem. The common denominator here is to animate and ventilate issues of environmental preservation so the word care can find its pride of place in the glossary of environmental protection and conservation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).