Blood, Sweat, Tears and Oil: The mistreatment of the Ogoni People by R

Blood, Sweat, Tears and Oil The mistreatment of the Ogoni People by Royal Dutch Shelland the Nigerian organisationIntroductionNigeria, located in West Africa, is a densely populated nation of over 100 million people. Since the nations independence from Britain in 1960, the country has been in the hands of various leaders ranging from religious to staunchly militant. Nigeria is the sixth largest producer of crude oil in the world and it has one of the largest deposits of innate gas (Wiwa, 2001). Oil accounts for ninety five percent of Nigerias foreign exchange earning and one-fourth of the countrys Gross Domestic Product comes from oil. A large percentage of this oil is located in the Niger Delta.The Niger Delta, located in eastern Nigeria, is the third largest wet bring in the world covering 70,000 square kilometers and accounts for 7.5% of Nigerias land mass (www.nddconline.org). About twenty million of Nigerias one hundred million people reside in the Niger Delta and forty di fferent ethnic groups follow in the region. Oil development by large industries, such as Shell, and lack of support from the Nigerian government has left many people in the Niger Delta at a severe disadvantage. Most notably the Ogoni people, who are the minority in the region, have suffered from devastating ontogenesis. Oil was discovered in the Ogoni region in 1958 and after an estimated 900 million barrels with an estimated value of $30 billion were extracted in the area, there is very little to show for it in the Ogoni community. Economic loss, environmental loss, exploitation and murder are all direct consequences of the occupation of major oil companies, namely Shell, in the Ogoni region. This paper aims to bring to ... ...d. Austria OPEC Fund, 2003.Amanyie, Vincent. The Agony of the Ogoni in the Niger Delta A quality Study. Nigeria Horizon Concepts, 2001.Azaiki, Steve. Inequities in Nigerian Politics The Niger Delta, Resource Control, Underdevelopment and Yo uth Restiveness. Nigeria Treasure Books, 2003.Civil Liberties Organization. Ogoni Trials and Travails. Lagos, Nigeria Civil Liberties Organization, 1996.Douglas, Oronto and Ike Okonta. Where Vultures Feast Shell, Human Rights, and Oil in the Niger Delta. San Francisco Sierra unite Books, 2001.Niger Delta Development Commission. www.nddconline.orgWiwa, Diana. The Role of Women in the Struggle for Environmental Justice in Ogoni. Delta, No.3 , October 1997 11Wiwa, Ken. In the Shadow of a Saint A sons journey to understand his fathers legacy.Canada Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.