As oil prices continue their dramatic rise, public interest in oil-producing countries is growing. Nigeria—the world’s sixth largest oil producer—is of particular interest.
|
Oil is Nigeria’s main export, representing around 95 percent of its total exports and 20 percent of its GDP (CIA World Factbook, Aug. 7). However, roughly 71 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture, primarily for subsistence. At least 54 percent of the country lives on less than $1 a day. Urban unemployment is 12.4 percent and rural unemployment exceeds 23 percent.
Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars brought in by the oil industry, basic human needs remain unmet. Only 61 percent of Nigerian children have access to primary education. Fewer than 45 percent have access to secondary education. (Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, 2003)
Poverty is most stark in the main oil-producing region, the states of the Niger River Delta. Large swaths of villages have no access to electricity, clean water, health care, jobs or education. A 2006 U.N. report stated that there was only one doctor for every 150,000 people in the Bayelsa and Delta states.
Meanwhile, massive oil revenues are caught in some of the world’s most brazen corruption alongside the country’s grinding poverty. In 1978, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo—the military ruler of Nigeria until 1979—passed a law known as the Land Use Decree. This law gave the Nigerian government control of all the oil producing lands, with oil revenues accrued to the state.
A succession of civilian and military governments proceeded to steal the vast majority of this money. Patronage flowed from the ruling cliques, who were able to dispense contracts, money, land and government appointments.
Through such plunder, a relatively large bourgeoisie arose, completely based on the state and oil revenues. As much as 80 percent of state-owned oil revenue was pocketed by less than 1 percent of the population.
This privileged class has managed the oil interests of multinational corporations at the expense of the local population. When the U.S. government suspended military aid to nearly 50 countries as punishment for not exempting the United States from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, Nigeria was among those that were granted a presidential waiver so that funds would continue flowing.
The U.S. Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy are both active in Nigeria. Both bodies are tasked with channeling U.S. funds into oppressed nations to support pro-Washington forces.
Oppression gives rise to resistance
Nigeria’s inequality can only be maintained through state violence. Both the military and civilian governments of Nigeria have been condemned for widespread repression, particularly against the oppressed nations of the Delta region.
The military government of Sani Abacha gained particular infamy when they hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa, an Ogoni activist, who had organized hundreds of thousands in peaceful marches against the vicious exploitation of the Ogoni people and the peoples of the broader River states region.
Nigeria has been ruled by a succession of so-called civilian governments since 1999, brought to power through elections widely condemned as rigged. This has only led to a continuation of the policies of exploitation and corruption.
However, resistance is the natural outcome of violent oppression. Resistance has grown since 2002, especially in the Delta states, where workers occupied refineries and kidnapped foreign oil workers. To the present day, the situation has become increasingly volatile.
Government factions began to use paramilitary organizations during the 2003 election to rig the outcomes. Two main armed groups emerged: the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force and the Niger Delta Vigilante. While the government continues to finance these groups, they have achieved a degree of independence by “bunkering”—tapping oil pipelines for sale on the black market.
After the 2003 elections, the NDPVF began to position itself as a champion against the exploitation of the Niger Delta, further politicizing the conflicts between armed groups. Such political jockeying has led to an increase in militant actions between different factions, as well as politically motivated attacks on oil production facilities and military installations.
An amalgam of different independent armed forces—running the gamut from outright criminal to more politicized armed militants—have been working together under the umbrella name of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
This summer, MEND has leveled serious blows to the oil industry. On June 20, MEND organized a strike at Shell Oil’s flagship offshore platform, Bong. That action briefly cut off 10 percent of Nigeria’s oil production. In May 2008, MEND had also forced Shell to halt production of more than 170,000 barrels of oil. ExxonMobil also took a half-billion-dollar hit when white-collar workers struck in the spring for eight days, costing the company 800,000 thousand barrels per day.
Resistance from other layers of Nigerian society has also intensified. From June 28 to Aug. 13, the National Union of Teachers in Nigeria struck to demand the implementation of salary increases promised by the government in 2003. Teachers suspended the five-week strike indefinitely after forcing authorities to agree to a 27.5 percent raise.
Still, the situation remains volatile. Such government promises have frequently been broken. Strike action could resume at any time. A recent controversy over $16 billion presently missing from funds for power generation has heightened anger around issues of wages, high food prices, unemployment, and the lack of social services and infrastructure.
The people of Nigeria are fighting back on a variety of fronts. The inherently unstable and corrupt ruling elite is especially vulnerable to challenge. The intensifying pace of exploitation is bound to force people into heightened resistance against both the corrupt state and the multinational oil corporations that enrich themselves while Nigeria’s vast majority lives in misery and abjection.
