Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/230

Human Ecosystems: Okoroba-Nembe ''Like in many other areas of the world, the regions where oil is found in this country are very inhospitable. They are mainly in swamps and creeks.........I believe there is a long way to go to meet the claims of the oil-producing areas which see themselves losing non-replaceable resources while replaceable and permanent resources of agriculture and industry are being developed elsewhere largely with oil revenue. Given, however the small size and population of the oil-producing area.''

In a public lecture given by Mr. Philip Asiodu in 1980. At one time Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Mines and Power. Now a Director of Chevron Oil and Chairman of the Board of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation.

This political illusion, of empty land, creates additional problems for the people of the Niger Delta. This is because the place is seen as a big empty space where economic problems can be solved: where additional food can be grown and where valuable mineral resources can be extracted cheaply. The correct development of the Niger Delta may indeed solve some modern problems, but because it looks large and empty the answers are seen in terms of large-scale developments that by nature are careless of the local people and ecological viability. (A carelessness exacerbated by the corrupt nature of Nigerian government.) As Nigeria's food and timber requirements become more acute in the 21st century, the Okoroba-Nembe district is already being viewed as potential development land for large-scale forestry, fishery, oil palm and rice projects. Such developments may be an even greater threat to the long-term ecological viability of the Okoroba-Nembe district than the current cavalier attitude of the oil industry.

20.7 THE ECONOMY OF THE OKOROBA-NEMBE DISTRICT

In national economic terms, the Okoroba-Nembe district is one of the most important in Nigeria: it contains the Nembe and Okoroba oil fields. Yet this oil economy largely bypasses the local communities who continue to farm, fish, hunt, collect from the forest and trade as they always have done, moving around the district in canoes. This activity is not enough to support the modern population.

The economic affect of the oil industry upon the people of the Okoroba-Nembe district is that it is they who bear the costs: they live under the constant threat of oil spills (the industry in Nigeria is notoriously careless, the chances of a spill are high); farming land is damaged and traditional communications disrupted; mangrove forest is damaged; gas flares are noisy and polluting to the villages that live near them, and light up the night sky for everyone else; but, above all the greatest economic cost, is the frustration, especially amongst young men, felt as a result of the oil industry. This frustration leads to expensive attacks upon oil industry installations. The only benefit that accrues to the local people is the temporary work available to young men, mainly, it seems, from the seismic prospecting Companies; but even this is a double-edged sword, for the young men get a brief taste of a cash-rich life only to have it frustratingly snatched away.

In the fresh-water ecozone, the prime economic activity is agriculture and forest exploitation, both for subsistence and for trading. Most farming is arable and by exploitation of tree crops that grow in the "bush" usually on abandoned village, hamlet and campsites. Tree crops include: raffia and bush-mango (not planted but encouraged); oil palm (planted and opportunistic); coconuts, plantain, mango, citrus, breadfruit, 228