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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study Corporate CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study Corporate Social Responsibility can be described as those activities undertaken by a business Organisation as obligations owed to the society which includes the immediate host community, the customers, contractors and employees of the business enterprise, the government as well as the environment, to minimize the impacts of the operations on the stakeholders. It connote the obligation to act right by using the natural resources of the society in such a manner that shows concern for the right of future generations and to employ international standards and recognize industrial best practices in carrying out its operations so that harm is avoided to the health, livelihood and life of the indigenous people in the host community where such extractive operations are been carried out. In Nigeria, indigenous peoples are found within the Niger Delta region where oil and gas – the mainstays of the Nigerian economy, are extracted.1 There are indigenous peoples in other parts of the country but majority of these are not affected by the activities of oil and gas multinational corporations (MNOCs), hence, the emphasis on the indigenous peoples of the Niger Delta region.2 The Niger Delta region of Nigeria comprises six core Niger Delta States3and three non-core Niger Delta States.4 Situated in the southern part of Nigeria, the Niger Delta ranks among the most densely populated regions in Africa. 5 The region is considered among the ten most important wetlands and marine ecosystems in the world, and plays host to many rare species, 1United States Energy Information Administration, Country Analysis Brief: Nigeria (2016) <https://www.marcon.com/librarycountry-briefsNigeria/nigeria.pdf> accessed 15 September 2017. 2 For example, Hausa, Yoruba, Fulani, Tiv, Jukun, Idoma, Igala, Nupe 3The core States are Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo,AkwaIbom and Cross River. 4The non-core Niger Delta States are Abia, Imo and Ondo. 5B R Konne (n 1 ) 181. 1 including several primates, ungulates and birds. 6 The region is also a harbinger of vast mangrove ecosystem which serves as a habitat of great importance for the vast fish population found along the West African coastline. 7 Majority of Nigeria’s oil production occurs in the Niger Delta region.8 Nigeria began commercial production of crude petroleum in 1958 after oil was first discovered in 1956 in Oloibiri (present-day Bayelsa State).9 Since then, Nigeria has gone on to become the largest producer of crude oil in Africa, with an estimated 37.2 billion barrels of oil reserves as of January 2013.10 Besides, Nigeria holds the largest natural gas reserves on the African continent and became the world’s fourth largest exporter of Liquefied Natural gas (NLNG) in 2015.11 Crude oil and national gas are the mainstays of the Nigerian economy.12 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates show that in 2014 alone, oil and natural gas export revenue clocked $87 billion and accounted for 58% of the total government revenue for that year.13 In terms of foreign exchange, oil and gas raked in revenue constituting more than 95% of the country’s total exports to the world in 2014.14 Apart from the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), there are other MNOCs which operate in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry which are hosted by communities in the Niger Delta region.15 The oil industry in Nigeria is highly visible in the 6Ibid, 182. 7B R Konne, ‘Inadequate Monitoring and Enforcement in the Nigerian Oil Industry: The Case of Shell and Ogoniland’ [2014](47) Cornell International Law Journal 181, 182. 8Amnesty International, ‘Nigeria: Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta’<https://www.es.amnesty.org/uploads/media/REPORT_Petroleum_Pollution_and_Poverty_in_the_Niger _Delta.pdf> accessed 27 November 2017. 9B R Konne (n 1) 182. 10Ibid. 11US Energy Information Administration (n 2) 2. 12Ibid. 13Ibid. 14Ibid. 15These include Eni, Total, Statoil, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU), Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Chevron, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG). Of these Companies, SPDC has the most dominant presence and influence throughout the Niger Delta region, justifying why the major confrontations in the region are always against SPDC. 2 Niger Delta because the region has control over a large amount of land. SPDC alone operates over 31,000 square kilometres of land, crisscrossed by thousands of kilometres of pipelines, which are punctuated by wells and flow stations. Majority of the oil installations are close to the homes, farms and water sources of the host communities.16 More than 60% of the people living in the Niger Delta derive their livelihood from their natural environment.17 They hold their lands sacred. For many, their principal source of food is the land which they use for crop cultivation, fishing and gathering of forest products, including hunting. 18 Vegetation and forests serve as the main source of energy for the people.As source of medical treatment, herbs and roots are known cures of various diseases among the locals.Land provides ceremonial and spiritual affinity between the people and their deities. Thus, to this indigenous people, their land means everything to them. Land is life as their economic, social, cultural, health and religious needs can only be met through the use of their land.19 The rivers and creeks are widely used for bathing and other domestic applications, and are their main source of drinking water.20 However, the activities of MNOCs operating in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria portend grave pollution and environmental risks to human life, health and rights within the region and this has been the case for the over fifty years SPDC and other MNOCs have been operating in the Niger Delta host communities.21 Oil spills, waste dumping and gas flaring are endemic in the Niger Delta. Amnesty International reports that every year, hundreds of oil spills occur. 16 Amnesty International Summary (n 9) 1. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 19 A Whitmore, Pitfalls and Pipelines: indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries (Bagiuo City, Philippines:Tebtebba Foundation and IWGIA 2012) 4. 20 Amnesty International Summary (n 9) 2. 21 Ibid. 3 The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA),hasregistered 2,000 spill sites and it has been claimed that the figure may be far higher.22 Niger Delta communities have to drink, cook with and wash in polluted water. They eat fish contaminated with oil and other toxins, if they are lucky enough to find fishes which have all gone extinct due to accumulated and unabated years of large scale pollution of the rivers and seas of the region.23 Their lands have been destroyed and no longer suitable for agriculture – the major occupation of the host communities.24 Persistent gas flares and oil spills ensure that the air the people breathe reeks of oil, gas and other pollutants, resulting in breathing problems, skin lesions and other health problems such as asthma, lung disease, heart attack, miscarriage and skin disease. 25 Flaring of gas in the Niger Delta has been a normal occurrence since oil production began in the region.26 A study has shown that more gas is flared in the Niger Delta than anywhere else in the world.27 In fact, data from two flow stations – Kolo Creek and Obanna, show that on the average, approximately 800,000m3/day of gas is flared.28 Emissions from combustion of associated gas have been held to contain toxins such as benzene, nitrogen oxide, dioxins, hydrogen sulphide, xylene and toluene.29 In an environmental assessment carried out in Ogoniland, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 30 showed extensive pollution from petroleum hydrocarbons in 22Amnesty International, ‘Nigeria: Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta’<https://www.es.amnesty.org/uploads/media/REPORT_Petroleum_Pollution_and_Poverty_in_the_Niger _Delta.pdf> accessed 27 November 2017. 23Ibid. 24B R Konne (n 1) 184. 25Amnesty international Summary (n 9) 2. See also J Adekola and others, ‘Health Risks from Environmental Degradation in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’ [2017](35)(2) Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 334, 340. 26Ibid, 339. 27Friends of the Earth International, Clashes with Corporate Giants: 22 Campaigns for Biodiversity and Community (Friends of the Earth International, Amsterdam 2004). 28M Ishisone, ‘Gas Flaring in the Niger Delta: The Potential Benefits of its Reduction on the Local Economy and Environment’<https://www.nature.berkeley.edu/classes/esM6/projects/2004final/Ishisone.pdf> Accessed 15 September 2017. 29A K Edafienene, ‘Media Exposure, Policy Agenda Setting and Risk Communication in Sub-saharan Africa: A Case Study of Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region’ (Ph.DDessertation, University of Glamorgan 2012). 30UNEP, Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland [UNEP Report] <https://www.postconflict.unep.ch/publications/OEA/UNEP_CEApdf> Accessed 15 September 2017. 4 Ogoniland in many land areas, sediments, and swamps – translating to the reality that both surface and groundwater had been severely contaminated. The report found that the groundwater in Ogoniland is exposed to hydrocarbons spilled on the surface, observing that,“[i]n 49 areas, UNEP observed hydrocarbons in soil at depths of at least 5m”.31 UNEP observed that the hydrocarbon pollution in the groundwater in many areas was in excess of the national standards established by the Environmental Guidelines and Standards for the Petroleum Industries in Nigeria (EGASPIN).32 In the area of public health, the
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