Why Oil Is a Humanitarian Issue for Nigeria's New President

President-elect Bola Tinubu is prioritizing the revival of Nigeria's troubled oil industry, which has been a source of wealth but also a curse due to its negative environmental impact, violent unrest, and lawsuits. Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region has suffered from pollution caused by oil spillages, leading to the destruction of the ecosystem and loss of livelihoods for farming and fishing communities, writes Dulue Mbachu for The New Humanitarian.

The Niger Delta has suffered some of the worst pollutions on the planet, with an estimated 8,000 spills between 2006 and 2019, many of which have devastated the area's wetlands and mangrove swamps. Farming and fishing communities have been divided by resource disputes and forced into alternative industries such as oil theft, kidnapping, and piracy.

The major oil companies operating in Nigeria, including Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Eni, are selling off their onshore and shallow water assets to curtail their environmental impact and address net-zero obligations, as well as to avoid litigation from local communities. Local communities are demanding compensation for the environmental damage caused by the oil industry before the companies leave.

Delta communities, working with the support of environmental advocacy groups, have been fighting back. The Aghoro community in Bayelsa state, which is seeking U.S.$1.5 billion from Shell in compensation for a 2018 spill, got a court injunction in June last year restraining any asset sale pending the suit's determination.