Human Ecosystems: Introduction
to ensure that the oil continues to flow, regardless of any other considerations, and so that oil revenues reach the centre.
In other words administration of the Niger Delta as a whole has been cast to suit the financial demands of a central administration which is blind to the needs of local people.
Nonetheless, within local communities self-government survives, and is in some ways becoming stronger in response to the irrelevance of the state administration to local needs. This community government, which has its roots in antiquity, is based on a Council of Chiefs, and while it is open to corruption, there tends to be a fairly efficient degree of self-regulation.
In many communities in the Niger Delta, while the Council of Chiefs is exclusively male, it generally has a broad representation and is accessible to most members of the community. Moreover, while abuses are common, individual chiefs are often suspended or even chased away from the community for mis-deeds. Nonetheless, and particularly in oil producing areas, it is not uncommon for a chief to accept personal favours from oil companies in return for persuading their communities to accept conditions which may not actually be in the general interest of the community. Sometimes also, a chief may accept payments on behalf of community but not pass them on.
As a result of the obvious injustice arising from the attitude of the central administration to the communities of the Niger Delta there has been some local agitation for a recognition of a local voice. Statements to the press in early September 1996 by the Minister for Petroleum Resources suggested that central government is aware of this agitation and recognises that a solution to the problems of the Niger Delta and of Nigeria as a whole will have to include a 'grass-roots' voice in the decisions which affect the lives of local people.
Efficient government and sustainable development can only arise from the real participation of local people in government.
16.4.5 POVERTY PREVAILS
Although by no means a universal condition, poverty is the prevailing social trend in the Niger Delta and a social indication that all is not well. This trend towards poverty arises from a combination of seven interrelated causes:
- a continuing degradation of ecosystems in terms of their ability to sustainably supply the resources required of them;
- a fast growing population;
- rapid and unplanned urbanisation;
- uncoordinated and unsustainable development processes which favour the economically well placed and which are actually an economic cost to the economically disadvantaged;
- a government development policy which is fixed upon maximising the income earning capacity of the oil and gas industries with a total disregard for the development needs of the mass of the population;
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