Human Ecosystems: Introduction
- the capturing of a large proportion of the cash income arising from oil extraction by a military and political elite; and
- the corruption of the Nigerian establishment by the oil industry.
The result is not only that, to use a cliché, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer; it is not only that while some Nigerians, as a result of oil, are amongst the richest people on earth while the mass of Nigerians are now amongst the world's poorest, (in the 1970s, incredible as it seems now, Nigeria was a middle income country); but also, that Nigeria has got itself locked into a double economy so that it is, in a way, both a first world economy for the fortunate few and a third world economy for the unfortunate many.
In the Niger Delta, an expanding poor and urban population makes most resource and land use decisions. Their decisions are being driven by lack of development, stagnant agricultural productivity, negligible opportunities in urban areas, rapid population growth, tenuous property rights...
Poverty. Despite its vast oil reserves, the region remains poor. GNP per capita is below the national average of US$280. Unemployment in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, is 30 percent and is believed to be equally high in the rural areas of both states. The rural population commonly fish or practice subsistence agriculture, and supplement their diet and income with a wide variety of forest products. Education levels are below the national average and are particularly low for women. While 76% of Nigerian children attend primary school, this level drops to 30-40 percent in some parts of the Niger Delta. The poverty level in the Niger
Delta is exacerbated by the high cost of living. In the urban areas of Rivers State, the cost of living index is the highest in Nigeria (Rivers State - urban: 783; Lagos urban: 609.).
Defining an Environmental Development Strategy for the Niger Delta: May 1995. Volume I - Industrial and Energy Operations Division West Central Africa Department of the World Bank.
16.4.6 A LOW LEVEL OF RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY
Given the poverty outlined above and visible injustice in the distribution of wealth in the Niger Delta, is it any wonder that there are so many manifestations of discontent with, and disrespect for those who are in authority? These manifestations are met with a ruthless military or mobile police jack-boot, with arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, and many examples of what has been described by world leaders as "judicial murder."
The murders of Nnah Uabari in Korokoro on the 25th October 1993, of Ken Saro-Wiwa on the 10th November 1995 in Port Harcourt, and of Joseph Kpakol on September the 22nd 1996 in Port Harcourt, are symbolic to ERA of the countless authorised murders which are the face of government in the Niger Delta today.
16.5 THE RESULTING HUMAN LANDSCAPE
The human landscape resulting from the six social indicators briefly described above is discussed in the following chapters. Because ERA seeks always to understand the
196
