Make the G8 History Blog: Rivers of oil, oceans of hunger: Nnimmo Bassey Interview

Oscar Reyes. Nnimmo Bassey is Secretary-Director of Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth, Nigeria) and a poet. In this interview at the Global Dreams, Corporate Nightmares conference he discusses the environmental and economic impact of the oil industry in Nigeria and reads from his poem 'Mountains of Food, Oceans of Hunger'. You can hear a recording of the full interview here or continue reading for an edited transcript.

How has oil made Nigeria poorer?

Oil has made Nigeria poorer in many ways. Basically, it was the advent of commercial crude oil exploitation in Nigeria that began the slide into corruption. It destroyed the basic infrastructure and lowered the productive capacity of industry, because everyone just looked for a slice of the action from the petroleum dollars. When oil became the major foreign currency earner, agriculture was abandoned by the government and other activities that sustained the nation were virtually forgotten about.

Over the years, oil has also been the major contributor to the rise in violence – especially in the Niger delta - and oil was the major reason that the military government was able to stay in power for three decades.

What are the major environmental impacts of oil exploitation?

Oil exploration and installations have contributed to the clearing of forests.

Oil spills have also made a major impact. The corporations themselves admit to hundreds of oil spill incidents, which are mainly due to faulty equipment and old pipelines. The oil spills into farmlands and waterways – which people depend on for drinking, cooking, recreation.

The government is not adequately enforcing the already-weak oil laws, and the companies employ contractors who just use shovels and pumps to bury the crude. And sometimes when they just get tired, the contractors simply simply set the spills on fire. And this is how they have burnt many forests and even one or two rivers.

Another major way by which oil activities degrade the environment in the Niger delta is through gas flaring. It is a very wasteful activity, with the burnt gas estimated to be worth two and a half billion dollars per year, and that in a country where most people live on less than one dollar a day. The gases burn at very inefficient levels, leading to the release of soot into the atmosphere, greenhouse gases and acid rain.

How can Nigeria break its economic dependency on oil?

The simple thing would be to shut down the oil industry because the impact has been negative, but that may not be easy because so many of the resources come back into the hands of the government. So we demand a moratorium on new oilfield exploration to take stock of the environmental degradation that has taken place, to take a break and give the environment time to be restored, grow and regain its vitality.

Ultimately the oil industry will shut down on its own, since we’ve more or less reached the peak of oil production and discovery. But before the oil supply is exhausted the same corporations are possibly going to switch into development of new energy forms, over which they’ll also have a monopoly. This is going to be a great danger for those living in the oil fields, because right now oil is yielding a lot of resources and nothing is being done about the environment. But when oil is no longer attractive these oil corporations - Shell, AGIP, Mobil-Exxon – are simply going to pack their suitcases and leave the people to suffer the degradation and what they’ve left behind. That’s why want to hold them accountable now before it is too late. Now is the time for the oil corporations to clean up their act, not just their language, and change.

Why have you come to the G8 counter-summit to advance your cause?

I believe that international solidarity is needed to stop the destructive actions of transnational corporations. I have more confidence in people power than in government power. I don’t have any confidence in the G8 itself, that they can do anything good. They’re like puppets speaking for the corporations. The power to restructure the world, to bring about change and stop transnational corporations from keeping their fangs and teeth in our necks will only come from the mass action of the people. That is why I’m here.

Finally, could you read one of your poems?

It’s good that you talk about poetry. Most of my poems have been related to the struggle for environmental justice. This has been a pain to me. I’d much rather be writing poems about flowers, landscapes or love, but I’ve not had that privilege. I’ve only been writing poems of struggle.

This is a poem that’s not been published yet. It’s about hunger. Hunger is a big issue in Africa and we say that people are not hungry because there’s no food. People are hungry because they don’t have access to food. Poverty is engineered, it doesn’t happen by accident. African is not a poor continent. Nigeria is not a poor nation. They are poor because of the structural adjustment programmes and all the evil devices of the World Bank and IMF who were set up to oppress people, and this has been the outcome. So with the issues like debt relief, it’s just as if you did harm and are looking for a way to gain because you took a little step towards changing the situation.

This poem was written in Mozambique, where we had a conference on food hunger and genetically modified organisms. It’s called

Mountains of food, oceans of hunger

Mountains of food
Oceans of hunger
How can this remain the lot of our peoples?
From the south and from the north
From the east and from the west

When our stomachs rumble
We sing the same song
And we dance to the same beat

Mountains of food
Oceans of hunger
Proud peoples from fertile soils
We stamp the earth with bouncing steps
Once the rulers of the world
Today we are the wretched of the earth
Hands stretched out with empty bowls