Oil pollution in Nigerias Niger delta: an insight on human rights violations and corruption in the region

Abstract

The negative impact of oil spills in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is admittedly the cause of human rights violations, environmental degradation and corruption in the region. Human rights violations occurring daily in the Niger Delta region cannot be described as vehemence, it is so intense that even water that is meant to cost the inhabitants absolutely nothing as they are blessed abundantly with it becomes poison. One would begin to realise why poverty is widely spread in the region. This situation is evidently associated with corruption of the Nigerian government and the government officials. However, the inhabitants of this region cannot be absolutely exonerated in the effect of oil spills in their region. The initial clamour by the people of the Niger Delta region was that the region should be self- sufficient. However, this clamour subdued when the whole Federation of Nigeria elected a "son of the region" as the vice president of Nigeria, who eventually is the current president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Nevertheless, the situation in the region is pretty much the same even though it is now considered as the ruling region. Why is this so? This study will investigate the reasons of the oil pollution quandary in the Niger Delta Region as oil producing state of Nigerian people and its effect on human rights. The main objective of this paper is to give a general overview and an in depth analysis on Corruption and Human Rights violations in the region occasioned by environmental degradation through oil pollution. The dissertation will in addition make recommendations with the purpose that the Government and International Oil Corporations end the impact of oil pollution in the region.