Rapid globalization exposes indigenous communities like the Ogoni in the Niger Delta of Nigeria to social, economic and health risks. Many of the health risks, though avoidable, are overlooked by the government, corporate agents and, until recently, health activists. These risks are associated with the activities of transnational corporations (TCs), the engines of the globalization train. These engines could be seen as vectors of diseases. I believe that as public health activists, we have a responsibility to analyze the processes of these engines, sanitize them, or suggest ways they can be cleaned. We can also assist the communities in getting well by making sure that the TCs put part of their profit into cleaning up the environment. In many cases, we must insist that they leave the area.
A vivid example of a TC as a vector of disease is the case of Shell in Ogoni. The Ogoni people number approximately 500,000 and inhabit a 404-square-mile-area in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. They are considered a small minority of the Nigerian population.
Since 1958, $30 billion worth of oil has been taken from Ogoniland. When the World Council of Churches sent observers to Ogoniland in 1995, they found no piped water supplies, no good roads, no electricity, no telephones and no proper health care facilities despite the wealth of oil obtained from their land. Overall, the Gross Domestic Product per capita has been reduced since the start of oil drilling in Ogoniland.
Royal Dutch Shell is the tenth largest corporation in the world and number one in profits. Shell has ninety-six oil production wells in Ogoniland Nigeria, five flow stations (large pumping stations), and numerous gas flares, which have operated continuously for thirty-five years. In addition, Shell maintains many above ground high-pressure oil pipelines crisscrossing Ogoniland, carrying oil from other parts of Nigeria to shipping terminals. Between 1976 and 1980 alone, Shell operations caused 784 separate oil spills in Nigeria. Frequent spills are still occurring due to poor engineering and maintenance standards.
Shell admits to 3000 polluted sites affected by oil operations on Ogoni soil. According to the World Council of Churches, Shell has also admitted to flaring 1.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day for thirty-five years, causing acid rain and rain filled with fine particles of soot in the Niger delta. Observers sent by the World Council of Churches were shocked by the environmental abuses they witnessed. They wrote, "Having followed all the events in Ogoniland, reading all the reports and seeing the videos such as Drilling Fields and Delta Force, did not prepare us for the devastation we saw at the numerous spill sites we visited."
The impact of this practice on the Ogoni people has been a destroyed livelihood. In the early 90's, the life expectancy of the Ogoni people was 48 years, which was six years less than the Nigerian national average. The perception of the Ogoni people is that the processes involved in oil extraction is associated with the lowering of their quality of life and life expectancy.
Empirical data about the relationship between exposure to crude oil and population health is scant. However, observations from my experience as a physician in Ogoni for seven years and reports by other observers in the Niger Delta, agree with studies that have been done in other areas, such as Ecuador and the Sea Empress Spills in Britain, which document a rise in illnesses due to the oil extraction, including a rise in skin diseases, respiratory diseases (asthma and lung cancer), miscarriages, and more. Their right to health was violated.
In simple terms, Shell's practices deprived the Ogoni people of their basic human rights; of their economic, social and cultural rights. Furthermore, when the Ogonis complained of this deprivation, the corporation, using corrupt practices, seduced the military dictatorship of Nigeria to deprive the Ogonis of their civil and political rights and hundreds were arrested and tortured.
The Ogoni peoples' struggle against Shell received headlines on November 10, 1995 when the Nigerian dictatorship executed nine Ogoni environmental activists, including Ken Saro-Wiwa (my brother). Ken Saro-Wiwa was well-known in his homeland and internationally as a poet, essayist, environmentalist and community leader who served as the spokesperson for the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) until his death.
Sara-Wiwa had received the Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa in 1995 and the Right Livelihood Award in 1994 for his efforts on behalf of the Ogoni people. Both awards are said to carry prestige equivalent to the Nobel Peace Prize. According to the World Council of Churches, key witnesses for the prosecution at Ken Saro-Wiwa's trial have signed sworn affidavits saying they were bribed by Shell to testify against Saro-Wiwa.
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