In 2007, Nigeria was in
the international news mostly for two reasons – the presidential elections and
the series of kidnappings of (foreign) workers in the oil industry. The first reason was
significant as it’s the first democratic to democratic government transition. I
happened to be in Nigeria
during tense elections. The second reason has ever been omnipresent in the
country’s oil rich delta region since its oil
resources begun to be exploited.
The situation in the delta region came into international focus in 1995
when Ken Saro Wiwa was executed by the then military regime. Ken Saro Wiwa was
the leader of the movement fighting for rights of one of many tribes that
inhabits the region.
The book is an
analysis of tremendous forces that operate and exploit the oil resources in the
delta region. How they impact the local inhabitants’ day to day lives. The
environmental, local developmental (or lack of it) along with the high power corruption
are issues played out the violent drama that has been staged for a long time. The
main players, according to the authors, are many
multinational oil companies
(Shell gets mentioned repeatedly), foreign organisations in Europe and the US that
control these multinational oil companies, the foreign governments that have
high stake in these foreign companies and in energy security for themselves, the local Nigerian government,
and of course the local inhabitants, who stake to some share in the ulisation
of resources that lay underneath their forefathers’ agricultural land, which
has been rendered a wasteland.The presidential election was significant in the above background.