Vandana Shiva

Funsho Balogun

Winner of the 1993 Right Livelihood award (an alternative to the Nobel prize), Vandana Shiva, has referred to the oil corporations operating in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region as criminals who deserve to be treated as such.

The world acclaimed Indian environmentalist and one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization berated the activities of the oil companies in an interview with the African Independent Television earlier today. Shiva, who is in Nigeria to mark the UN International Year of The Soil 2015, and decades of struggle against oil extraction in the Niger Delta said she is particularly saddened by the level of degradation she saw during her visit to Ogoniland and other parts of the Niger Delta where oil spills has rendered many villages completely inhabitable. Dwellers have vacated such villages to seek means of survival elsewhere.

Studies show that oil spills occur every day in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. Shiva is miffed by govenment’s failure to address the constant degradation and flaring in these communities, while the dwellers continue to wallow in misery due to their inability to till their soil or fish for a living.

While reflecting on the struggles of of the late Ken Saro Wiwa, a fellow laureate who defended the rights of his Ogoni people but was executed in the process, Shiva lamented the fact that the oil companies notorious for ripping off the country and leaving the land polluted have still not been made to conform with the environmental principle established at the Earth Summit in 1992.

“Shell and Elf and all the oil companies should be paying , not just for the ruination of the Niger Delta, but also for the ruination of the atmosphere and climate”,the environmentalist said.

Shiva noted that The Year Of The Soil was made the theme for 2015 due to the awareness that the soil is being degraded quite rapidly, particularly in this region. She linked this to desertification, food security and ultimately, general insecurity in the Niger Delta and other regions of the country.

According to Shiva, Nigeria and the world need to take a closer look at the emergence of Boko Haram from this perspective. She noted that the activities of the deadly sect must have thrived partly as a consequence of the general insecurity brought about by desertification and environmental degradation.