Environmental Conflict and United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) Report: An Appraisal of the Clean-Up in Ogoni

Abstract

The people of Ogoni over the years have been at logger heads with the federal government of Nigeria and the Multinational Company, Shell over the long period of oil exploration and exploitation on their land without any noticeable development, instead the environment was polluted. This is revealed by UNEP and shows that the Ogoni people have suffered grave consequences owing to the oil pollution of their land. Upon the recommendations of UNEP, the Federal Government agreed to clean up Ogoniland so as to save the people's lives and their environment. Against, this background, this study examined the environmental conflict and UNEP report in Ogoniland, with a view to appraising the clean-up projects in Ogoni. The study was exploratory and descriptive in design, thus the study relied on content analysis. Max Weber's strand of conflict theory was adopted as theoretical guide. Four objectives and corresponding four research questions were posed. In proffering answers to the questions, it was revealed that the several years of oil pollution in Ogoni breeds environmental pollution and grave dangers for the Ogonis. Thus, the cleanup was meant to clean the environment and restore the economy, wealth and health of the Ogonis.However, the present state of the clean-up is slow, delayed and reveals a lackadaisical attitude of the government which implies that the Ogonis are continuously affected by the hazard on daily basis.