in Nigeria, the curse of black gold overwhelms the fisherwomen of the Niger Delta

On the Escravos River, one of the many canals of the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, the frail boats of fishermen rub shoulders with gigantic tankers that cut through the waters to the Atlantic. By squinting towards the horizon, we can see the silhouette of the infrastructure of the oil port. Dozens of pipelines converge from the surrounding creeks to the tanks of this major terminal operated by the American giant Chevron, which exploits the region’s oil in partnership with the Nigerian government, whose revenues largely depend on the extractive industry.

But, upstream of the river, the inhabitants of the villages and the fishing camps nested in the forest live in poverty and know black gold only its curse. Since the 1950s, millions of liters of oil flowed into nature, making this region one of the most polluted in the world. “When we came here decades ago to set up camp, the place was beautiful and the mangroves were green,” remembers Rose Okito, a loincloth tied around her hips. “But just over a year ago, pollution contaminated our land, she continues. Now, if you walk around our houses, your legs will quickly get covered in oil and you will sink into the dirt with every step. » Tiny dried crayfish are placed on a black plastic bag at the feet of the old woman, who had to watch, powerless, the impoverishment of her fishing, yet her only means of subsistence.

Misfortune struck one morning in mid-February 2021. Women who had gone to look for fish noticed a bubbling on the surface of the river, then oil mixed with the water. They quickly suspect a leak, alert the leaders of their community of Benikrukru, who contact the local government and Chevron, without much success.

Pollution ravages

At the end of March, the women of the villages of the kingdom of Gbaramatu affected by the pollution finally went to the three pumping stations located on their land, determined to make their voices heard. For nearly two weeks, the fisherwomen occupied the premises, barely eating and sleeping on the ground, to demand action from the oil giant, summoned to compensate for the total cessation of their fishing activities. “We didn’t even ask for money, just food! » cries Onitsha Joseph. The sixty-year-old seethes with rage when she says she had to be rushed to a clinic after inhaling the toxic fumes above the water. “I spent days with the fever, I kept throwing up! This oil hurts us so much! » she laments. For these isolated communities in the Niger Delta, health problems are compounded by the difficult access to healthcare.

While men leave to look for work in town or sail to the sea to cast their nets, women who fish closer to the coast and their villages are on the front line facing the ravages of pollution. Believing that the security forces would have more scruples in threatening them with their weapons, they went to the front in the early 2000s to demand better living conditions from the oil companies established on their territory.

Head of the family and local leader, Elizabeth Lagbo was part of all these struggles. “Many years ago we protested for running water. Then to ask for electricity, but they sent the police and the army to us, and some of us were seriously injured,” she explains, her gaze calm and determined under her colorful headdress. ” This time when we told them their pipeline was leaking, they denied it. They even accused our sons of sabotaging it to steal oil, when we have no more fish to catch or money to pay our children’s school fees!, exclaims the matron. And so far, they haven’t paid us any compensation yet. »

After the mobilization of the women, the supply of the offending pipeline was interrupted. But it took more than a year for a joint commission of inquiry – made up of representatives from Chevron, community members and regional authorities – to finally go to the scene in early April 2022. “We sent our own divers because we had no confidence in Chevron’s expertise,” says Kingsley Ukuli, the community secretary of Benikrukru.

“The law is not enforced”

After two days of exploration, the multinational finally recognizes the presence of “two pinholes” in the pipeline and admits it’s probably an equipment issue. For now, however, no compensation agreement has yet been signed. “This case is important because this leak is located where the river is deep, not in a creek, so the hypothesis of sabotage was not very credible, emphasizes Kingsley Ukuli. However, this is often the excuse given by companies for not taking their responsibilities. »

At a time when international oil companies are seeking to diversify their activities and are divesting from the Niger Delta to focus on their deep-sea assets, the 30-year-old has no real illusions: “When they get tired of managing local communities, they will sell everything and leave without worrying about the future of our children, after destroying our environment and wiping out aquatic life,” he blurts out bitterly. The multinationals leave behind them dilapidated infrastructure eaten away by seawater, which they have often not seen fit to maintain, for lack of constraints imposed by the Nigerian state.

“These pipelines are very old, most were laid in the 1960s, 1970s”recalls Sheriff Mulade, director of the Center for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ), located in the oil town of Warri. “If we renewed all those who are no longer in good condition, there would already be a lot fewer leaks, but the law is not applied. So the companies are content to replace a few really damaged portions, or they pay a little money to the affected populations and it stops there”, he regrets. Not only are multinationals gradually withdrawing from the creeks of the Niger Delta without cleaning up behind them, but the transfer of their assets to local companies is further aggravating these structural problems, according to the NGO Stakeholder Democracy Network, the latter having often neither the capacity nor the resources to manage pollution or repair leaks.