OIL MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN NIGERIA AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATIONS
Need help with a related project topic or New topic? Send Us Your Topic
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE PROJECT MATERIAL
OIL MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN NIGERIA AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATIONS
ABSTRACT
This study, titled “Oil Multinational Corporations in Nigeria and Environmental Degradation: A Case Study of the Niger Delta Areas,” aims to investigate the activities of the Oil Multinationals in terms of oil exploration and exploitation, as well as their associated relationship with the environment, particularly in their operational areas.
The work goes on to investigate the impact of governments’ legal tools and their influence on oil multinationals operating in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. Secondary sources such as dictionaries, encyclopaedias, research reports published in journals, newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and certain associated research reviews are used in the project.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The weather has an impact on everyone, no matter where they live or who they are. You dress light if the day is going to be hot and sunny. If it’s cold outside, you reach for a coat, and if it’s raining, you reach for your umbrella.
The weather charms us at times and disappoints us at others. It can be lethal in the form of storms, tornadoes, drought, blizzards, monsoons, floods, or lightning.
The weather is always present, influencing our lives from the day we are born until the day we die, whether we like it or dislike it. Many scholars have expressed worry about the environmental issues confronting Nigeria in its efforts to achieve some industrial growth and development.
Others have dealt with the obvious environmental damage caused by many of the economy’s manufacturing businesses. However, no one has expressed alarm about the environmental devastation caused by oil multinational firms,
notably in the country’s Niger Delta region. An expose on their unreasonable business practices, and, most crucially, the oil multinational’s inability to conform to environmental norms, causes an issue and concern in the Niger Delta ecology.
Indeed, the oil multinational firms’ antagonistic attitude has not helped to reduce oil spills, deforestation, air and water pollution, and the general impoverishment of Niger Delta residents.
The reality is that the Federal Government of Nigeria has been unable to pass or promulgate functional decrees or laws to check the activities of the oil multinational business. This casual attitude of the federal government is also revealed in this essay.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
There is ample evidence that oil multinational corporations working in Nigeria’s Niger Delta Areas are destroying the environment. This state of affairs necessitates a closer examination of the actions of oil multinational firms in order to expose their contributions to environmental deterioration in the country’s Niger Delta areas.
All environmentalists throughout the world have raised their voices in protest of the different forms of environmental deterioration caused by pollution of the air, water, and land.
There have recently been reports of oil spills in Nigeria’s Niger Delta areas. Landowners/occupiers have traditionally reacted angrily to damage done to their agricultural and hunting fields, crops, play areas, sacred shrubs, fishing ponds/rivers, and drinking water sources.
Few people are aware of the serious health risks that air and other forms of pollution pose to their health, social, and economic lives. Environmental challenges are no longer solely the concern of citizens and governments; international organisations, corporate groups, experts,
and others are now preoccupied with environmental issues. Several studies conducted by scientists and scholars have indicated that there are risks lurking in our environment as a result of human activity.
Many answers have resulted from the efforts of numerous researchers. To put the solutions and proposals into action, every individual, government, international organisation, enterprise, body of experts, and so on must make significant commitments. Many people have shown genuine worry in this regard, while others have stayed silent.
This study is thus an intentional endeavour to reawaken the conscience of all participants to environmental deterioration in order to exert some efforts towards alleviating the environmental crisis that has already been created,
as this is the only sure means of ensuring the future existence of the human species. As a result, the following concerns arise and demand answers:
1. Is there a link between the actions of oil multinational firms in the Niger Delta and environmental degradation?
2. Are the actions of oil multinational firms in the Niger Delta Areas governed by internationally approved oil exploration and exploitation guidelines?
3. Is there a connection between oil exploration and exploitation and civil unrest in the Niger Delta region?
4. Does the Federal Government’s incapacity to issue effective decrees/laws governing the activities of oil multinational firms lead to environmental degradation in the Niger Delta Areas?
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The overarching goal of this study is to determine the extent to which oil multinational firms comply with environmental requirements. While the study’s precise aims include:
1. determining the extent to which oil multinational firms’ activities represent environmental degradations in Nigeria’s Niger Delta areas.
2. To ascertain the relationship between noncompliance by oil multinational corporations with internationally approved guidelines and environmental degradation in Nigeria’s Niger Delta areas.
3. To ascertain the relationship between oil exploration, exploitation, and civil unrest in Nigeria’s Niger Delta areas.
4. Determine whether the Federal Government of Nigeria’s incapacity to issue effective decrees/laws to rein in the operations of oil multinational corporations contributes to environmental degradation in the Niger Delta Areas.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research is essential because it reveals the genuine or passive postures of the oil multinational firms working in the Niger Delta Areas in terms of environmental sanitation or deterioration.
Keeping in mind that there are regulations/standards for laying oil pipelines, building roads to oil locations and flow-stations, oil well diameters, clearing rig sites, dumping wastes/mud, gas flaring and handling oil spills.
As a result, the study becomes a valuable resource for corporate planners, environmentalists, social workers, policy and lawmakers, governments, individuals, and non-governmental organisations concerned with environmental issues.
It also serves as a benchmark against which oil multinational businesses operating in Nigeria’s Niger Delta Areas can measure their contribution in environmental degradation in the region.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. There is a positive association between the activity of oil multinational corporations and environmental degradation in the Niger Delta Areas.
2. Oil multinational businesses’ actions in the Niger Delta Areas are not guided by internationally approved guidelines for oil exploration and exploitation.
3. There is a positive relationship between oil exploration, exploitation, and civil unrest in Nigeria’s Niger Delta areas.
4. The Federal Government of Nigeria’s incapacity to issue functioning decrees/laws to regulate the activities of the oil multinational business has resulted in environmental degradation in the Niger Delta Areas.
1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Because social sciences are concerned with the study of human behaviours in society, the technique of research is constantly determined by the nature of the subject under consideration and the availability of research tools. The topic of this study allows for the utilisation of secondary data gathering sources.
Facts will be drawn from dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and research reports published in journals, magazines, newspapers, textbooks, and other research studies. Personal observations by the researcher also played significant roles in the research effort, as visits were made to several oil locations/fields to acquire firsthand observations of what occurs in the areas.
During visits to affected villages, discussions were held with certain community leaders, youth leaders, and rural women who have been disproportionately affected by the activities of oil multinational corporations in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
The operational definitions of the terms/concepts utilised in this research endeavour are as follows: Oil- This is a reference to petroleum (crude oil), which is a generic term for certain combustible hydrocarbon molecules present on Earth. Petroleum refers to mineral oil or natural gas in its natural state.
OIL MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS (OMNCs) are non-political organisations that operate only to maximise profits for shareholders and expand their market.
They have subsidiaries in several countries, and a significant portion of their professional workforce is from outside.
ENVIRONMENT: The entire natural environment inhabited by living species, particularly those considered sensitive to pollution, harm, and so on.
DEGRADATION: The act of debasing, reducing, or lowering the quality of something.
Need help with a related project topic or New topic? Send Us Your Topic