When nature is abused: Interrogating Nigeria's Niger Delta crisis of oil exploitation through film

Abstract

Prior to the discovery of crude oil in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, the region was relatively idyllic, though it had suffered devastation due to colonialism with its attendant human slave trade, ivories, rubber, and palm oil extraction. However, the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities in the region in the 1950s has brought devastating crisis to the point that peace and unity have become an illusion in the area. In the bid to exploit and explore the natural resources, especially crude oil, in the region for survival, man has in a sort of boomerang harmed himself and nature/environment, unmindful that whatever affects nature affects man. The challenge before this research is to illustrate how humans have endangered their lives by being unfair to nature through a critical analysis of Blood and Oil and The Liquid Black Gold. This study is anchored on Howard Bowen's 1953 Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, Theory, using the analytical research method. Findings showed that it is not primarily a lack of CSR by the oil companies that operate in the region that is responsible for the crisis in the Niger Delta, but failed leadership at various levels, orchestrated by greed, corruption, and misrepresentation.