The Niger Delta Oil Rich Region: The Paradox of Fascination and Horror

Abstract

Mankind is threatened by global environmental changes occasioned by man sporadic attempt to alter the design of nature. Man as the master of the earth and space is busy competing against himself in a dark lonely universe where the earth is the only oasis of life. In the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, we witness massive human starvation and poverty, extinctions of plants and animal species and dwindling biodiversity, caused by oil spillage and sweeping biotic destruction, global warming triggered and exacerbated by carbon dioxide, emission from the burning of fossil fuels, depletion of ozone layer by lethal chemical and concomitant bombardment of the earth by cancer causing extra-terrestrial ultra-violent radiation, pollution of air, water, land and life. Man quest to position himself on earth has resulted to the unsustainable discharges of waste gases into the atmosphere and large numbers of species extinctions throughout the world are but two of the most obvious indicators of the increasingly deleterious impact of human kind on the global biosphere. This paper focuses on the relationship between the exploitation of oil in the region and the devastation caused by the exploitation in the environment. It also true to establish how, the fascination of oil presence has resulted to horror and environmental degradation in the region.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v4n1p117