Influence of Oil Activities on the Socio-Economic and Environmental Health of Host Niger Delta Communities in Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of oil activities on the socio-economic and environmental health of host communities in Delta-State. The study was motivated by series of observable environmental degradation such as land depletion, pollution occurrence which usually lead to very poor farm yields, low income base, famine and starvation. The bastardization of the social values of the people which has ridiculously pushed some women into dehumanizing and a tabooed business of commercial sex to survive, traceable to the aftermath of oil activities combined with the greed of oil companies and the support of government of Nigeria are of sincere concern. Three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study employing the descriptive survey research design method. The target population was made up of all the inhabitants of the 17 local government area of oil producing communities in the state concentrating on the indigenous inhabitants, few oil workers and health personnel with a sample size of 400 participants selected using the purposive random sampling technique. Self-structured questionnaires was the main instrument employed while data collected were analyzed with % for personal data of respondents and inferential statistics of X2 set at .05 alpha level for the hypothesized variables. Based on the findings, it was concluded that oil activities in Delta-State have strong negative influence on the variables tested and uncheck- mated too. It was therefore recommended amongst others that oil companies, Federal and state governments embark on compensatory empowerment of all host community members especially the youths and women, free medical care for the elderly and other social services for the entire communities.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n17p97