In the legendary “Prisoners’ dilemma” (Game theory), described in length by Mankiw and Taylor( 2006), two prisoners under interrogation in separate rooms are both given the choice of confessing to a crime they both were caught in and in doing so are assured of reduction in their sentence. If, however, one decides to be quiet and his accomplice confesses, he would receive a major sentence while the other would go free. If both decide to keep quiet, they would receive an extremely light sentence.
Due to self-interests, they both decide to confess to the crime, and instead of receiving, say, one year for silence, they receive eight for confession. This is the same scenario that exists when individuals fight over a limited resource. Commonly known as the “tragedy of the commons” (Fitzmaurice and Szuniewicz, 2003), the fight over limited resources has been a never-ending issue in many regions of the world, To explore more on this issue, this research paper will focus on the Niger Delta region. In this case, we will consider its location, population distribution, and trend over the years, and also the economic situation that causes this exploitation to be enhanced.
Physical Geography
The Niger Delta is a relatively large region in the western part of Africa and it covers almost a third of the wetland in Africa. It also hosts the third largest mangrove forest in the world in the Niger Delta Province. Therefore, the delta is mainly a wetland and heavy in vegetation, which is probably the underlying reason for the abundance of crude oil (Peters, 2006, para. 2). The delta is also one of the world’s major producers of palm oil and thus shows the extent of agricultural potential in the region. It is located at the border of Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon. It is a system that hosts several natural gas reservoirs and also exploits millions of barrels of crude oil. With its efficiency at 45%, the system is yet to be explored to its full capacity yet already, heavy damage to the environment has already been experienced.
Population Geography
The Niger Delta, just like in mainland Nigeria, is quite diverse, and more often than not the communities in the delta are known to fight over the little available dry land that is surrounded by the small creeks. In the seventeenth century, Portuguese settlers found a population on the Delta of about two thousand people. The Delta gradually changed over time from villages that just fished for a living to becoming city-states.
An increase in political power after independence meant that the Nemba and the Efik were greatly affected (Wiwa, 2002, p. 409). With time, and as more oil discoveries were made in the regions of the Delta State, Rivers, and Bayelsa states, there was a resultant increase in population. With a record population of 2,570,181 for Delta, 3,983,857 for Rivers, and almost the same for Bayelsa, the trend is constantly accelerating, and with this comes several consequences to all those who have an interest in this oil-rich region.
Economic Geography
With the growing trends in population as seen above the states here are having trouble balancing between economic growth through oil as the largest export earner in the country and the fast and growing degradation of the region’s environment. As Ikein and colleagues (2008) have noted, some of the major environmental effects of the exploitation of oil in this region include the total annihilation of marine life in the delta. Plantlife in the waters has recently been discovered to be more sensitive to oil even beyond the effect it may have on plants within the land.
The fish are prone to liver cancer as a result of constant contact with waters polluted with oil; thus the oil spills make it hard for plant and animal life in these waters to exist. This consequently has a toll on the fish industry. If that is not all, poverty is prevalent in the area. With the delta being the richest in terms of natural resources, it is ironic that basic infrastructure such as roads is being repaired every other day 9 (Joel, 2008, vol 10, pg 157 para.2). Electricity is also a problem even though these industries produce their electricity from the oil they harness. Some of the communities in the region have no electricity at all.
Water security is a challenge for most of the people in the area. Joel continues to say that water is highly contaminated and that it will come in most cases being untreated. Hospitals are usually understaffed due to a lack of human and financial recourses to sustain proper healthcare.
The region, due to its many oil spills, has over the years become inhabitable. The natural value of the delta has decayed and has been replaced with toxic waste fuels and fumes. The degradation has gone to the extent of attracting protests and demonstrations against their human rights violations and this also had had its share in making the economy of the region go on the down-low. Due to the increasing mining activities, the environment in this region has also greatly been destroyed through soil erosion (The World Bank Group, 2010, p. 3).
Conclusion
Just like in the proverbial “Prisoners’ dilemma”, the answer to the solution to the abuse of the oil reserves in the delta lies heavily in a few individuals. Owners of multi-national companies and personalities in the federal government who contribute heavily in making policies that will restrain unfair exploitation of Nigeria’s major income earner. Policies like this need to be strengthened in parliament so as not only to benefit the common man but also to be fair to the environment which we all have abused for quite a long time, even without notice. It is important to remember that in all this, nature has a way to give back to its self what has been from it. Whatever goes up eventually must indeed come down.
Reference List
Ashiomanedu, Joel. (2008), Poverty and sustainable development in the Niger delta region of Nigeria. Web.
Fitzmaurice, M., & Szuniewicz, M. (2003). Exploitation of natural resources in the 21st Century. Hague: Kluwer Law International.
Ikein, A. A., Diepreye S. P., Alamieyeseigha, S. P., & Azaiki, S. S. (2008). Oil, Democracy and the promise of true federalism in Nigeria. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Mankiw, N. G., & Taylor, M. P. (2006). The Economics of the Public Sector. Stamford, Mass: Cengage
Peters, S. W. (2006). Conservation and Development of the Niger Delta. Web.
The World Bank Group. (2010). your surroundings, and how they influence your Development. Web.
Wiwa, O. (2002). Guns, health and the exploitation of natural resources. Med Confl Surviv, 18(4):407-10.