The Help of Shell in the Niger Delta Region
TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Shell is a group of oil and petrol companies. The parent company is Royal Dutch Shell, based in Britain, is a multinational corporation (MNC). The group of companies is active in countries all over the world, including Nigeria. The Federal Republic of Nigeria is extremely rich in oil resources. Rightly so, their business-connection goes back over fifty years. Likewise, a Shell company, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), is the largest oil and gas operator in Nigeria.
Nigeria is a developing country; therefore Shell has been active in giving to the community. Over the past decades, they have tried different strategies. The company has not always been quite successful in helping the Nigerian people. Even so, Shell has continued with their social projects, their last named the Sustainable Community Development (SCD). This paper will discuss the SCD aid programme, which has come into force in 2004. It will deal with the question “to what extent has Shell been able to help the community in the Niger Delta Region from 2004 until 2012?” The following chapters will try to address this question.
First of all, a brief history of Nigeria will be given. This chapter will include a brief description of the situation in the Niger Delta, as the SPDC is mostly active in this region. The endeavours of the Nigerian government to face the poverty in the Niger Delta Region (NDR) will be named. So, what are the main efforts of the Nigerian government to help the community in the Niger Delta?
Secondly, the earlier help projects of Shell are shortly touched upon. In order to examine the SCD, its forerunners should be stated. Hence, what...
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...DR. There is no perspective in changing this.
Together they could be more effective.
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CONCLUSION
SUMMARY FINDINGS
ANSWER RESEARCH QUESTION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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The World Bank’s involvement in the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline project was originally intended to make sure that Chad’s oil money was being returned to the civilians and ensure that the pipeline was being constructed in an ecologically friendly way (Horta, Nguiffo, & Djiraibe, n.d.). In 2000, the World Bank stated that the project’s success "will be measured by poverty reduction rather than by barrels of oil produced or millions of dollars received by Chad for oil exports,” (Horta, Nguiffo, & Djiraibe, n.d.). Contrarily to what the public was assured, the civilians have not been helped by the pipeline but have in fact been hurt. The already astonishingly low life expectancy of individuals in Chad has dropped an average of 1.1 years within the
Niger, home of the free flowing Niger River, is a Sub-Saharan, western African nation. Sadly, it is an extremely poor country because part of the country is desert and less than 3% open for crop use. The present economic situation is bleak at best. Yet, the vibrant tradition and history of this country lives today in its tribes and its people even through all of its adversities. From severe droughts to military coups to a dysfunctional government to the culture has stayed strong.
Osagie, E., Ph.D. (Presenter). (1999, December 10). Benin in Contemporary Nigeria an Agenda for the 21st Century. Lecture presented at Oba Akenzua Cultural Centre, Benin City, Benin.
Despite the numerous wealth generated on a daily basis from oil exportation over the years and the vast amount of untapped resources laying in commercial quantity, the country does not have a single or recognize means of directly addressing the welfare of its citizenry. Only the present democratic administration has promised to execute out a compulsory cash transfer of N5,000 to the poorest 25 million Nigeria (based on some conditions), pay graduating corp members some stipends for a year and design a one-meal a day for public primary school
Hohnen, P. (2007). Corporate Social Responsibility An Implementation Guide for Business. Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2007/csr_guide.pdf
Corporate social responsibility is globally defined as operating a business in a way that meets or exceeds the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business. The concern of CSR has drastically increased over the last two decades. It has enhanced interactions between governments, businesses, society and internationally. In the past, businesses primarily focus themselves with the economic results of their decisions. Now, businesses must also reflect on the legal, ethical, moral and social consequences of their decisions. Corporate Social Responsibility is no longer defined by how much money a company contributes to charity, but by its overall involvement in activities that improve the quality of people’s lives.
...nternational Business Report (2008). Corporate Social Responsibility: a necessity not a choice, Grant Thornton. http://www.internationalbusinessreport.com/Reports/Focus-reports/Corporate-Social-Responsibility.asp
Oil pollution has been a major environmental concern since commercial scale oil extraction began in the Niger Delta in the 1950s and it will be for as long as oil extraction continues. Since the 1950s because of the increasing demand for crude oil and the existence of large oil reserves, the Niger Delta has experienced what can be called an environmental disaster from oil pollution, which resulted in major consequences for the environment and for the indigenous people who depended on the region for their livelihood. A study on Ogoniland, located in the Rivers State of the Niger Delta, revealed that the soil, groundwater, vegetation, surface water and even the air had been contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons, devastating aquatic and agricultural communities and causing serious health issues for many residents (Environmental Assessment 2011). Many historians, environmentalists, political theorists, and other parties have discussed and explored this disaster, leading to disagreement about who is to be blamed. Two general positions have emerged as a result: the first position, suggests the Nigerian State made the country ripe for such a disaster and that although multinational oil companies (MNOCs) like Shell might have played some role, the state that is primarily responsible for the environmental disaster in the Niger Delta because it is in control of rules, regulations, policies, and revenue. The second position argues that MNOCs themselves, with Shell being used as an example, are primarily responsible for the environmental disaster in the Niger Delta because they are in direct contact with the oil, equipment, and local people. Ultimately, the examination of popular and secondary research and of both positions outlined above l...
An organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drives them to look out for the different interests of society. Most business corporations undertake responsibility for the impact of their organizational pursuits and various activities on their customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment. With the high volume of general competition between different companies and organizations in varied fields, CSR has become a morally imperative commitment, more than one enforced by the law. Most organizations in the modern world willingly try to improve the general well-being of not only their employees, but also their families and the society as a whole.
Adding to issue was the need to improve the lives of the Ogoni people by giving them jobs, an education, and cleaning up the region. Although “oil deposits in Nigeria’s Niger Delta generate 80 percent of current government revenues” (Weeks 599), “oil revenues have improved the lives of few Nigerians: Some 70 percent of the country’s 155 million citizens live in poverty, two-thirds lack access to basic sanitation and life expectancy is less than 48 years” (Weeks 600). The final proposal that promised education and job training for all people in the region from Shell and the government was hopeful in that the Ogoni would now have a form of income, and it would be a start to helping them get out of poverty. “Payments toward the Ogoni people will
Covey & Brown (2001) “the role of business in society has progressed over the years, from being primarily concerned with profit for sharehold¬ers to a stakeholder and community approach with a focus on corporate social responsibility”
In rural Nigeria, up to 80% of the population (as compared to 70% of Nigeria as a whole3) live below the poverty line, despite their fast-growing agricultural economy4. According to Nigerian author Anthony Maduagwu, it is in places such as these where we can find the solution to Nigeria's economic predicament. In his article “Alleviating poverty in Nigeria”, he says, “only the poor understands poverty and it is also the poor that know how their poverty could be alleviated... the fact is that the poor usually have quite good perceptions of their own needs and goals and of what would be required to satisfy and make progress toward them”5. He made the case that while government-funded “poverty alleviating programmes” help poverty rates in one place, the create poverty in another6. This is supported b...
Corporate Social Responsibility is an organisation’s obligation to serve the company’s own interest and the one’s of the society. Moreover, Corporate Social Responsibility has a definition of a concept where the companies integrate social and the environmental concerns into their own business operation and also on a basis of voluntary with their interactions they have with the stakeholders. Corporate Social Resp...
Corruption can be defined as the use of entrusted power to accumulate public wealthy for personal benefit. Corruption is not peculiar to any country, continent or state; it is sure a global issue which is an endemic to all government all over the world. However, corruption is prevalent in the Niger delta region of Nigeria; public officers in this oil producing state of Nigeria are corrupt. Consequently, it has defied the Niger delta from developing politically and economically which has left the states reputation in a mess. Radicalization of youths, abject poverty and -political instability are the three leading effects of corruption in the Niger delta region of Nigeria.