As reported by the nytimes.com, the Nigerian delta “... has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates,” which is not only an absolutely staggering amount of pollution over an extended period of time, but it is astonishing that this has not been dealt with by the government or any other entity in a manner which fully takes into account, the great ecological and pollution cost of such ongoing destruction.
While it certainly makes sense, that governments and the corporations that make up that nation, have an abiding interest to promote and to create that which employs domestic labor as well as producing that which can be exported worldwide, so as to thereby receive monies that are beneficial for that country, corporations, and its people; it must also be acknowledged that the object of the exercise is not to just extract and to sell the oil, but that such must be balanced by accomplishing this within a framework that is sustainable and does not do imprudent harm, and even irreparable harm to the environment, and thereby the people of that nation.
No doubt, there are costs involved in structuring any business to conform to reasonable environmental standards and further it is not possible that such is going to be accomplished overnight, or that it would somehow miraculously thereby take care of all the pollution so being generated as well as that previously generated; but, it must be acknowledged that whatever principles and laws that currently are in play, are obviously not strong enough, or effective enough, signifying that the ongoing pollution situation is not actually being addressed in any sort of competent manner.
Of course, when it comes to pollution, especially that of waterways, those that would reasonably appear to be most culpable, are astute at pointing out that Nigeria suffers from a lot of sabotage and the siphoning of oil from pipelines by anti-government militants and the like. As true as this may be, much more could be done to address what should be addressed by those oil companies and if Nigeria will not make it a priority to deal with their waterway pollution, and will not hold accountable those that have some degree of culpability to such, then the problem will surely not take care of itself on its own.
When any country and its governmental policies, in regards to the implementation of such, are so anemic that in essence, money now, trumps the cost of the damage of the environment for the present generation along with generations to come, then it must be said that the need for that monetary capital has not correctly been balanced against what is right for the people, in whole. Rather, oil is the type of commodity, in third world nations which typically enriches the very few and the well placed, at the expense of the population in whole; made much worse, by those people also suffering from ill health and reduced self-sufficiency because of the corresponding oil contamination of the environment. The Nigerian oil pollution issue need not be intractable, but in order to address such, this necessitates a willful, determined and robust policy enforcement from those that have the power to do so.