By Norm Dixon
By any calculation, the October 17 oil pipeline disaster in southern Nigerian rates amongst the worst industrial accidents ever. As of October 21, the death toll was estimated at 700; it is expected to climb above 1000.
The western mass media downplayed the disaster, delaying serious coverage for several days until it could be accompanied by graphic photographs or shocking film footage. Even then this unbelievably shocking event was not given lead story status.
Establishment press, radio and TV reporters branded the victims "vandals", "thieves", "scavengers" and "saboteurs". Without a shred of evidence, the press almost universally claimed that these people had deliberately punctured the pipe. The underlying implication was that these desperately poor people deserved to die.
This racist and slanderous coverage ignored the real "vandals", "thieves", "scavengers" and "saboteurs" in southern Nigeria — the giant multinational oil conglomerates and the vicious, parasitical military regime that rules Nigeria.
On October 17, petroleum spewing from a ruptured above-ground pipeline in the small village of Jesse exploded. The fireball instantly killed more than 500 people and severely burned hundreds more.
Up to 2000 people — including hundreds of children — had been lining up with buckets, bottles and even plastic cups to scoop up the precious liquid. They had hoped to sell the petrol on the black market.
The fire spread and engulfed the nearby villages of Moosqar and Oghara, killing farmers and villagers sleeping in their homes.
The region's poorly equipped and staffed hospitals could not cope with the casualties. The gates to at least one hospital were locked to prevent more injured arriving. In many cases, those who were able to get inside were unable to be treated for lack of medicines, pain-killers and facilities for burns patients.
The final death toll may never known because many people failed to seek medical attention for fear of being arrested by the military for "stealing" petrol. Many will die at home from their injuries if untreated. People have also secretly buried dead relatives.
Unable to extinguish the fire, firefighters have allowed it to burn until all the remaining petrol in the pipe has been consumed.
Nigeria's military dictator, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, flew into Jesse by helicopter on October 19 for a 15-minute visit. He said the government would pay for medical treatment for the victims but that survivors would get no compensation.
The peoples of the southern Nigeria, especially those who inhabit the Niger River delta, live in utter poverty. Reverend Andrew Imadu told mourners at a funeral in Jesse on October 12: "Our own people have been driven by deprivation to such a desperate search for livelihood".
US$12 billion worth of oil flows out of wells in southern communities — mostly to the US for heating oil — and fills the bank accounts of western oil companies, the deep pockets of the corrupt Nigerian military and the vaults of the International Monetary Fund and western banks.
Meanwhile in the south, basic services like education, health care, running water and paved roads are non-existent or neglected. It was no coincidence that local hospitals were inadequate to deal with the disaster.
Under the protection of Nigeria's military rulers, five oil companies — Anglo-Dutch Shell, Italy's AGIP, Elf-Aquitaine from France, and the US giants Chevron and Mobil — have thrived. They split their oil revenues 50-50 with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), the government-run corporation that keeps the military regime flush with funds.
The "big five" refuse to employ locals or provide the infrastructure and services that the government refuses to.
Control of the NNPC is rumoured to have made the late General Sani Abacha, who became dictator in 1994, a billionaire, and his military associates millionaires.
Part of this massive wealth has come from deliberately running down NNPC facilities, skimping on maintenance and making shoddy repairs. An NNPC subsidiary owned the oil pipeline at Jesse.
Claims by the military regime and the NNPC that the leak that led to the Jesse catastrophe, and the many spills and leaks that have devastated the fisheries and agriculture in the Niger delta, are the product of sabotage by local people are little more than an excuse to hide the real cause of the devastation: negligence and deliberate neglect of oil facilities so that the military can hoard more loot.
It is also a cover for the Nigerian dictatorship's failure to enforce environmental regulations and standards. The big oil companies regularly flout rules, allow oil leaks to go unplugged for weeks and even years, and make no effort to place high-pressure oil pipes underground, as would be required in any European country.
Gigantic gas flares burn night and day producing acrid fumes and fallout that cause health problems and damage crops.
Shell — the largest oil producer in the Niger delta — operates in 100 countries, but 40% of all its oil spills have occurred in Nigeria.
Echoing the dictatorship, Shell says that most of the spills result from "sabotage", but a World Council of Churches report which studied Shell's operations in Ogoniland in the delta concluded: "There has not been one single piece of evidence produced by Shell to back up its claims that oil spills in Ogoniland were caused by sabotage".