Nigeria, Niger Delta, Ogoniland, children in traditional canoes

Ogoniland, Nigeria. Flow station operated by Shell Oil. This is where the found oil is being tapped out of the ground. The station is illuminated by the flare stack which burns off unwanted gas.

Poverty in the Niger Delta

Shell really needs to leave the Niger Delta

Niger Delta armed insurrection did not begin with MEND, Okah or Asari-Dokubo. Decades before them an Ijaw nationalist named Isaac Boro led an armed campaign for greater Niger Delta autonomy, resource control and self determination for the inhabitants of the Niger Delta.

Niger Delta

Niger Delta Violence

I am done for now. Be prepared for new pictures with the Niger Deltan insurgency.

Akhenaten, I saw you posted a picture of Adaka Boro's arrest on the Nigerian History thread, I think it's appropriate to add it here too.

Isaac Adaka Boro, One of my favourite Nigerians of modern times. He was a true warrior and a courageous defender of his people.

Edit: Ok I saw you posted it again before I did, Thank you!

[size=13pt]Gas flare[/size]


Function:

On oil production rigs, in refineries and chemical plants, its primary purpose is to act as a safety device to protect vessels or pipes from over-pressuring due to unplanned upsets. This acts just like the spout on a tea kettle when it starts whistling as the water in it starts boiling. Whenever plant equipment items are over-pressured, the pressure relief valves on the equipment automatically release gases (and sometimes liquids as well) which are routed through large piping runs called flare headers to the flare stacks. The released gases and/or liquids are burned as they exit the flare stacks. The size and brightness of the resulting flame depends upon how much flammable material was released. Steam can be injected into the flame to reduce the formation of black smoke. The injected steam does however make the burning of gas sound louder, which can cause complaints from nearby residents. Compared to the emission of black smoke, it can be seen as a valid trade off. In more advanced flare tip designs, if the steam used is too wet it can freeze just below the tip, disrupting operations and causing the formation of large icicles. In order to keep the flare system functional, a small amount of gas is continuously burned, like a pilot light, so that the system is always ready for its primary purpose as an over-pressure safety system. The continuous gas source also helps diluted mixtures achieve complete combustion. Enclosed ground flares are engineered to eliminate smoke, and contain the flame within the stack.

Akhenaten:

I am done for now. Be prepared for new pictures with the Niger Deltan insurgency.

You too much, keep them coming.

An Ijaw man is the President now, I am sure he still remembers what he went throu when he was young and he knows what his people are going throu now,
So when he leaves power probably in the Next 8 years, he should take MEND with him or else, their violence wont make sense to me.

Err, whilst you're doing a stellar job here.I just feel the need to correct an impression you made about Shell's offshore facilities being safe.
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-587622.32.html#msg7552781

While attacks on these facilties are exceedingly rare,it doesn't mean they're entirely safe.


Royal Dutch Shell shut down production at its oil facility off the coast of Nigeria today after rebels attacked it Thursday, damaging equipment and taking an American hostage who was later released.

The Bonga oil field—discovered 75 miles off shore in 1995—accounts for 10 percent of the country's oil production. The field produced approximately 225,000 barrels of oil a day, reports The New York Times.

In response to the attack, President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered the Nigerian military to tighten security and hunt down the militants responsible for the attack, Reuters reports. The country's House of Representatives, meanwhile, called for an emergency meeting of government and private security and oil officials to discuss the attacks, according to Thompson Financial.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility for yesterday's attack in an e-mail sent to journalists. Known for attacking oil installations throughout the delta's network of creeks, the group claims Thursday's attack proved no oil installation in the region is safe.

“The location for today’s attack was deliberately chosen to remove any notion that offshore oil exploration is far from our reach,” said Jomo Gbomo, a spokesman for the group.

The group also threatened to expand its targets to include oil and gas tankers in Nigerian waters.

Please this a 2008 article so no need to panic.

[b]@Poster plus BEAF or FAEB

Thanks for this great piece of expose. This explains a little bit of whats happening there. Coz theres more than these pictures display.
But as much as I would like to sympathize with your people, I think your still the biggest cause of your own backwardness.

1. Didnt the same people through corruption vote in Uduagha and revote him when given a chance to decide?
2. Didnt those bunch of illiterates you are trying to generate sympathy for protested the arrest and trial of ex-gov Ibori?
3. Lets move around a little bit: is your so-called MEND really a freedom fighting group or just some bunch of bandits more concerned about getting kidnapping ransoms?

And hasnt the FG been a little more compassion by creating.

1. AMNESTY (headed by one of your own)
2. A ministry that sees to the development of the ND (Headed by one of your own)
3. Paid x3 more allocation to your states than any-other states within the federation
4. And isnt the so-called FG now been run by one of yours?

You people are fighting a lost battle. Even one of your own: President Ebele Goodluck Jonathan shares not further sympathy for MEND and your likes and has declared an all out war with you.

The problem still remains you,

There is no state within the country that has been developed by the Federal Govt except the FCT. The rest was developed by the people, and the type of visionary leaders they elect to run the affairs of their state.

1. You still have Sylva, a cocaine-fiend who cant point to one single achievement so far. And im sure MEND can get rid of him if they want, but they wont because the fight has never been about developing the ND. Your people are totally useless!
2. You re-elected Uduagha, the same criminal you wanted kicked out, yet who knew how hopeless your people are and was able to buy their votes.
3. The only good governor in your midst, Rotimi A. is facing barrage of attacks all around his because your people are foreign to change and development and hate him.
4. The biggest problem to GEJ isnt even the North, but how your so-called MEND has painted him as been useless, ineffective, disorganized, and a leader who cant even keep his own people in check. Im sure those criminals called MEND are used to the dollars they rake in from kidnap ransoms, thats why Amnesty wont work because they are so greedy, they cant even stop, and it will take x3 of the current forces of JFT to check their insanity.

Abeg please, post more pictures, but Nigerians have come to see how selfish the ND people, and we have all just realize that even if for the next 20 years, we have presidents in this country and they are all from the ND, nothing would still change, because of the nature of your own people.
Abeg, put your house in order first before posting rubbish here.[/b]

^^^^sounds logically

i think dplordx just stirred the hornet's nest

polution in the niger delta is cause mostly by the people of the area who steal oil from pipeline because of poverty. they are poor , so they drill hole in the pipeline to steal the oil , which create most of the ecological problem. flaming can be stop. but people blow up pipeline cant be stop. nigeria have alot of pipeline. people are poor, so they drill hole in them.

many get kill in the process of trying to drill hole in the pipe. and the flame by people burning bush and others.

There is great injustice in this country, these Niger Deltans are really suffering.

Hausas can't condole half of this great injustice. I just hope these Niger Deltans will concentrate their fights on the genuine Niger Delta struggle which their Founding fathers actually stood and known for rather than all these kidnappings for personal and selfish gains.

There is a lot that need to be corrected in this country before there can be true peace and stability.

matemate:

polution in the niger delta is cause mostly by the people of the area who steal oil from pipeline because of poverty. they are poor , so they drill hole in the pipeline to steal the oil , which create most of the ecological problem. flaming can be stop. but people blow up pipeline cant be stop. nigeria have alot of pipeline. people are poor, so they drill hole in them.

You migth be right that the people of this areas are involved in theft that cause leaks to pipe lines
But you should also realise that the inability of the oil companies to install updated tecnology equipement that will prevent such to happen has also resulted to this situation, in develop world there are peace of legislature that guilds companies like thus:how much feet deep you must lay pipe lines for water,gas,even underground electric lines.
if you been to some areas in niger delta you will find some oli pipe lines on the surface of the soil.

The oil spill in usa few months ago will esplain better how much damage this oil companies and our past nothern leaders owns the people from the niger delta-

When Nigeria gets a serious government that sues Shell and CO, Naija go hammer wit $$.

@ dplordx you are spot on. please dont this people have councillors, dont they have local govt chairmen, dont they have governors is the current president goodLOCK ebele jonathan not one of their own? so why all these. u guys are killing yourselves and blaming others for it may be if fashola becomes the governor of bayelsa or delta state things will be better

They leaders sold out in the 1960s . . . . . . .

They deserve what they are getting today . . . . . . .

You cant eat your cake and have it.

Imagine Isaac Adaka Boro fighting along side what he just fought against few days back . . . . . . . (using one hand to fight for Niger Delta republic and another hand to fight for ''united'' nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . are they curse?)

Has even president GOODLOCK done anything to improve the lots of his kinsmen? ******almost 1 yr in office, only rhetorics no works *********

I weep for this people cos oil will continue to be a curse in they life in this curse country called niGERia.

No offence!

Why showing pictures of impoverished areas? I've been to so many places in the niger delta that look fantastic. Places like portharcourt, owerri, asaba, warri, umuahia, uyo, eket look real good. NO STATE IN NIGERIA THAT DO NOT CONSIST OF SOME PLACES THAT LOOK EVEN NASTIER THAN THESE PICTURES including f.c.t. suburbs. This is nonsense.

dplordx:

[b]@Poster plus BEAF or FAEB

Thanks for this great piece of expose. This explains a little bit of whats happening there. Coz theres more than these pictures display.
But as much as I would like to sympathize with your people, I think your still the biggest cause of your own backwardness.

1. Didnt the same people through corruption vote in Uduagha and revote him when given a chance to decide?
2. Didnt those bunch of illiterates you are trying to generate sympathy for protested the arrest and trial of ex-gov Ibori?
3. Lets move around a little bit: is your so-called MEND really a freedom fighting group or just some bunch of bandits more concerned about getting kidnapping ransoms?

And hasnt the FG been a little more compassion by creating.

1. AMNESTY (headed by one of your own)
2. A ministry that sees to the development of the ND (Headed by one of your own)
3. Paid x3 more allocation to your states than any-other states within the federation
4. And isnt the so-called FG now been run by one of yours?

You people are fighting a lost battle. Even one of your own: President Ebele Goodluck Jonathan shares not further sympathy for MEND and your likes and has declared an all out war with you.

The problem still remains you,

There is no state within the country that has been developed by the Federal Govt except the FCT. The rest was developed by the people, and the type of visionary leaders they elect to run the affairs of their state.

1. You still have Sylva, a cocaine-fiend who cant point to one single achievement so far. And im sure MEND can get rid of him if they want, but they wont because the fight has never been about developing the ND. Your people are totally useless!
2. You re-elected Uduagha, the same criminal you wanted kicked out, yet who knew how hopeless your people are and was able to buy their votes.
3. The only good governor in your midst, Rotimi A. is facing barrage of attacks all around his because your people are foreign to change and development and hate him.
4. The biggest problem to GEJ isnt even the North, but how your so-called MEND has painted him as been useless, ineffective, disorganized, and a leader who cant even keep his own people in check. Im sure those criminals called MEND are used to the dollars they rake in from kidnap ransoms, thats why Amnesty wont work because they are so greedy, they cant even stop, and it will take x3 of the current forces of JFT to check their insanity.

Abeg please, post more pictures, but Nigerians have come to see how selfish the ND people, and we have all just realize that even if for the next 20 years, we have presidents in this country and they are all from the ND, nothing would still change, because of the nature of your own people.
Abeg, put your house in order first before posting rubbish here.[/b]

How utterly foolish an argument.

PhysicsMHD:

How utterly foolish an argument.

Why don't you take his argument to shreds,piece by piece as an intellect that you claim. Rather than writing it off as a 'foolish argument'.As far i'm concerned you haven't made any sense

@PhysicsMHD

You will do better if you kept mute, sometimes it makes more sense to keep shut.

@ dplordx- thanks for your post- it saved my typing time.

I will, but I really do have better things to do. It's the same dumb argument that keeps popping up all the time, I can't waste my time shooting it down every time any poster brings it up, but for now just read ALL of this thread (although it gets vulgar at the end):

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-563542.0.html     

and see how most of the stuff this guy was on about, apart from being distortions, have absolutely nothing to do with the main problem - that these people are getting screwed and exploited deliberately and that it's precisely because of the power structure in this country - where corrupt political goons only have to answer to party bigwigs in Abuja rather than to their own people - that bad governance is repeated there unchecked. See how even "the only good governor in their midst" acknowledges point blank that the region is being exploited.

You say I haven't made any sense and that's because you derive IMMENSE pleasure from denigrating and castigating people you've probably never met and because you would like nothing more than for them to be the scum of the earth. You'll say you never said that of course, but I don't need to hear it said, I already know the mentality that drives people to attack the victim in ANY scenario. It NEVER changes. You'll say I haven't made any sense because you didn't even bother to stop and think about whether his argument had any real relevance to the topic. It is only an EXTREMELY deranged mind or a hateful, calculating, demon of a man that could see pictures of women and children living in utter squalor, pain, and misery in degraded environments, knowing full well that that is not the natural state of mankind, and knowing full well many of these areas were formerly rural, undeveloped areas prior to their exploitation and pollution and then say "your still the biggest cause of your own backwardness" "those bunch of illiterates you are trying to generate sympathy for" "hasnt the FG been a little more compassion" (utter nonsense, by the way, consult that thread I linked to understand the scam being pulled here), "The problem still remains you" "Your people are totally useless!" "Nigerians have come to see how selfish the ND people" (massively ironic stupidity here: selfish non-ND fools were the ones who engineered and won't repeal the 13% scam). I hold that the poster that went out of his way to spew all that filth above is a FOOL and probably a parasite, to boot.

yeswecan:

@PhysicsMHD

You will do  better if you kept mute, sometimes it makes more sense to keep shut.

@ dplordx- thanks for your post- it saved my typing time.

You will do better not to bother even addressing me. I don't need advice from anyone who agrees with a creature like dplordx. I'm out for now, hopefully some people will regain their sanity when next I visit this board.

@Mr Physics, while there is no doubt that the Federal Government and MNCs have contributed in no small measure to the degradation of the ND are you trying to say the local & state government haven't been complicit in this criminal and wicked act?If only the governors of the region showed a little transparency-just a little transparency,i strongly believe the MNCs will fall in line.What's that cliche again;'charity begins at home'.

. . . . But is the Nigerian government responsible for the nightmarish conditions that are available in the region? Of course! We all blame the government and the various multinational oil companies because a fragile state like Nigeria seems not to have the political will or the common sense to get conglomerates to do the right thing; and the companies themselves are too socially irresponsible to act right all the time. They do in Nigeria those things they otherwise would not do in law and order societies.

In all of these, rarely have pundits and political referees examined the blame-worthy role of the elites and state governments in the oil-producing region. Somehow, we seem to forget that governments and powerful individuals in and outside of the region are also responsible for the ill, the indifference and the calamities that have come to characterize the region. In other words, for all the blames at the door step of the oil companies and the federal government, the elites and the state governments are also culpable.

They have, in no small measure, contributed to the abysmal state the people are in. There is ample evidence to show that those at the upper echelon of the political and economic ladder have, for the most part, engaged in predatory practices – practices that have for so long been inimical to the progress and wellbeing of the common man.

Although the aforesaid is not unique to the region; if the elites and the state governments were humane and sensible, they would have approached the congealing problems in a more honest and concerted fashion. But instead, they allowed, and in some cases left their own people to suffer, while they bask in opulence and institutionalized waste.

Considering the state of the nine oil-producing states, one must ask: where have all the monthly allocations gone? Where are the roads and the schools and the clinics and hospitals? Where are the libraries, the science laboratories and the parks? Where are the waterworks, the bridges and the industries? Where are the social services these governments are supposed to provide their citizens? Stolen? Mismanaged? Where, where has all the money the various states in the Niger Delta received since 1999 gone?

Although some have argued that the current revenue allocation formula is unfair, not proportionate to the contribution of the region to the national purse, still, the region continues to receive hefty and stupendous amounts when compared to previous eras. Frankly, whether fair or unfair, these governments have not judiciously spent the amount they have been receiving since the beginning of this republic.

Considering their monthly allocations, and considering also what‘s available on the ground, it seems that some 70 per cent of monthly receipts have either gone into the pockets of the ruling class and their cronies, or have been scandalously misappropriated.

The aforesaid being the case, the time has come for all honest and purposeful citizens of the region to turn their attention and energy to the culpable activities of their local government chairs, state and federal legislators and other elite who parade themselves as champion of the people. But most of all, it is time for Niger Deltans to critically examine the activities of their state governors and their deputies.

The question concerned and pained citizens must ask is this: [b]”Why, in spite of the billions of dollars that have been collected by various state governors – for the sole purpose of developing and advancing those states – is there very little progress commensurate to the total amount they have received since the summer of 1999?”

The nine federating states of the Niger Delta may have received more money than the next twenty states combined. Together, their yearly allocation is more than that of Gambia, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad and Togo combined. What have the governments in the Niger Delta done with these robust allocations? What happened to the people‘s money?

The ongoing struggle for justice and accountability must not end with the federal government and the oil companies. Activists, the police and law enforcement agencies, commentators, and freedom fighters in the Niger Delta must also investigate the activities of the so-called elites and oligarchy within the region. We must not allow them to shift all the blames to ”outsiders.” Governors from the region (1999-2010), were and continue to be part of the problem. In some cases, they are bigger problems than the federal government and the oil companies combined.[/b]

Ten years from now, all the aforementioned governors will still have a life of opulence and privilege. So will their children and grandchildren. Nothing would have changed. A sweet life they all will continue to have. But not so for the poor and the commoners in the Niger Delta: their lives will continue to be typified by squalor and poverty. Nothing would have changed, except change for the worst. A bitter life is what most will have.

Let there be no doubt: The Federal Government and the Oil Companies share some of the blame for the economic, social, political and environmental problems that has befallen the region. No doubt about that! But the time is here for the people of the Niger Delta to hold their leaders accountable for the theft and mismanagement that are commonplace. I also think that the people of the region share in the blame for tolerating and encouraging third rate leaders: men and women who should be anything but governors, ministers, commissioners and or local government chairs.

Three-and-half- decades after Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia left office, his legacy lives on. The same is true of Brigadiers Mobolaji Johnson, David Bamigboye, Jacob Esuene, and Commander Alfred Diete-Spiff. These were men who had to govern much larger territories with a tenth or less of the current monthly allocations; yet, their achievements have, in some cases, outweighed the achievements of all their successors combined. After all these years, Nigerians still thank their Lord for these and a few other leaders.

The Great Chinua Achebe and a few others keep reminding us that the greatest problem we have as a nation is the dearth of leadership. Indeed, what we have are men and women without the prerequisite skills, training, character and vision parading themselves as leaders. This is more so more pronounced in the Niger Delta. More than a few consider Governor Donald Duke (Cross River, 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007) an exception. It‘s been said that he, in some ways, justified his stay in office. This exception aside, what are we to say, what will history and posterity say about all the men, and women, who, beginning in 1999, presided over the affairs of their respective states?