Shell in Nigeria: The Ethical Issues

Shell in Nigeria: The Ethical Issues

Ethics are moral principles, as of an individual, a country or a religion. A lot of people have different perspectives of the world and carry different opinions involving what is ethical and what is not. Ethics are a major concern in International Business and companies face ethical issues very frequently. Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, is a fusion of over 1,700 companies around the world.

Shell Nigeria is one of the largest oil producers in the Shell Group and more than 80% of the oil extractions in Nigeria is in the Niger Delta. The Delta is a home to many small minority ethnic groups, such as Ogoni, all of which suffer exploitation of human rights, environmental rights, and economical and health issues by big multinational oil companies, mainly Shell. Emanuel Nnadozie, A famous writer, has said "Oil is a curse which means only poverty, hunger, disease and exploitation for those living in oil producing areas." This paper will focus mainly on the case of Shell's ethically immoral attitudes towards Ogoni, but one must keep in mind that there are dozens of other groups that suffer the same exploitation of resources and injustices, both environmentally and economically.

Firstly, Ogoni continuously faces human rights violation from Shell. Oil from Ogoniland provides close to $30 billion to the economy of Nigeria and the people of Ogoni see only very little from their contribution to Royal Dutch Shell. According to The Essential Action Organization, Shell employed only 88 Ogoni which makes up 0.0002% of the Ogonian population and only 2% off Shell's employees. Shell has done next to nothing to help Ogoni, instead it has done more harm than good. Since Shell has caused damage to Ogoniland and aquatic creates nearby, there are now no jobs for displaced farmers and fishermen. Worst of all, the people are afraid to speak after the incident in 1995, where 9 activists were hung by the Nigerian Government for speaking out. This all furthers the point that Shell is continuously violating the human rights of Ogoni which is ethically immoral.

Secondly, Ogoni also faces unrestrained environmental molestation by Shell every day. Shell began drilling oil in Ogoniland in 1958, and ever since the people of Ogoniland had pipelines built across their land, which lead to regular oil leaks from those very pipelines forcing people to live with constant flaring of gas. All of this has concealed the land with oil, killed massive amounts of fish and other aquatic life and brought acid rain to the land of Ogoni. According to The Global Issues Organization, there has been 2,976 oil spills in Ogoni between 1976 and 1991. Shell tried claiming that they have cleaned the oil spills, but their clean up techniques, such as burning the crude, are only temporary solutions and build for a more polluted Ogoniland in the near future. As a result, Shell is not only violating the human rights in Ogoni but it is also polluting the environment of Ogoniland, both acts being considered ethically corrupt.

Lastly, Shell's actions in Ogoni created a weak economic standing for the country and lead to depredating health consequences. For the Ogoni, a people dependent upon farming and fishing, the poisoning of the land and water due to pollution has had devastating economic and health consequences. As mentioned earlier, even though Ogoni provides approximately $30 billion to the Nigeria, they get to keep nothing. When money goes out and none come in, the result is a very weak economy. Ogoni gives so much to Nigeria, yet nothing ever comes back. On top of a weak economy, Shell's actions also created a higher rate of illnesses in Ogoni. The Nigerian Environmental Study Action Team claims to be an increase in discomfort and misery due to fumes, heat and combustion