Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
questions for ongoing democratic public debate. Second, while the central
government receives oil-related revenue from the multinationals, it is not
itself the primary provider of health and primary education services to
which a large share of those sums is dedicated. As a federal nation, these
responsibilities rest squarely with the state and local governments. And
these, as we have argued, have received markedly increased allocations
from the federal government during the last decade, even as services to
Delta residents have continued to decline. A change in allocated sums to
the region from the national government alone is unlikely to remediate
environmental problems or secure improved employment prospects and
living conditions for the Delta's population.
Instead, we have suggested that the Nigerian national government
(and interested states around the world) must continue to develop the
capacity to ensure greater transparency and accountability in the use of
public funds and must devise effective ways and means to secure that
same result in the nation's (and especially the Delta region's) state and
local governments. The national government must also regulate the oil
producers in its midst more rigorously and devise cleanup strategies and
enlist the support of oil producers and major state governments as well
as international organizations and NGOs for its plans.
Outlining these realities underscores both the interdependent and
multiscale character of the strategic environment in which environmental
justice will or will not be attained for the Delta. It suggests clearly that
a dynamic array of conditions and factors must all be infl uenced if posi-
tive change is to occur for the area's residents. It also demonstrates that
increased accountability among some stakeholders, while perhaps indica-
tive of progress toward more just end states, can still be eroded by
failures of accountability among stakeholders that receive less scrutiny
on the international stage.
Globalized trade came to the Delta long ago and its various impacts,
for good and ill, have been profound. But economic globalization does
not occur in a vacuum. Its worst effects demand a political response and
a change in the accepted rules of the game. It seems clear to us that Beck
was correct: multinationals will exploit their economic power to the
extent they are permitted to do so. There are hopeful signs that other
important local, national, and international actors with roles in shaping
the political economy of the Delta have now embarked on a trajectory
to change the conditions that have allowed corporations to exercise that
power in an almost unfettered way for several decades. Whether these
efforts will succeed is contingent, as Beck suggested, on whether these
