Multinational corporations’ oil exploration, poverty and environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria

In recent years, there has been much discussion and attention on the amount of poverty and environmental damage in Nigeria’s Niger Delta area as a result of oil drilling by international oil firms. There is little doubt that the actions of international oil firms have caused significant harm to this region’s oil producing areas. The ecological damage caused by oil exploration has rendered farming and fishing, which are the primary professions of this region’s rural population, obsolete.  Several years of oil exploration by major international oil firms, as well as the risks of spills and gas flaring that accompany it, have destroyed the region’s ecosystem and left the town barren. As a result, this research investigates the effects of oil exploration on the inhabitants of the Niger Delta region. It also investigates the region’s level of environmental deterioration and deplorable poverty. The study will also address the interconnectivity dynamics that exist between environmental degradation and poverty in Nigeria’s Niger Delta area. In other words, the research investigates the extent to which oil exploration and environmental degradation are responsible for abject poverty and underdevelopment in Nigeria’s Niger Delta area.