Dear Michael,

There is a lot to say about pollution in Nigeria (Logging, Pressure on non-renewable resources, Greenhouse gas emissions, Air pollution, Water pollution, ... ). The Nigerian government made commitments on World Environment Day. Laurentia Mallam, then Nigerian Minister of the Environment, is committed to improving the health of the environment by 50% by 2020. "Citizens of Nigeria are entitled to clean air, clean water and uncontaminated land. In 2011, the United Nations Environment Program reported significant oil pollution in the Niger Delta. Shell has recognized its responsibility for two major oil spills in Nigeria in October and December 2008. The Bodo community, which numbers about 90,000 people and lives off fishing, is the victim of this pollution. In the Niger Delta, 75% of the population does not even have access to drinking water. Wastewater management is a major issue in Nigeria. In 2011, the city of Lagos generates 1.5 million cubic meters of wastewater a day with its 18 million inhabitants. All without centralized sewage system. Outside of septic tanks, most household discards from Africa's largest city flow into gutters open to the sea. In March 2018, Amnesty International publishes a report accusing Shell and ENI of hiding the truth about the causes of water pollution in the oil region of the Niger Delta (southeastern Nigeria), and calls on the Nigerian authorities to initiate an oil spill survey in this area.

The Ikebiri community in Nigeria has filed a lawsuit against the Italian oil multinational ENI in a Milan court. This is the first time such a procedure has been launched in Italy. The end of the legal impunity of multinationals with regard to their actions abroad is more than ever on the agenda in Europe. The complainants question Eni's inaction following a pipeline explosion in 2010 that affected their lands and rivers in the Niger Delta. The villagers are asking for two million euros in damages as well as the complete rehabilitation of the site by the Italian firm. They are supported by Friends of the Earth Europe and Nigeria.

The local subsidiary of Eni, Nigerian Agip Oil Company or NAOC, which operates seven wells in the area, claims to have cleaned up the site after the incident, but according to villagers, its employees have only burned the oil that was spread on the ground and in waterways. Eni paid the villagers a paltry sum of a few thousand euros immediately after the events, and has since refused to do anything extra. Francis Temi Ododo, king of the Ikebiri community declares that his community "can not wait any longer. We have been suffering from Eni's pollution for far too long, which has damaged our fisheries, our agriculture and our lives. We are now turning to the Italian courts for justice. "

The end of the impunity of the multinationals is not for tomorrow.

The court in The Hague dismissed four of the five complaints by Nigerian farmers and fishermen, accusing it of polluting their village, land and ponds, because of leaks in an oil pipeline. Not that this damage was not recognized, but the Dutch court noted that in Nigerian law, the Shell's parent company, based in The Hague, has no obligation to prevent its subsidiaries, Shell Nigeria from occurrence, "to harm third parties".

Regards

Bachir ACHOUR

The local communities have started holding the multinational corporations especially the oil companies responsible for the degradation of their local environments. Several cases are peesently in National and international courts.

Role of Multinational Corporations. Multinational corporations (MNCs) are huge industrial organizations having a wide network of branches and subsidiaries spread over a number of countries and Nigeria also.Their operations extend beyond their own countries, and cover not only the advanced countries but also the LDCs. Multinational corporations have spurred up economic activities in Nigeria. The emergence of multinational companies as powerful actors of the international business environment inevitably means that an important part of ‘going global’ is to find ways to effectively manage and control business organizations in different host countries.Multinational firms transfer technology directly to their foreign-owned subsidiaries and indirectly to their domestic enterprises in host countries. They create employment opportunities and improve the standard of living in host countries. These economists believe that MNCs are exploitative. According to them, the natural resources of Nigeria should in the first instance be for the benefit and development of Nigeria but this objective is not realized as a result of the exploitative tendencies and practices of the MNCs. The paper also x-rays the nature, objective and operations of the MNCs. It argues that although MNCs have some negative tendencies, however they contribute positively in the areas of technological development and employment opportunities. Due to the perceived benefits associated with them, political and economic decisions by elected governments are increasingly made to provide favorable environments for the investment and marketing needs of multinational corporations. Consequently, multinational firms are sometimes able to influence the domestic policy outcomes of host developing countries by threatening to move jobs overseas.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289063207_The_Impact_of_Multinational_Corporations_on_The_Nigerian_Economy

Great contributions from you my lovely intellectuals. You have gotten my work have done. Your answers are really informative and with them I now have a leverage. Am encouraged

Interesting topic....interesting discussion.