Shell in Nigeria

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...