by Mace Spurlock

Created on: May 20, 2007

It's a sad fact that, according to the United Nations, 70% percent of all Nigerians live on less than one U.S. dollar a day. What really makes that statistic even more appalling is that the government of Nigeria receives about $45 billion a year in oil revenues. That's about enough money to pay every man woman and child in Nigeria almost $400 a year.

Millions of people live in and around the oil producing region of Nigeria. They live in small villages without paved roads leading to them, without the benefit of sewerage, potable water, even electricity. The infant mortality rate and life expectancy in the Niger Delta where these people live is below the average for the rest of Nigeria and certainly for much of the continent of Africa.

Much of the land they grew crops on for generations is no longer arable and the creeks, rivers and streams that used to provide precious protein in the form of fish are dead zones clogged with crude. Little compensation, certainly not enough to repay the tribes for this raping of their land, waters and natural resources, has been provided by the multinational oil companies and Nigerian government corporations that benefit from the misery of these millions of people.

In a scathing report released earlier this year by the International Crisis Group, titled The Swamps of Insurgency: Nigeria's Delta Unrest, the region is characterized as a "potent cocktail of poverty, crime and corruption (that) is fueling a militant threat to Nigeria's reliability as a major oil producer." The creation of new rebel groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is a major force the government of Nigeria has to contend with.

Entering the scene in January 2006, MEND has fought and killed government soldiers and sailors. It has torched and bombed oil facilities. It has taken expatriate oil workers hostages and has been responsible for deadly car bombings. This very well armed and disciplined militia force has definite demands it states it will not equivocate on: the withdrawal of government troops from the region, release of imprisoned ethnic leaders, and an increase in the share of oil revenues to the people who live in the areas that are being exploited.

Within 11 months of arriving on the scene, MEND spawned other new militant groups and activities by youths in communities who feel they have been deprived jobs or have other grievances with the companies has increased. Old secessionist organizations have regained their previous

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