by Thokozile Gurganious

Created on: March 01, 2008

Big business does indeed unduly influence government. In all countries, citizens elect public officials to oversee the affairs of the country. But very often, these elected officials have abdicated their mandate, and instead of taking care of the interests of the people, have put the interests of big business first.

A good example of the undue influence of big business on government is Nigeria. In Nigeria, in the Niger Delta, oil companies caused environmental degradation. This is because there were no standards set for the oil companies.As a result, there were oil spills within villages, and toxic wastes from the oil fields were emitted into rivers, the soil and the environment of the Ogoni people. The ogoni people are cattle keepers, and they also depend a lot on fishing and farming. They could no longer farm because their soils were poisoned, the rivers were no longer producing fish because the waters were contaminated. Malnutrition and starvation became rampant. The Ogoni people could not take it any more, so they peacefully demonstrated against the environmental degradation of their lands. The Nigerian military government of the time responded with massive violence against the Ogoni. Troops were dispatched to their area, and they burnt their crops, killed their livestock , and destroyed their homes. Many people were rendered homeless. The Nigerian government in this case clearly had put the interests of big business before the interests of the people. It is no secret that Nigerian government officials are corrupt. It is no wonder they could go to those lengths to protect the interests of Shell.

The tiny country of Botswana is another example. For many years Botswana fooled the international community by masquerading as an oasis of democracy in a dessert of dictatorships. The Botswana government even lied to the international community by telling them that Botswana was mono lingual, when in truth Botswana has over twenty different languages whose speakers were suffering under the yoke of linguistic and cultural oppression. Botswana even used to doctor population census to create ethnic majorities that did not exist. Botswana is a defacto one party state, and the ruling party creates conditions that make the existence of effective opposition almost impossible. The international community started seeing the true colors of the Botswana government with their treatment of the San Indigenous People. The San indigenous people of Botswana have been living in and

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