Nigeria has been a country in political turmoil for a long time. The country was created in 1914 under British colonial rule and at that time it was considered a protectorate. It was not until 1960 that Nigeria received independence from the United Kingdom. One of Nigeria's problems politically is that it has over three hundred different ethnic groups. The three largest of these are the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba. At the time of the independence of Nigeria it was split up into three states with each state being under the control of one of the major ethnic groups. The natural resources of the other 297 ethnic groups were exploited for the major three groups, creating a situation of political unrest. This resulted in a military coup d'etat throwing out the Prime Minister and replacing him with a major Igbo General. The minorities wanted a political restructuring through states and they won. There was an Igbo secession from Nigeria forming Biafra in Eastern Nigeria including the Ogoni territory. A three-year civil war broke out after this over the natural resources held by the minorities especially the oil in the Ogoni territory. After this Nigeria went through several forms

Had I been the principle decision maker, as soon as I learned of how bad it was for the Ogoni people I would have gone to General Abacha and told him he needs to remedy the situation. When the rest of the world learned of it there would be a terrible backlash. Foreign powers would cut off aid, loans, and possibly restrict trade. There would be protests and consumers would stop buying the gasoline from our company causing sales to drop. In the case where it would become threatening the companies would have to withdraw and move to other areas and as oil is 80% of Nigeria's source of money the country would be left crippled.

One conflict would be the necessity of oil in the modern world and effects of taking it from the land in third world areas where compensation is not given to the area and people from where it was removed. Before the entire Nigerian, incident Shell was ranked number one in the oil industry (it moved to three afterwards) and it took a large portion of its oil from Nigeria. As oil is necessary and Nigeria has oil deposits it will be drilled. Every year massive amounts of oil is spilled the effects of having crude oil spilled is very harsh on the land. Between 1982 and 1992 an estimated 1.6 million gallons of oil was spilled from Shell's Nigerian fields. This is just something that happens in areas where oil is being extracted and transported. Though what is happening to the Ogoni is wrong it is inevitable in a way, due to the need of oil, the natural resources the Ogoni region has and the impoverished corrupt country in which the situation takes place.

The ethical shortcomings in the case are many but there are couple ethical strengths in the case. Such as some of the things Shell oil company did to repair the damage done to the Ogoni region. The Ogoni region was rich in oil and that is where Shell drilled, they paid their fair share of revenue to the Nigerian government for the oil, it is not their fault the Ogoni received nothing for the devastation of their land. When Shell officials called in the police there were thousands of protesters outside their plant, peaceful or not it is intimidating and no one wants to lose a multi-million dollar plant. Shell has donated over a 100 million dollars specifically to the Ogoni region to help its environment and people. Shell does hold part of the blame but they do more than their fair share to correct the problems while the Nigerian government still does nothing but oppress the people and keep down revolutionaries with an iron fist. As for the many shortcomings in the case the killing of peaceful protesters, hanging innocent men after a mock trial in which press and public were forbidden, the devastation of a culture through murder, pillaging, and destruction of their land have already been discussed.

Violation of Human Rights, destruction of the environment, and denial of freedom of speech and congregation are the ethical issues raised in this case. The Human Rights violations are many. The Nigerian special police force raped, tortured, and murdered hundreds who spoke out against the tyrannical government. All together they killed 2,000 Ogoni, razed 27 villages and displaced over 80,000 people who fled into the bush as refugees. The oil spills by the Shell Company, the lying of the pipeline across farmlands, and the extraction of the oil has raped the land of the Ogoni. The plant and wild

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2293
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)