Multinational oil corporations, policy violation and environmental damage in rivers state of Nigeria: a theistic ethics approach

Abstract

Achieving a sustainable environment is not unconnected with a pragmatic adherence to environmental policies in any given society. The continuous and expanding experience of environmental degradation and its attendant consequences on human and other lives in Rivers State of Nigeria still call for urgent attention for enduring solution. Yet, it seems that all efforts made toward resolving the problem have yielded very few positive results because the root cause of the problem(s) has not been given adequate attention. This study explored the organic connectedness between breaches (i.e., policy violation) of environmental regulations (as a major cause of the problem) and environmental chaos (as the consequence of the breach) in Rivers State of Nigeria, from the theistic ethics standpoint. To investigate the actuality of the connectedness of the breaches and the incessant environmental decadence in the study location, 30 copies of self-constructed, close-ended questionnaire were administered to a purposively selected sample of 30 Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) of the major oil business firms across the entire three Senatorial Districts of Rivers State. Out of the 30 administered questionnaire, 26 valid copies (86.7%) were retrieved and analysed, using frequencies, simple percentage counts, and regression analysis. A total of 88.5% of the CLOs confirmed that breaches in fundamental environmental policies were major causes of the environmental chaos and other associated problems in Rivers State, Nigeria. Also, pipeline vandalism, oil spillages, and oil theft typified breaches of theistic and other environmental regulations with ecological consequences. The F-test from the regression analysis shows that the value of F-calculated (6.633) is greater than F-tabulated (3.86) taking cognizant of the P-value of 0.01, which is lesser than 0.05 level of probability. This confirmed a significant relationship between contravention of law and ethical principles, and environmental degradation in Rivers State. Furthermore, the value of coefficient of correlation (r) is 0.126. This confirmed a positive relationship between violation of environmental policies (X) and environmental degradation (Y) in Rivers State. The paper concluded that adherence to the theistic and other environmental policies by oil firms in Rivers State could serve as respite to the environment.