Abstract
The ecological and health damage of oil spills and oil pollution in Nigeria is unquantifiable. Systemic and systematic degradation of the environment, health, livelihoods and food system of people residing in oil spill areas is visibly inexcusable. This paper using secondary data contends the impotency or ineptitude of environmental policy significantly contributes to oil spills and impoverishes the food basket and people’s health in Nigeria. Paper suggests that in the post-oil city an inclusive approach that detoxifies the environment, preserve livelihoods and health, and restores human dignity will help rebuild and safeguard water and food security. Drinking water is polluted, fishing and farming are significantly impacted, soils are polluted and ecosystems degraded. Oil spills significantly affect the health and food security of rural people living near oil facilities. Frequent and extensive oil spills occur in the Niger Delta area and these spills are under-reported, but independent estimates are that at least 115,000 barrels (15,000 tons) of oil are spilled into the Delta each year, making the Niger Delta one of the most oil-impacted ecosystems in the world (Steiner, 2008). Oil pollution in the Niger Delta is an ongoing chronic disaster and an environmental adversity with no end in sight, and entails little or no support for communities and individuals that are affected [Ovadia, 2013, Obi,2010). The chronic nature of the oil pollution and its associated environmental and social impacts may have an insidious impact on one’s physical health (sustained systemic toxicity by oil-related contaminants) and mental health (such as increased risk for high levels of distress) which are different from those of discrete traumatic events [Kolassa et al. 2010).
