Oil Industry Nigeria

Reuben Onyewikpe Loveday, a farmer in the depressed swamplands of the Niger River Delta, nostalgically remembers the days when he could make a healthy living off his three acres of land. Bountiful yields of yams, cassava and plantains and reliable catches from his fish pond used to guarantee him about $8,000 a year--a handsome sum in a country where the annual per capita income hovers around $320.

An upsurge of trouble in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta has been testing the new military rulers' tolerance of dissent, forcing them to deal with the aspirations of impoverished ethnic groups and further endangering an already weak economy. In the recent history of the world's sixth-largest oil producer, competing demands for the wealth generated by black gold often have made it seem more of curse than a blessing.

An enraged international community Sunday heaped pressure on Nigeria for hanging nine minority-rights activists but ruled out oil sanctions as an immediate option against its military government. That exemption angered Nigerian human rights activists who argued that the oil industry is controlled by a tiny clique of people in power who are draining off national oil revenues for personal use.

Hoping to use his moral authority and global prestige, President Nelson Mandela said Wednesday that he will lead a campaign for an international oil embargo against the military regime in Nigeria in a push for immediate democratic reforms. Mandela is the first major political leader to call for such severe sanctions against the repressive rulers of Africa's most populous nation following the executions Friday of author Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other political activists.

Deep in the steamy Niger River delta, with thick mangrove swamps and chocolate-brown rivers stretching to the horizon, drilling supervisor Funsho Amoo shouts to be heard above the hissing steam, thumping machinery and groaning metal of a Shell oil rig. "This well produces 2,000 barrels a day," Amoo hollers beside a giant hoist that shudders and shrieks as it pushes pipe into the muck. "But something is damaged, so we are repairing the pipe."