What Makes Big Men

Locals, government and the challenging terrain of the developing country were all factors that played into the big discovery. Politics was also a contributing factor as government politicians battled for power and the pros and cons of globalization became present as the film unraveled. Kosmos faced many challenges while undertaking its multibillion dollar project in Ghana. It took several years of planning and building equipment to initiate a project of that nature, thus creating various risks for the company. A major risk that Kosmos faced was the challenge of “looking for oil in a country that had never had it before.”

oil in Nigeria. Nigeria’s large supply of high quality crude oil helped Shell climb to the top,

Nigeria has not flourished the ability to manufacture direct products in its own country. Instead, imports, 85% of its national demands and is a customer to many developed countries who gain greater profit from Nigeria's inability. Western countries like France forged deep ties with governments rich in major oil, gas and mining companies, strategically allowing themselves to secure exploration and production rights in exchange for royalty payment (Frank Vogl, 2012). These strategies have always resulted in a greater profit for

All over Africa it is customary for men to be in power in some sort of way, the word “Big Men” is very known in Africa and what a Big Man is a man having control, power and wealth. In The film Big Men by Rachel Boynton, it is only mentioned once how men try to become a big man and how women also try to be a big woman, but other than that the majority is only men. The social structure that is shown in Ghana and Nigeria from the film is made that the goal for each man is to become powerful, Certainly the phrase “Big Men” does involve with masculinity and how countless of men were stereotyped by the way they acted. For example in the film it is said that militant groups were formed by civilians that had enough with the “Big Men” robbing so much

In the film Big Men by Rachel Boynton, it is exposed the true meaning of what a “Big Man” is. This documentary is based on oil companies trying to extract oil from Ghana and Nigeria and how corruption is being proceeded in theses countries. Director Boynton interviews the businessmen from oil companies which are from Kosmo energy company, the government officials of those countries and of course the people of the country. The citizen see government officials and oil companies as the the “Big Men” the big men are men who are in power and have wealth, these men only lookout for themselves and no one else. It is brought up in the movie that between 1960 and 1999, nigerian officials stole or wasted more than $440 billion, it is also stated in the

In the Niger Delta, an oil rich region of Nigeria, MEND a militant group is fighting against the Nigerian military/government to obtain a larger part of the areas oil wealth and bring more money to the region and to the people, whereas the government have been opting to protect the big oil companies, such as Shell and Mobil, oil operations at the expense of the local people (BBC.co.uk, 2008). However, it has been found that this long-running hotbed of geo-political violence has only garnered a modest amount of media’s attention. American academic Terry Hallmark claims that there could be a few reasons for the lack of attention by the media, one is that the conflict has been occurring for the last 20 years and there is a bit of “Niger Delta Fatigue”, another is that the militants have no connections to extremist Islamic groups such as al-Qaeda or ISIS and that they only attack oil infrastructure rather that people (Hallmark, 2017). The lack of media coverage about this issue has caused a lapse in understanding about the severity of the impacts this civil ‘oil’ war has had on oil sector investment and operations in the area, Nigeria’s oil production and economy, and world oil markets and oil prices, this is significant because Nigeria’s main investors in their crude oil exports are the USA and Europe (Figure 2), where most of the big oil companies are

In 1994, Equatorial Guinea was one of the most impoverished countries in Africa. During that time, the country had an incredibly low life expectancy of just 46 years, and the inhabitants were forced to survive on only $1 a day. Then, in 1995, they discovered a natural resource that would have the potential to change their economic well-being and quality of life forever. In this year, Equatorial Guinea discovered an immense amount of oil right off the coast of the country. Just nine years after this finding, all major US oil companies, notably Exxon-Mobile, Marathon Oil, and Amerada Hess, were drilling for oil in this once poverty-stricken country. After this notable discovery, Equatorial Guinea was generating $4 billion in revenue per year solely from the oil drilling industry. However, the inexperienced leaders that governed the country entered into a contract where they agreed to give 80%

Oil has often been referred to as any economy’s lifeblood. Although this is an overemphasis, oil has been the key, nonhuman resource of the economy throughout the largest part of the 20th century. In the book “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, And Power” by Daniel Yergin, the author illustrates the political, societal, economic, and geo-strategic importance of this product.

Situated along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea is a region about the size of South Carolina that offers a land full of sweet, light crude oil, known as the Niger Delta (Delta). The Delta sits within the country of Nigeria in West Africa and is in a constant state of crisis, underpinned by a multitude of key issues. Those issues include severe poverty, soil and water contamination, high infant mortality rates, low life expectancy, depletion of natural resources, corruption, and armed militia groups. These issues have one thing in common: oil.

The oil conflict in Nigeria consists primarily of two parties the oil companies and the local interests. The conflict has turned deadly as individuals have protested through violence their frustration for what they believe to be

In 2003, construction ended on a pipeline project more commonly referred to as the CCPP (Chad Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project). The main actors in this project - besides the World Bank - consisted of a triumvirate of oil companies with Exxon-Mobil at the helm, along with Petronas Malaysia & ChevronTexaco. The project was under many watchful eyes in the global political theater as it hoped to prove as a model for other developing countries. It also sought to break the spell of the “resource curse” which “it is generally known, is that countries rich in natural resources, specially oil, tend to suffer from lower living standards, slower growth rates and higher incidence of conflict than their resource-poor counterparts.” (Auty, 1997)

While the region is the nerve center for the oil industry, approximately 69 percent of the residents lives in an abject poverty and squalor. How can logic explain a highly productive region becoming a theater to acute economic deprivation? To answer the question, there is a need to understand how oil corporations conduct business in the area. One must appreciate the intricate relationship among the federal government, the oil corporations and the Niger Deltans.

The Niger Delta region of Nigeria, with a land mass of 17,900 square meters, comprises of Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross-River, Edo, Rivers and Ondo States and is located in the Southern part of Nigeria . This region produces the oil wealth of the nation which has accounted for over 90 per cent of the national income for over 40 years . However, the region has continually suffered from environmental neglect,

Most children in the Niger delta have little or no education, due to lack of funds from their parents who have lost their lands and have no jobs because of limited opportunities. The Niger delta government and the oil companies have refused to look into the situation; instead they favor their close relations neglecting the masses. Corruption in the Niger delta has led some youths in taking drastic measure in order to put food on their table. For example, Ikechukwu Efe an indigene of the Niger delta said that some of his friends created their own “oil refinery”, which is made up of crude oil in metal barrels with controlled heat from fire woods. This is a dangerous process in refining crude oil but the degree of poverty in the state left his friends with no choice. If only the government of the Niger delta have created jobs with the wealth of the state Ikechukwu’s friend would not have to put their lives in danger. Until corruption is put to an abrupt the people of the Niger delta will continue to live in poverty.

In the summer of 2008, I travelled to Orogun, a village in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, where my father spent his childhood. I had read and heard stories about the oil rich villages in the Niger Delta and the plight of the villagers from environmental hazards resulting from toxic oil and gas flares, air and water pollutions leading to birth defects, lung diseases, and destruction of the ecology. I was shocked to find a village with such rich natural resources with no infrastructures, good medical facilities, or schools.