The observer of the development of material life in the last century will find that the advancement in technology overwhelmed human life to the extent that taking advantage of this technology has become an inseparable part of a person’s life and a means to provide a better future for man. The countries have recruited scientists to achieve the desired progress and this rapid development has become the talk of the world. The roof of the aspirations of people has risen from simple devices to laser surgery and nanotechnology, and man unleashed his imagination such that technology became tamed in his hands. Despite what the world is witnessing from ascent and progress on the material level and diversity of products in the field of electronics, home appliances and others, we find that millions across the world dropped behind the beneficiaries of this development and are to this day dependent on primitive means in their livelihood, cooking on simple firewood stoves. The image of those is associated with the poor countries dependent on aid or with the image of the livelihood of those displaced by war and famine, under makeshift conditions in refugee camps.

Not many could imagine the existence of a petrol state with a vibrant economy among the ranks of countries that suffer from the problem of traditional stoves. Many have been shocked by the publication of an announcement by the news agencies, made by Ms. Baheejato Abu Bakr, an official of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Environment, that at least 98,000 Nigerian woman die annually from inhaling toxic fumes caused by cooking stoves that run on firewood. A study by the World Health Organization (WHO) supported these figures, and the Ministry stressed that the damage resulting from the women’s preparation of breakfast, lunch and dinner on wood stoves is equivalent to smoking between three to 20 packs of cigarettes a day. The Ministry also pointed out that the damage strikes and kills women only.

One wonders: Do Nigerian women cook on wood stoves for reasons of welfare?! Why do they rely on unsafe sources of energy in spite of the availability of oil? Is it rational that Nigerian women die in this way and have to rely on outdated wood stoves in one of the richest countries on the African continent?! Are they deprived of the use of gas although they live in a country that has the seventh-largest gas reserves in the world?! The harsh reality is that this abundance of resources does not benefit Nigerians at all. Gas prices are too high and out of reach for the vast majority of the people of the country. It should be noted that Nigeria has a stockpile of gas that could generate electricity to provide it for its people without trouble if it wanted. Rather it produces only enough electricity for a medium-sized European city (Reuters 13/02/2013). Gas, electricity and services in a country rich in resources such as Nigeria remain the monopoly of the rich residents of big cities, while the majority lives in rural areas that suffer a lot from the scarcity of gas, electricity and lack of services. The world looks to Nigeria as a petrol country, while women die on the dirty stoves, spending their outmost effort to prepare food for their families, until this housewife’s daily task became a source of danger to her and her children! Not to mention the risk women and girls are exposed to while collecting firewood, the proliferation of incidents of rape during these arduous journeys and their spending of long hours in front of the fireplaces. These risks are incurred by the vast majority of the people of the country who do not have access to modern energy sources and suffer from what is called “energy poverty”. Yes, energy poverty in the largest oil producer in Africa, energy poverty in a country blessed with countless riches!!!

Instead of benefiting the world’s poor through Nigerian oil, Nigeria became one of the target countries for campaigns of international agencies to improve traditional fireplaces and stoves and provide safer and less expensive stoves. These campaigns started in the seventies after the energy crisis and connect developmental, environmental and economic issues. UN agencies launch campaigns and projects that aspire to reduce the harmful effects of “dirty energy”, but do not expose the causes of energy poverty. Instead they offer some cosmetic solutions to beautify the ugly reality. The Nigerian government and Western institutions seek to provide safe, “improved” stoves that do not use dirty energy, while the government recruits women’s groups, artisans and employers from a variety of industries to deploy sophisticated models of fireplaces and work to employ renewable energy and the promotion of fireplaces that run on solar power. They seek to spread them, so that the rising demand exerts downward pressure on prices, without the state providing anything worthy of mentioning. The government acknowledges the size of the problem of energy poverty in the country without any qualms or embarrassment; it recognizes the reality and allows tinkering it instead of providing a real treatment. It holds seminars and discusses the problem as if it did not care. In fact it does not care, because taking care of people’s affairs is no point on its day’s schedule. It is proudly satisfied with allowing campaigns to provide “improved” stoves that do not use dirty energy, given to the poor for a loan! The paradox is that women engaged with these loans walk over pools of oil, denied from but at the same time surrounded by the bounties of the earth, to the point that the oil is detrimental to their health and they suffer from pollution problems such as inhalation of toxic substances and the mixing of drinking water with oil.

One finds it difficult to believe what is happening on the Nigerian scene and the Nigerian energy poverty reaching this extent with this abundance of resources! Electronic United Press International published an article by writer Molly Ginty, specialized in the affairs of health and environment, under the title of “The dangers of contamination are the worst to the women of the developing world”. Donna Voorhees, researcher in the fields of environment and women’s health at the Boston Center for Ecologists, conducted a pilot study – funded by the United Nations – in the Nigerian area of Ogoniland to study the effects of poor management and organization in the field of health protection in the areas containing the oil. She found women standing barefoot in the green fields harvesting the roots of the cassava plant in the heart of a pool of oil. She noted that life continued in this region as if the holes to drill for oil had not been dug. A similar situation cannot be found in any industrialized country, because it would evacuate the area and would not allow anyone to work in these fields, located close to the crude oil (Masrawy 22/05/2013). Women walk barefoot over puddles of oil, exposed to disease, and live above this earth without their affairs being taken care of or granting them rights as if they were passersby to the crude oil around, satisfied with the firewood. They have not seen anything from this petrol except pollution, conflict and poverty.

This is the reality of the people of Nigeria, the embodiment of the words of the poet:

Just like camels in the desert, killed by thirst,

while carrying water on their backs

Nigeria’s poor, just like others, have become victims of capitalism which again spawns different models of former colonialism. They have stretched out their hand to what lies beyond the ocean and stripped them of their wealth. Then they left their cronies to pave the way for them to come back again and again after their symbolic exit represented in the independence. Capitalism has left behind governments to pave the way for it and keep its interests and subservient agents that are satisfied with leaving the trophy to their masters. They are pleased with the leftovers from their masters’ banquet. To remain in power, they serve their masters and steal their peoples through the work of the oil companies which have expropriated the country and contaminated the land.

Exploration teams came to Nigeria like any other country, to loot the wealth of the people and enrich themselves at the expense of their poverty. They took the lion’s share and left them with the alms, showing compassion towards them. The oil companies entered the rural areas and extracted what they came for, not offering anything to the local people. They did not see in them but peoples of the colonies, light years away from catching up with the West. They did not appreciate the fact that contaminated soil and water threaten these people’s lives and hurt their interests. Amnesty International said in a report issued on 30/6/2009, entitled “Oil Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta”, that “oil industry in the Niger Delta has brought poverty, conflict, human rights abuses and despair to the majority of the inhabitants of those oil-producing regions”. The report pointed out the deteriorating situation for residents of this area, and called the contrast between poverty and the oil wealth the “curse of resources”. Despite the astronomical amounts derived from the extraction of oil, water is polluted, fish is contaminated with oil, modern energy resources are unavailable and people live in hardship, disease and adversity.

The state of Nigeria’s poor offers glaring evidence for the falsity of the capitalist outlook on economy. It reveals the flawed theory of relative scarcity and the error of focusing on increasing wealth, while neglecting the correct view of satisfying the needs and the conditional linkage between the problem of the distribution of goods and services, and the problem of production. The problem does not lie in a scarcity of resources and cannot be addressed by extracting more oil, which has become a curse in the eyes of the poor. Rather the solution lies in an overall outlook on the economy and stripping it off fixed forms left behind by the colonial power, as well as liberalizing thought from its stiff cultural heritage and finally reviewing the impact of this capitalist outlook on the country’s economy and assessing the intellectual foundations upon which this outlook rests.

The prevalence of the problem of poverty, its deep rooting and complexity in this way, show the scale of the destruction capitalism brought to the country and the need to search for a cure for this plaguing disease. The problem is not exclusive to the people of the countryside. The gap between the rich economic capital Lagos, the capital of lights and wealth, and between those creeping on their stomachs from hunger in the famous, chaotic neighborhood Mukoko is widening horribly. Mukoko is the city of tin floating on water within the economic capital, where its people live without water, electricity, schools or health care, moving in wooden boats and their biggest worry being to protect their tin buildings from the threat of governmental demolition. On top of all this, feminist organizations come out, working with Western institutions under the shade of despotic regimes, to deviate the talk from its course, linking this miserable poverty to outworn issues of underage marriage, birth control and women’s empowerment in the community and other issues that deceive the credulous while neglecting the central question that imposes itself:

Where did the oil money go and why were the people of the country deprived of the bounties of their land?!

Perhaps the answer to this question lies in the news whose publishing coincided with the news of the death of Nigerian women over dirty stoves. Reuters, The Financial Times and Deutsche Welle reported news of a complaint of the Central Bank of Nigeria that the governmental oil company “NNBC” did not give account of the fate of the proceeds of sales of crude oil up to about $50 billion that should have been deposited in the accounts of the government according to the law. Governor Lamido Sanusi wrote in a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan on 25th September that the company’s income from crude sales reached $ 65.3 billion from January 2012 to July 2013. Only 24% of this amount have been transferred to the governmental accounts and the fate of $ 49.8 billion remain unknown (Abuja – Reuters, Thursday, 12th December 2013). News agencies spread this news, but the one following up on the Nigerian topic was not surprised by the news. Corruption is rampant in the oil sector since they have started drilling, to the extent that Shell Global recently reported that this corruption negatively impacted them and led to the decline in recent achievements. The perhaps surprising factor in this incident of evaporation of this huge amount of money is that such embezzlement of perceptible impact remains hidden from the view of people in an atmosphere characterized by lack of transparency and accountability. These governments are experts in evaporating wealth while the crowds stand watching the magician who showcases his tricks sometimes and bullies people at other times. This compulsory show makes the weak feel they were created to keep the seats of viewers, while no one cries for them.

As expected, the NNBC Company denied the matter in a statement, asserting that “the allegations stem from a misunderstanding of the pattern of work in the oil and gas sector and the method of converting the crude oil sales revenues to the federal accounts.” They in turn threw the blame on the government, demanding that the lost money come from other government departments that are responsible for oil taxes and fees. This is a typical scenario for the exchange of charges and investigations which end fruitlessly, while corruption works in an elaborate, complex network, causing the average citizen to stand in front of it in confusion, paralysis and anger. The case of corruption in the oil sector is one of a carcass lying hidden in a corner, the gut-wrenching smell not leaving man but with two options: either to leave the place or to go looking for the source of the odor, until he finds and buries it, giving in to the situation. It is time for the people of Nigeria to stand up to this unpleasant carcass lying on their chests, which led the youth of this wealthy country to throw themselves into boats of death in pursuit of a decent life in the Overseas. The rampant, criminal corruption in the oil field has exceeded the limit of theft and embezzlement, amounting to murder through the impoverishment of the people and tossing them into the arms of despair.

The state of the Ummah in Nigeria and elsewhere will not improve before Muslims do not realize that accounting the rulers is their right and an obligation from their Lord, to be fulfilled by the obligation by a sufficient number (Fard Kifaya). How do people abstain from their right over the oil which falls under public ownership? The Almighty authorized the people’s participation in its use, as a part of the economic system in Islam, a system that is based on a clear idea of the universe, human and life. This system has adopted policies to ensure the satisfaction of the basic needs of all individuals and to enable them to satisfy their needs of luxury as much as possible, rather than leaving it in the hands of those who do not observe concerning people any pact of kinship or covenant of protection, hurting the weak and plundering their wealth. This divine system has divided property into three sections: It gives individuals the possibility of acquiring a sole proprietorship, it enables the state to administer governmental property, and it leaves a section to be shared by all Muslims which can neither be taken over by someone, nor can anyone gain control over its tools of extraction. The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

«الناس شركاء في ثلاث الماء والكلأ والنار»

“People are partners in three: water, pasture and fire.”

There is no doubt that the waste of this form of property began to disrupt the economic system in Islam, such that the idea has become so alien to people’s minds that they view that their claim to this right as madness. Instead of wondering about the monopoly of public ownership by individuals and companies things have been reversed, now people wonder about those who call to get things back to normal and make the property as defined in the Shari’a! How in God’s name do people remain silent over the withholding of their rights and looting of oil money and minerals, while they criticize the one who wastes his heritage amounting to a handful of dollars?! They belittle the one who leaves his money to be plundered and his people in desperate need of money, and as time goes by shifts from being the owner of a right to someone who serves and is disgraced within his father’s property, “a stranger in his home!” Such a person lives deprived and vanquished, because he cannot find the resolution to demand his right! This is the case of the one who wastes his heritage, let alone those who wastes a right given to them by Allah. How can the one who kept silent about injustice and is pleased with his life and death in the shade live a good life?! Pleased to remain without a will of his own, externally controlled by the colonizer to this day! Are we satisfied with a capitalist economy, bearing the logo of Adam Smith’s famous argument “let it work…let it go by”, claiming that the economy regulates itself without regulation or interference, while it in fact facilitates theft, fraud and murder against the backdrop of the vulnerable majority’s silence? For how long will this deadly silence go on?!

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Umm Yahya Bint Muhammad