The Foreign Desk

The press seldom misses an opportunity to criminalize the poor, but recent wire service stories on a pipeline disaster in Nigeria shows how low Western wire services can sink when reporting on Third World countries.

The facts would seem to be simple; yet, in comparing stories printed by the Associated Press (based in the U.S.) with stories run by Reuters (based in England), even the facts are in dispute. Early Sunday, Oct. 18 (Reuters) or late Saturday, Oct. 17 (AP), an above-ground gas pipeline that carries fuel from the southeastern city of Warri north to Kado exploded near the small village of Apawor near Warri. Initial estimates of the dead ranged from 250 (AP) to 500 (Reuters), while the injured were estimated at 1,000 (AP) to 2,000 (Reuters).

Both wire services noted that many of the dead were people scavenging fuel leaking from the pipeline, although Reuters made it clear that many, if not most, of the victims were women and children.

Where the stories varied was in reporting the cause of the fire; obviously the pipeline was leaking, but why? Reuters articles quoted Nigerian government oil company employees blaming the scavengers for sabotaging the pipeline, and subtly suggested that the state-owned oil company may have let the pipeline deteriorate. Reuters was careful to use words like "burst pipeline," which suggest the pipeline may have failed on its own. Yet deeper in each article, however, Reuters reporters stated that the pipeline was sabotaged as "part of a recent pattern of unrest in Nigeria's oil region where impoverished local communities have grown restive over their perceived neglect by government and oil multinationals" (Oct. 19), simply repeating the opinions of the Nigerian government, without attribution, and passing it off as fact. None of the Reuters correspondents make any mention of the day-to-day economic realities in southeastern Nigeria or make any attempt to explain why women and children would need to scavenge gas from a pipeline. George Esiri, in his article dated Oct. 22, says in his final paragraph that the head of the Nigerian Catholic Bishops' Conference blames the disaster "on the prevalence of negligence in Nigerian society," without explaining how this statement can be reconciled with the government's claim that scavengers willfully damaged the pipeline.

The Reuters articles do mention that the pipeline had been leaking for three days before the blast occurred, and that the gas had pooled in a large, concrete-lined ditch and covered an area at least the size of a soccer field. Also, they mention that the government finally shut off the pipeline the day after the oil fire occurred. This little niblet of information gives enormous credence to Nigerians who have complained for years about the ecological destruction caused by the oil industry in Nigeria.

As to what started the blaze, Robert Efenakpo's article of Oct. 19 quotes Dafe Emutoru, a local government official, who was at the scene of the blast: "...it took just a spark from the exhaust of a motor bike to set them ablaze." This is the most reliable account of what caused the fire, and one that was completely ignored by the AP reporters.

The AP articles, all written by one man, Frank Aigbogun, make no bones about who is to blame for the disaster. On Oct. 19, Aigbogun opens his article with "A pipeline explosion apparently sparked by thieves siphoning off oil led to an inferno that swept through villages, killing at least 250 people, and destroyed surrounding cropland." Note that the women and children collecting spilled gas had become "thieves," and that Aigbogun completely believed the account given by Nigerian oil company employees.

Aigbogun also writes: "Many of the victims were farmers and villagers sleeping in their homes when the fire began"; however, this phrase and any mention of innocent victims were dropped from his articles on the following days to be replaced by unattributed statements about "scavengers," "vandals," and "protesters." As to the cause of the blaze, he continuously repeats the same two sentences: "It was not clear what caused the blast. Government officials have said they believe scavengers' tools set it off, while some news reports have blamed the conflagration on a lit cigarette." Note the difference between this report attributed to nameless government officials and anonymous "news reports," and the Reuters quote above from a government official who is named, local, and was on the scene at the time. In fact, while the Reuters reporters filed their articles from Warri (on Oct. 19), only a few miles from the scene, and then from Sapele (on Oct. 20 and thereafter), the AP reporter filed this article from Lagos, nearly 200 miles away. On Oct. 21, he finally showed up much closer to the scene in Jesse, but having arrived late, he's forced to rely on heresay. He does, however, admit: "Many people in this farming community refused to talk to reporters and fled when strangers stopped at their homes. Those that would talk denied involvement in the scavenging." He imputes guilt from people's natural distrust of a biased reporter.

He also repeats in at least three separate articles this odious phrase: "scooping up buckets of gasoline from a spilling pipeline could offer quick gains"--as if there were some connection between stock market speculators and starving Nigerians. He's happy to tell us that, although Nigeria is the sixth largest oil producing nation in the world, Nigerians suffer terrible gas shortages, with lines at gas pumps lasting for days, and black market gas prices marked up 1,000 percent; what a market for exploitation! He neglects to tell us that most of the oil produced in Nigeria is extracted by Chevron, Texaco, and Royal/Dutch Schell, which then refine and sell some of it back to Nigeria.

As an exercise in bias, lack of context, and contempt for poor people, it's hard to beat the reports printed by Western wire services. With this kind of pap to choose from, no wonder our newspapers suck.

Quotes were from the following Reuters articles: "Nigerian Pipeline Blaze Kills Hundreds" (Robert Efenakpo, Oct. 19), "Aid agencies help Nigeria oil fire victims" (Dulue Mbachu, Oct. 20), and "Survivors of Nigerian pipeline fire fled hospitals (George Esiri, Oct. 22). Associated Press quotes were from the following articles, all by Frank Aigbogun: "Pipeline inferno incinerates Nigerian villages" (Oct. 19), "700 Reported Dead in Nigeria Blast" (Oct. 21), "Nigeria Town Struggling After Blast" (Oct. 21), and "Aid Sent To Nigeria Blast Town" (Oct. 22).