Passing the muck Western countries are overflowing with dangerous waste - and their first thought is to dump it in the Third World. Nigerian journalist Elizabeth Obadina tells a dirty story. Uproar breaks out in Nigeria during 1988, when officials discover that an Italian ship has illegally dumped toxic waste at the small delta port of Koko. Then it forces Italy to remove almost 4,000 tons of offending industrial wastes from Nigerian soil. But the story is too big to be kept quiet.
Media coverage generates public generates public outrage, if incomplete understanding.
Villagers in Bendel State hide their television and radio sets on treetops because they fear that electronic equipment will transmit radioactivity. Anger at the Nigerian Government is widespread. Nigeria has led African countries in banning the importation of waste from industrialized countries. Having campaigned from the moral high ground, the Nigerian Government is acutely embarrassed to be caught throwing stones from a glass house. Nigeria being what it is.