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Deep inside the mangrove forests of the Niger Delta, thousands of young men use makeshift equipment, risking arrest and accidents, to refine a valuable commodity: oil.
They fill a pressing gap in Nigeria. Africa’s top petroleum producer can’t refine nearly enough oil to fulfil its citizens’ needs. As fuel prices have surged in the last year, demand is higher than ever for black market fuel.
Yet illegal refiners face an increasingly intense clampdown from the government, which is trying to claw back lost revenue; and many communities in the Niger Delta blame them for contributing to decades of environmental damage caused by oil spills.
But when those who endure the worst of oil’s environmental impacts are also helping to keep the business alive, what does this tell us about a dirty yet essential commodity?
And what will it take to quit oil?
We travelled to the heart of the Niger Delta to find out.
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How is artificial intelligence reshaping our reality and what should governments do to rein in big tech? These are some of the questions we put to Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa.
Known as a staunch advocate of a free press in safeguarding democracy, Ressa said tech companies had failed in their duty to fight misinformation.
“None of the big tech companies have put safety front and centre,” she said.
Ressa expressed frustration that tech platforms and the algorithms behind them were not subject to the same scrutiny and regulation that pharmaceutical products face before being approved for public use.
In a year that saw many elections around the world, and also the rise of generative AI, Ressa said there was a need for strong newsrooms and robust journalism.
“You need journalism as an antidote to tyranny,” she said.
This interview with Maria Ressa was filmed at Trust Conference 2024, the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual flagship forum, where she joined a panel alongside veteran technology journalist Kara Swisher and Thomson Reuters President and CEO Steve Hasker to discuss tech-enabled threats to global democracy.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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