Driving by a beggar, a tanker truck carries the wealth of the region on a jammed highway outside Port Harcourt, the biggest city in the Niger Delta. Between 1970 and 1990 the population of Port Harcourt more than doubled, as people flocked to the city seeking oil fortunes. Yet most petroleum wealth went to Lagos, Nigeria's former capital, leaving most of Port Harcourt's newcomers living in slums. Now across Africa reformers are once again calling on governments to spend petroleum revenues on the poor. "Oil profits must be used to meet the people's essential needs, present and future," write the Roman Catholic bishops of Chad, "not to increase the riches of a few."
Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Film Type: Digital Lens: 135mm Speed and F-Stop: 1/250 @ f/7
Weather Conditions: Hazy Time of Day: Afternoon Lighting Techniques: Natural light
