Foreign oil interests in Nigeria and Chad are rapidly depleting local economies, Austin Onuoha and Antoine Berilengar, S.J., said in a Tuesday lecture.

The two men, natives of Nigeria and Chad, respectively, spoke to an audience of students and administrators in a lecture hosted by the Center for Social Justice and Office of Mission and Ministry.

Onuoha is a staff member of the Center for Social and Corporate Responsibility and has been involved in dialogue with Chevron-Texaco about human rights issues. Fr. Berilengar is a religious representative on the Petroleum Revenue Oversight and Control Committee in Chad and is the Social Apostolate coordinator for the Jesuits in Africa. They are traveling with the Jesuit Conference, speaking out about the alleged havoc that oil corporations are wreaking on their nations’ economies.

Onuoha said the history of oil companies’ support of bloody conflicts has led Nigerians to the conclusion that “people cannot live side by side with oil aspiration.”

Fr. Berilengar added that “oil and anti-democratic movements go together.”

What’s more, American oil corporations are lying to the American people and the local populations, Onuoha said.

“They have good intentions on paper,” Onuoha said. “What is the problem on the ground?”

In addition to these grievances, the men outlined the economic responses of their countries to American gas corporations and offered suggestions for the improvement of corporation-state relations.

“Laws are guidelines of behavior. They are not standards of relationships,” Onuoha said. “We need to begin to talk to the human beings that run these organizations.”

The speeches were co-sponsored by Catholic Relief Services and the Jesuit Conference.