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Diigbo, who was speaking today at the Ken Saro-Wiwa Peace and Freedom Center, to mark 16th Remembrance of the hanging of the Ogoni leader, late Ken Saro-Wiwa said the setting up of the Ogoni Central Indigenous Authority is a significant step towards actualizing the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Ogoni Bill of Rights, and all the dreams for which late Saro-Wiwa and other Ogonis gave their lives.
Click to continue reading “MOSOP CLAIMS: A SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA”
James Butty
The president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People [MOSOP] said his group welcomes the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear a dispute between the Ogoni people and Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company.
The high court justices agreed Monday to hear a federal appeal by a group of Nigerians who alleged that shell was complicit in torture, wrongful deaths and other human rights abuses committed by Nigerian authorities against environmental campaigners during the 1990s.
MOSOP President Ledum Mitee said the decision sends the right message that Shell must be held to account.
“It is quite a refreshing news coming at this time, and I think it sends the right message that clearly, even though there have been delays in getting there, but at least we can see light at the end of the tunnel that someday Shell will be held to account,” he said.
Mitee said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision also comes at an opportune time, especially as the Ogoni people prepare to commemorate the anniversary of the death of writer and human rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, has been executed in Nigeria despite worldwide pleas for clemency.
Nigeria’s military rulers in 1995 ordered the execution of Saro-Wiwa and eight other dissidents after being found guilty of involvement in four murders.
Saro-Wiwa said at his trial that the case was designed to prevent members of his tribe, the Ogoni, from stopping pollution of their homeland and getting a fair share of oil profits.
“In the next three weeks or so we will be talking about the anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni martyrs, and one of the things he [Saro-Wiwa] said was that the day of Shell will come where they will be held to account. And so coming at this time is quite a refreshing and encouraging news for us,” he said.
Mitee said the Ogoni people’s only wish is for Royal Dutch Shell to be made to pay whatever damages are due the Ogoni people for the degradation of their environment.
He expressed regrets that successive Nigerian governments have failed to listen to the non-violent voices of the Ogoni people.
“Recently the United Nations environmental program released a report in which government asked to commit themselves to do certain things to at least clean up the Ogoni environment. But as I speak nothing has been heard from the government,” he said.
Shell has denied all allegations, including that it enlisted the help of the Nigerian armed forces to suppress resistance to oil exploration in Ogoni land.
Mitee said Shell’s continued denial can only prolong the Ogoni people’s agony.
NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT PRIMARILY HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL TRAGEDY IN OGONILAND, WHILE ROYAL DUTCH/SHELL IS A PARTNER IN CRIME: Says MOSOP. 17 September 2011
A MOSOP Committee set up on the 18th of August, 2011 by MOSOP President/Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo to review the Nigerian Government threat that: “Pollution or no pollution, oil production will go on in Ogoniland as already planned,” submitted its report at a MOSOP General Assembly Meeting at Nonwa on Friday, 16th September, 2011. The Committee Report holds the Nigerian Government primarily responsible for the environmental tragedy in Ogoniland, saying that the Royal Dutch/Shell is a partner in crime. The Committee, which included representatives of ten affiliates of MOSOP, recommended what it calls “justifiable stiffer resistance,” against attempts to seize lands or resume oil production in Ogoniland. The resistance package includes use of tactics to protect Ogonis, their families and property against physical attack. The tactics are part of the indigenous Ogoni customary and traditional law, designed to prevent desecration of ancestral lands and sacred sites.
The Group General Manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Levi Ajuonuma in an interview with This Day, a Nigerian newspaper on Sunday, August 14, 2011 had suggested that irrespective of a damning UNEP Ogoniland report that it would take 30 years to clean up, oil production will go on in Ogoniland. MOSOP General Assembly said the Ogoni people will cooperate with relevant United Nations agencies, especially the United Nations Trusteeship Council to implement any acceptable UNEP Ogoniland Assessment Report. The Trusteeship Council was formed in 1945 to oversee decolonization to help ensure that trust territories were administered in the best interests of their inhabitants and of international peace and security. The Ogoni people will reject direct or indirect involvement of the federal, State or local governments in Nigeria.
Answering some questions, MOSOP President/Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo maintained: “I have read various articles and reports attempting comparison between the Ogoni environmental tragedy and the U.S. blowout. The oil there bubbled up from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico when the Transocean Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire on April 20, 2010 and sank two days later. President Barack Obama swiftly responded and decisively. In Nigeria, 55 years went by. No single cup of clean water has been provided in the entire Ogoniland with over 1.2 million people. The Nigerian Government still doesn’t see the tragedy in Ogoniland, as a human tragedy. All that the Nigerian government sees and wants the Ogoni people to have is the Hobson’s choice; only one option: To allow for oil production, or be hanged to death. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is the most senior partner in the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria and it is owned 100 percent by the Nigerian Government.”
On the issue of liability: “I thought about operational and technological responsibility. Nigeria should have insisted that oil companies fully comply with environmental best international practices, including UNEP and UNCTAD basic standards. The government made a choice to conspire and collaborate with its partners in crime, including Shell. I have asked for a meeting of all stakeholders to collectively look at the UNEP Ogoniland Assessment Report in order to draw up a road-map on the way forward. Nigeria is faced with so many unsolved problems, now complicated by threat to international peace and security. It will be difficult to talk about addressing the Ogoni situation by first excluding the Ogoni people. No one knows the problems of the Ogoni people than the Ogoni people as represented by MOSOP – the collective voice of the Ogoni people.”
Tambari Deekor
Associate Editor, MOSOP Media
tdeekor88@gmail.com
8 September 2011
MOSOP URGES Dr. GOODLUCK JONATHAN’ PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN TO END CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA.
In a congratulatory message today to Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, MOSOP President/Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo implored Bishop Kukah on his installation as the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese to champion the cause to end corruption in Nigeria and to promote economic and political justice.
Dr. said: “In your capacity as Chairman of the Ogoni –Shell Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation Presidential Committee, I implore you to use your new position to work towards the meeting of minds in the Ogoni situation, in a way that can usher in peace and promote economic and political justice in Nigeria.
In addition, I further implore you to champion the cause to end corruption, misrule, internal colonialism and arrogance of power in Nigeria. The Ogoni people are staying strong, and we will continue to count on your support.The history of Christianity reminds us that Christianity was officially persecuted for three centuries. The same history tells us that Roman Christianity is the mother of Western civilization. The Ogoni people are full of hopes and dreams that the day is coming when the Ogoni story will become the story of Christianity and Western civilization.”
The full Statement is reproduced below:
Dear Rt. Rev. Msgr Matthew Hassan Kukah,
I write to congratulate you for the great rise on your episcopal ordination and installation as Bishop of Sokoto Diocese today, Thursday, September 8, 2011 following your recent elevation by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.
On behalf of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, I thank God for your lift. God remains the greatest judge. God puts down one, and lifts up another.
In your capacity as Chairman of the Ogoni –Shell Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation Presidential Committee, I implore you to use your new position to work towards the meeting of minds in the Ogoni situation, in a way that can usher in peace and promote economic and political justice in Nigeria. In addition, I further implore you to champion the cause to end corruption, misrule, internal colonialism and arrogance of power in Nigeria. The Ogoni people are staying strong, and we will continue to count on your support.
The history of Christianity reminds us that Christianity was officially persecuted for three centuries. The same history tells us that Roman Christianity is the mother of Western civilization.
The Ogoni people are full of hopes and dreams that the day is coming when the Ogoni story will become the story of Christianity and Western civilization.
Dr. Goodluck Diigbo
MOSOP President/Spokesman
Released by:
Tambari Deekor
Assist. Editor, MOSOP Media
tdeekor88@gmail.com
The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) is an Ogoni-based non-governmental, non-political apex organisation of the Ogoni ethnic minority people of South-Eastern Nigeria and was founded in 1990 with the mandate to campaign non-violently to:
• Promote democratic awareness;
• Protect the environment of the Ogoni People;
• Seek social, economic and physical development for the region;
• Protect the cultural rights and practices of the Ogoni people; and
• Seek appropriate rights of self-determination for the Ogoni people.
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP says it is treating the case of Mr. Sunny Ofehe in The Netherlands with the basic principle of law that an accused remains innocent, until proven guilty.
In an online statement, MOSOP President /Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo said the responsibility in the dispensation of justice does not end with the accused, but that the prosecutor has obligation to discharge its duty in a transparent manner that will protect the sanctity of the Dutch Law and the diplomatic respect that The Netherlands enjoys as an openly democratic society and the host of several important international institutions, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
Dr. Diigbo said although he had not met Mr. Ofehe in person, he has read about him online, but that MOSOP as a responsible organization withholds any judgment on the matter and will keep track of the proceedings to the end.
The other side of this case is that MOSOP will in the future explore how the Dutch Law can provide justice for the Ogoni people.
In reaction to inquiries as to whether Shell was behind the case, Dr. Diigbo said that MOSOP has not established any direct link, but that the charges clearly link it with oil pipelines in Nigeria, where Shell has operated for decades. It is not known to MOSOP at the moment whether or not the charges have any direct connection with the pressure being put on Shell by the recent United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP- Ogoniland Assessment Report, 2011.
Instead to jump to all kinds of conclusion, individuals and groups interested in the Ofehe case should not only show serious concern by issuing statements, but to demonstrate support and active diligence in the pursuit of the truth and to ensure that justice prevails at the end, Diigbo remarked.
Tambari Deekor
Assist Editor
MOSOP Media
Nigeria’s then acting President Goodluck Jonathan with President Obama in 2010
By KORNEBARI NWIKE
8/28/2011
President Goodluck Jonathan constituted a special committee on oil pollution in Ogoniland recently, according to him; to perform a “holistic review of the UNEP report.” The committee is chaired by Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resources and former Shell Oil Company employee. The committee also has Mr. Austen Oniwon, Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) as a member. Technically, this committee is a consortium of oil conglomerate. NNPC and Shell Oil Company are partners in the operation of oil business in Nigeria. A child of circumstance, the ad hoc committee was born as an aftermath of the recent shocking revelation in the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) report that almost all the Ogoni environment is contaminated by oil pollutants.
Public policy analysts expected the Nigerian Senate to invite Shell Oil Company and NNPC executives for questioning in respect to their firm’s role in the environmental tragedy in Ogoniland; instead the firm’s representatives were invited as part of the government talk shop. With this initial flaw and ethical conflict of interest, one wonders how government works in Nigeria. The presence of these two oil giants on the committee is like the presence of two eight hundred pound gorillas that kill and suddenly empowered to decide what to do with the corpses. The presence of this duo on such a committee is testament to the fact that Nigeria has long ago lost her independence to corporate multi-national oil corporations. Will the committee give a fair assessment of the UNEP report? It is yet to be determined.
Although Ogonis are very patient people, it can be felt that their patience is running thin and limited time exists to kid glove with Shell Oil Company over the contamination on their land. The Ogoni people has cause to be angry because they have stomached so much from Shell even before the era of General Abacha. In whatever the Federal government may consider as compensation to the Ogoni people for plundering their environment; such consideration should be comprehensive to include demands in the Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR), creation of Bori state, and a Trust foundation. On the other hand, MOSOP should be ready to play hardball because Shell Oil crimes against Ogoni must not be swept under the carpet. The case may eventually end-up in international court of adjudication. It is necessary that MOSOP retain the services of reputable international real estate and environmental law firms such as Slagle, Bernard, and Gorman or Wyrsch Hobbs and Mirakian, P.C. in preparation for the coming environmental and social justice that may follow.
If Alaskan residents in the United States can enjoy yearly dividends from oil through the Alaska permanent fund; if Germans slave laborers continue to receive payments through a foundation established with $5 billion by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2000; and if British Petroleum was able to sacrifice $20 billion as a result of the deepwater horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, then Ogonis should not succumb to crumbs. The $5 billion settlement of Adolf Hitler’s slave laborers by the German government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2000 was intensely negotiated by representatives of United States, Israel, four European countries and their lawyers. While German government transferred $2.5 billion to the foundation the other half was borne by companies that were involved. The augment is that the Ogoni people should be ready for negotiation when duty calls with reputable attorneys.
As part of his Oath of office, President Goodluck Jonathan swore to defend Nigerians and the constitution in case of aggression. Shell Oil Company has shown aggression toward Ogoni as presented in the UNEP report. Mr. President, this is an opportunity to show leadership more so as an indigene of the Niger Delta. He should seek justice for the Ogoni people by directing the Ministry of Justice to commence felony proceedings against Shell Oil Company. Grounds for criminal suits are environmental degradation, ecological poisoning and oil spills, neglect, deception about oil reserves, murder and supply of arms to the Nigerian military.
Other grounds for criminal indictment can be found in the Shell report titled “SPDC in the Niger Delta 1996/97. The firm admitted arming Nigeria’s military against Ogoni. Secondly, for 55 years, Ogoni people have seen terrifying new twist in their lives and environment. The fish, birds, and animals in the wild are disappearing because of oil exploration, gas flaring, and spills. The trees, fruits, flowers, and grasses, etc.that gave Ogoniland a unique landscape and from which the region earned the accolade “food basket of south- eastern Nigeria” have unfortunately disappeared. Sadly, birds that orchestrate melodious songs that bring Ogonis closer to nature have migrated to Northern and Western Nigeria where there is no oil pollution. The rich savannah mangrove forests habitats for seafood and aquatic creatures are either dead, replaced by Nipa palm, or are submerged in crude oil.
Nigerians and the world should rally around Ogoni at this time of sadness as they mourn the extinction of their heritage. Together let us seek recompense and justice for Ogoni. The demand for justice should include a seat behind bars for Shell oil executives as long as it takes to clean the Ogoni environment. This is necessary because no nation on earth has ever been manipulated, cheated and duped by oil firms like Nigeria. Shell Oil Company manipulates Nigerian laws, lies to Nigerian governments, and commits atrocities against Nigerians for five decades and counting and no crime supersede these acts of aggression.
A felony charge is unavoidable considering that Shell Oil Company has world class engineers, operational, technical, and administrative crews that has full knowledge of the presence of benzene and other pollutants in Ogoniland but conceal and fail to disclose this information to the government as required by law. According to research, benzene is a class A carcinogenic chemical whose link was traced to leukemia in 1897. It is predominantly found in the petroleum industry as well as cigarette smoke. The impact include ailments, such as “fatigue, malaise, abdominal bleeding, excessive bruising, weakness, weight loss, bone or joint pain, infection and fever, abdominal pains and discomfort, enlarged spleen, lymph nodes, and liver.” The precarious health hazards these chemicals pose to the Ogoni people make some walking corpses and the result is that they are dying slowly. Shell oil would rather play games by engaging in cover-ups, deceptions, corrupting locales, states, and federal officials to protect her business to the detriment of the generality of the population, than keeping to the tenet of Nigerian laws.
President Jonathan should demonstrate that he could lead Nigeria by engaging the United Nations, United States, Britain, and others to assist Ogoni through technical expertise and funds to address the tragedy. His comment, “if the United Nations can intervene in places where there are civil wars, then environmental pollution calls for its attention” should be echoed beyond Aso rock. He should go above and beyond, should not retreat but join forces with Niger deltans and Ogoni to champion their cause. Record of World leaders who sided with citizens to synchronize matters exists and he should be remembered as one. For instance, in 2005 former President Nestor Korchner of Argentina called for a national boycott of Royal Dutch Shell Plc for raising fuel prices forcing the company to back down. In Nigeria late President Musa Yar-Adua took extra-ordinary steps by telling Shell Oil Company, that it was no longer wanted in Ogoniland.
Mr. President, procrastination could result in a mass health epidemic but decisive and bold initiatives could overturn a catastrophe in Ogoni and the Niger delta. History will judge your legacy as a Nigerian president of Southern extraction by the vigor and decisive steps you took to solving the Ogoni environmental dilemma. The UNEP environmental report has provided a window of opportunity for you to set a record for yourself and Nigeria.
In summary, as the world awaits the report from the special presidential committee, President Godluck Ebele Jonathan should slam a criminal lawsuit against Shell Oil Company, establish compensation funds for Ogoni, push through Ogoni demand for Bori State, begin immediate clean-up of Ogoniland as recommended by UNEP, abrogate decree No. 6 of 1978 otherwise known as Land Use Acts, and Petroleum Acts of 1969 (both of which drove Nigeria into the fox hole she finds herself today). These acts should be done in harmony with the establishment of Ogoni Restoration Authority, Integrated Contaminated Soil Management Center, and Center of Excellence in Environmental Restoration as recommended by UNEP. The world is ready to rally around Nigeria but compelling leadership is desired.
KorneBari Nwike: An Accountant, consultant, and Public Policy Analyst reside in the United States.
Comment added by John Donovan
We now know from Wikileaks that Royal Dutch Shell executive Ann Pickard boasted to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that Shell had embedded spies throughout the Nigerian government. How on earth can Nigeria trust such a duplicitous evil company?
Shell Nigeria‘s declaration this week that it cannot meet its international commitment to export 300,000 barrels a day of crude oil was caused by the company withdrawing contracts to pay people to monitor and protect the pipeline, Shell and independent reports indicate.
Nine oil spills in three weeks along one pipeline in the Niger Delta have forced Shell Nigeria to declare that it cannot meet its international contracts to export 300,000 barrels a day of crude oil.
Nine oil spills in three weeks along the Adibawa-Okordia pipeline in the Niger Delta are believed to be the result of sabotage by disaffected youths using hacksaws. An unknown quantity of oil has been lost and, since 2 August, fishing grounds and farmland have been polluted . With three more spills reported in the last 24 hours it appears that the company has now lost some control of the pipeline.
On Tuesday the company declared “force majeure” on all Bonny light [crude] exports until the end of October. Force majeure is a legal term releasing a company from contractual obligations due to circumstances beyond their control. “On August 21, another three hacksaw cuts were reported on the nearby Adibawa delivery line,” said Shell in a statement. “Some production is shut in while the line is repaired.”
With this force majeure, Nigeria’s total production capacity, which stood at about 2.6m of crude oil barrels per day (BDP), has declined to about 2.3m BPD.
Unpublished independent reports of the latest incidents, seen by the Guardian, suggest that the nine spills have occurred because Shell recently withdrew contracts to pay people to monitor and protect the pipeline. In interviews conducted by Friends of the Earth (FoE) Nigeria within hours of the latest incidents, community leaders said Shell must take the blame.
“The oil spills in Ikarama are caused by Shell. The youths of Ikarama were pushing for an upward review of the wages paid [by Shell] to surveillance guards and the employment of more persons in the community for the security of the pipelines. [But] we suddenly heard that Shell has stopped the surveillance contract. This is the main reason behind the series of spills experienced in the community recently”, said Livingstone J. Berebo, secretary of the Ikarama Youths group.
Ikarama,a collection of villages in the southern Nigerian state of Bayelsa, is one of the most polluted sites in the entire Niger Delta. The major pipeline that passes through the fishing and farming community of 50,000 people has been the subject of many accidents and attacks over 20 years. The company regularly blames all incidents on sabotage, but the communities accuse Shell staff of working with contractors and youths to deliberately damage the pipeline in order to get the lucrative contacts to clean up the spills.
The company is obliged by Nigerian law to clean up all spills of its oil, whatever their cause.
“It does seem that the catalyst for the incidents in this case was the withdrawal of a contract”, said a Shell spokesman in London. “Shell does not attribute every single spill to sabotage. There is no evidence that Shell contractors or staff instigated any pipeline sabotage.” But he declined to comment on the possibility of contractors paying youths to deliberately damage the pipeline, or on the standard of clean-up work done.
Last week more than 100 women from the community demonstrated against the company. “Each time there is a spill, Shell attributes it to sabotage and prevents our people from witnessing when the spill point is being clamped [repaired] and to know the cause of spill. The company makes use of the military men to threaten and chase us away from the site. The community is never represented in joint investigations. Only Shell really knows what they are doing in our land,” Berebo said.
“Shell is not helping our community; the company disregards us and is wicked. Any spill here is attributed to sabotage always by Shell since about twenty years ago, chief Luke Ogbona told FoE Nigeria. “Shell will not listen to us because they know we don’t have people to fight for our rights.”
A report from the UN Environment Programme earlier this month said decades of oil pollution in the nearby Ogoniland area of the Niger Delta may take 30 years in what would become the world’s largest ever clean-up operation. While the UN did not apportion blame for dozens of major spills, it said that there were serious faults in the way that spills were investigated and cleaned up. It called for a $1bn fund to clean up Ogoniland.
Separately, Shell has accepted blame for two major spills in the Bodo community in 2008 and is expected to have to pay many millions of dollars to have them cleaned up to international standards.
“The authorities must properly investigate the spill incidents of the last three weeks in the Ikarama community and concerned groups and environmental organisations must be part of this process. In addition, Shell should identify the contractors and staff who are instigating pipeline ruptures in Ikarama”, said Nnimmo Bassey, head of Friends of the Earth International in Lagos.
A United Nations (UN) report released in August told Kpalap and the other inhabitants of Ogoniland, a region within the vast, oil-rich Niger Delta, what they’ve known for years — their environment is dangerously polluted and Royal Dutch Shell and the government aren’t doing enough to clean it up.
“Oil spills have wasted my life, my environment and livelihood. There isn’t much for me to enjoy at my age,” the 57-year old said, wiping oil-stained hands on ragged clothes. “My fishing nets are all soaked in oil, I don’t have money to get new ones and my canoes have been destroyed by the spills.”
In some Africa delta regions, tourists enjoy the calm waterways and wildlife. The landscape of banana trees and a pineapple farm where Kpalap stands looks bleak, stained with oil, in air filled with dark smoke from gas flaring.
The UN report said Ogoniland required the biggest oil clean-up in history, which could take 30 years and cost an initial $1-billion. The paper — the most scientific and detailed report ever on Niger Delta spills — found levels of pollution that shocked the most pessimistic observers.
In one community, drinking water was contaminated with benzene, a substance known to cause cancer, at levels over 900 times above World Health Organisation guidelines.
Shell and Nigeria’s state-owned oil firm NNPC were criticised in the paper for not meeting their own best practices. In 10 out of 15 areas the UN visited where Shell said it had completed its clean-up, high levels of pollution were still found.
Kicked out
Shell was forced out of Ogoniland in 1993 by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), led by poet and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, after they said the oil giant had destroyed their fishing environment. Saro-Wiwa was later hanged by the military government, prompting international outrage.
In the years since, Shell has stopped pumping oil from the region but its pipelines and other oil drilling infrastructure remain, largely unprotected, and are susceptible to leaks, sabotage attacks and theft.
Shell says it is working to better protect its equipment in Ogoniland but repairs are thwarted by persistent sabotage attacks and illegal tapping by local oil thieves.
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People and residents of hundreds of communities across the Niger Delta are angry with Shell and other oil majors operating in the oil-rich country and frustrated with the government for not enforcing stricter operating practices.
The government says the foreign oil company operators have to look after their equipment.
In a region where most people live on less than $2 a day, despite around $240-million-a-day in oil export revenue flowing into Nigeria, residents are tired of decades of fighting and want a proper clean-up along the lines of what the United Nations has mapped out.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan last week constituted a committee to review the report and Shell and NNPC have both said they will look carefully at the findings.
Nothing short term
But there is scepticism that the positive statements of intent following the release of the report will result in any long-term changes in an area of the world far from the international media glare.
Suanu Baridam, secretary of the Ogoni Council of Traditional Rulers, hopes the UN report will build momentum that will force Shell, NNPC and the government into long-term action.
“We don’t want anything short term … I know how they normally do their thing. Once you agree with them to do one thing now and they say they will come later, they end up not doing anything. People forget again,” said Baridam.
Shell, NNPC and the government have all supported the UN report’s depth and integrity and have promised to investigate its findings — a small victory has been met with cautious optimism by rights groups and many Nigerians.
The report proves the unacceptable environmental damage caused by oil drilling in Nigeria and offers a tough and long solution.
One thing that has become clear is that the Nigerian government will have to drive any change.
“There is no point blaming Shell any more than we should blame ourselves,” said Senator Magnus Abe, the representative in the upper house of Parliament for Rivers South-East, one of the three states in the Niger Delta.
“It is our responsibility as Nigerians to enforce our laws and ensure people obey our rules. If we compromise ourselves, compromise our offices and allow people to do what they like, it doesn’t make sense for us to blame everybody else.” — Reuters
Joy Olekanma: 14 August 2011
Port Harcourt — Government for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has on Thursday accused oil giant, Shell of sponsoring the report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the oil spills in Ogoniland.
MEND frowned at the acceptance of the report by President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that the claim by UNEP that it would take 30 years to clean up Ogoni environment was an attempt to reclaim the area for Shell.
The statement, which was signed by MEND spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo said; “The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) views the Shell Petroleum sponsored, U.N report on the degradation of the environment of the Niger Delta and its inhabitants by the deliberately irresponsible activities of western oil companies as a pathetic attempt at trivializing the wave of destruction wrought on the ecology of the Niger delta, the lifestyle and dignity of its people by criminal oil companies occupying the Niger delta forcibly for the sole purpose of plundering the resources of its people.
“In accepting the results of the dubious investigation Goodluck Jonathan has again proven himself to be complicit, powerless or simply the village idiot of the Niger delta. All this drama is an attempt to reclaim Ogoniland for Shell.”
Describing Ogoniland as a minuscule past of the Niger Delta region, the group said reckless exploitation of the resources in the region was widespread, stressing that it would take centuries for the ecology of the region to near restoration while its people remained scarred.
“This will cost hundreds of billions of US dollars; after all how much did just one spillage in the United States cost British Petroleum? The ecology of the Niger Delta has persistently borne the brunt of numerous spillages of catastrophic proportions yet our moron of a president has the audacity to publicly embrace the levity with which the concerns of the people of the Niger Delta are treated by western oil companies.
“The traditional sources of livelihood of the people of this region; fishing and farming have been obliterated by the activities of western oil companies. Young men of the Niger Delta are reduced to menial labourers while their sisters attend to the concupiscence of expatriate workers just for food and daily survival,” the statement said.
Insisting that it would not be deceived by the pretence of concern by Shell on the environmental degradation in Ogoniland, MEND warned the oil giant and other multinationals operating in the Nigerian oil industry not to waste their booty on irrelevant studies of the Niger Delta environment.
“We are not deceived by Shell’s pretense of concern and MEND, forewarns all oil companies in Nigeria of the battle that is to come. Shell and its counterparts in the oil industry should not waste their booty on irrelevant studies of an environment they chose to destroy.
“Oil companies in Nigeria should save as much as they can for the days of darkness which are not afar”.
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People MOSOP hereby disassociates itself from a Statement purportedly issued by former MOSOP President, Mr. Ledum Mitee on the UNEP Ogoniland Report, stipulating 30 days ultimatum for action on the UNEP Ogoniland report.
: With all of this money spent on the CEP expansion, it has been built on an old electrical infrastructure. I guess no one is counting how many times you read about a "short" electrical outage at the plant. Tom Purves and the Motiva leadership know exactly why this is happening and how to fix it. They don't want to pay for it. They have been given the project and have turned it down at least twice. Meanwhile, we just keep having outages. Going ot be interesting when both refineries come down in the future.
: LondonLad: the lack of stories concerning Shell should be welcomed, if it implies that Shell are cleaning up their act, perhaps due in part to the efforts of the Donovans.
: US Observer, surely almost all (NOT all)contributors to this website have an axe to grind against Shell, particularly those who have a perception that they have been screwed by Shell in times gone by. As for Itchy Woman, she clearly has a femanistic / burn-the-bra approach to work in Shell. AND I would like to add that once again an old old article (from someone who has an axe to grind against Shell) has to be republished due to lack of news against Shell (I refer to Briggs 2009 article). COMMENT BY JOHN D. Would it not be fairer to say that everyone posting on this blog, including you, has an axe to grind. It is easy enough to look back over your contributions and reach a conclusion.
: It is easy to figure out who Witchy Woman is (LC). She has an "ax to grind" and is using this forum
: @uscitizen Voser is a competent and amicable chap. You claim Shell has delivered on its deliverables. Let me tell you everyone delivers on their deliverable.... But joking apart, look at the promises over the years and how well Shell has delivered on these promises. Their trackrecord is not very good over the last 15 years or so. They are a good money making machine. And sofar they have delivered on their constant or increasing dividend payments. Sometimes by increasing their debt but they have done it. A nice high oilprice has helped, don't you agree?? So my only observation was that his 'promise' to extend North Sea fields is quite opposite their activities in this area. And they have promised this before and done the opposite. It was a nice promise to build a new and expensive office in Aberdeen, more jobs for the UK and more activity and extending of production. Just check back what they have done. And predicting future productionlevels by Shell in general and Brinded in particular is nothing but a sick joke.
: To - an observer of Shell Shell has been delivering on its deliverables - why would you paint Voser as some one who is not??
: This was not a personal attack now was it Witchy one?? #133 Witchy woman on May 8th, 2011 at 1:42 pm Marvin Odum who probably has the worst safety record in Shell goes for a diversity vote and someone who has no safety experience to replace the VP of safety he just fired. Clear message where his priorities lie.
: Witchy Woman - you blase me for personal attacks???? That is so rich! I am defending people that are attacked if you had not noticed - and yes I do slam the folks who are throwing garbage out! Live with it!! Enjoy your retirement! Shell has a good retirement package in the US dont they??
: I feel the value of your posts is also minimal, just a complainer. PS - here is where you bash Denise - remember - or do we need to question your integrity the way folks question Shell leaders?? Witchy woman on Dec 7th, 2011 at 12:35 pm In GOM we thought that hurricane season was done. Why is Hurricane Denise causing so much damage then? Like all Hurricanes though they move on the professionals are left to pick up the pieces.
: According to the Independent article posted today the boss of Shell is telling us all not to get too emotional about fracking. Has he not seen the confirmation that fracking causes earthquakes? You have cited the Reuters article. There are others including coverage of a fracking earthquake in Blackpool England. I have to conclude that Voser is a fracking idiot.
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