For 15 years the Ogoni people prevented Shell Petroleum from operating on their land. Finally in June the Ogoni won a victory as the Nigerian government agreed to replace Shell’s concession. This was an opportunity for the Federal and River’s State government to create a new dialogue with the Ogoni and other Delta nationalities on who operated on their lands and how they conducted their operations. But it wasn’t to be. As if Nigeria is incapable of working together with it’s citizens and recognising the rights of people on their lands and environment, the government has gone ahead without consultation and worse brought Shell back in the disguise of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC / NNDC).

The Ogoni consider the government’s unilateral engagement of a new operator or operators a further attempt to deny their stakeholder rights. If it insists on proceeding without consultations on operations and local communities’ participation and benefits in the process, it will provoke hostility and almost certainly resistance. A working relationship between any new oil companies and the local people has to be defined. Indeed, communities across the Delta are increasingly insistent in their demands for agreements that grant them rights in the exploitation of oil and gas reserves on their land.

Continue reading Nigeria: Ogoni Land After Shell.

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The Director of Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Ngieria) Nnimmo Bassey testifies before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law….

This submission describes the deleterious human and environmental  impacts of the operations of multinational oil companies in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. It provides information about the population of the Niger Delta and the harmful effects of the oil industry on the region’s delicate environment. Oil companies, including Chevron and Shell, have repeatedly used the Nigerian military to violently repress Delta inhabitants’ peaceful protests, causing deaths and injuries, and creating an environment in which ordinary citizens are unable to exercise their rights to free expression. Finally, recommendations are presented for improvements in corporate practice by extractive industry companies, as well as suggestions for further inquiries by the Subcommittee. 

The Geographical, Economic, and Cultural Context The Niger Delta region is a coastal plain covering approximately 70,000 km2 in southeastern Nigeria. Over 12 million people live in the states of the Niger Delta; a large  percentage of the inhabitants come from diverse minority ethnic groups like the Ijaw,
Ilaje, Urhobo, Ibibio and Itsekiri, who have been marginalized historically in Nigerian political and economic life. Farming and fishing are key livelihood activities for the region’s inhabitants.  Continue reading

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For a week in September, militants from  MEND (The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta)   in the Niger Delta  engaged in a series battles with the Nigerian armed forces which included blowing up oil installations and taking oil workers hostage.   Despite reports that hundreds had been killed it came as a surprise when  seven days into the conflict  MEND declared a ceasefire.   Whereas I  would not want to describe what is taking place as an all out war but it is very clear there is a significant shift in the nature of the militancy in the region  with militants now both prepared and clearly armed sufficiently to take on the federal government forces.

The present militancy is a continuation of the non-violent Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People  (MOSOP) started by the late Ken Saro Wiwa.    Saro-Wiwa’s and the Ogoni people’s declaration in the form of the Ogoni Bill of Rights created a domino effect across the region in which every nationality issued  their own equivalent of the Ogoni Bill of Rights such as the Kaiama declaration (ijaw).   

For a brief moment in November 1995 the region was silenced by the summary and illegal trial and execution of the Ogoni 9.     But this was simply the moment before the dawn. A moment to reflect on the past and decide on the future.  The Ijaw people chose to move towards militancy and todays battle is the culmination of 15 years of struggle without any movement forward, without any change in direction by the Nigerian government. Not an inch has been given. On the contrary, the region has been occupied, women raped, villages pillaged and the environment continues to be violated. 

[Read more…]

Reports are coming in of fighting between MEND and the Nigeria Government under the Joint Task Force (JTF) military command occupying the Niger Delta States.

THE Joint Task Force (Operation Flush Out III) yesterday carried a full-scale aerial and marine offensive on the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) positions and neighbouring Ijaw communities in Rivers State, killing unspecified number of persons.

And in response to the military onslaught, the MEND has directed oil companies operating in the state and elsewhere in the Niger Delta to move out their workers within the next 24 hours, as it plans to carry series of attacks on oil installations in the entire region.

The attack on MEND does not come as a surprise as the Federal Government have been planning a series of attacks since the It does not come as a surprise that the JTF have bombarded MEND’s position following the June 19th MEND attack on the Bonga oilfield. Reports are there are heavy causalities on both sides but details are still sparse.

Biofuels multinationals are rushing to invest in Eastern and Southern Africa. It all sounds wonderful as the companies pay in kind for use of farm land with the creation of jobs, investment in schools, health clinics and roads…….

The Tanzanian government has granted the British firm the use of 9,000 hectares (22,230 acres) of sparsely populated farmland, or enough land to cover about 12,000 soccer fields, for a period of 99 years — free of charge. In return, the company will invest about $20 million (€13 million) to build roads and schools, bringing a modicum of prosperity to the region.

Sun Biofuels is not alone. In fact, half a dozen other companies from the Netherlands, the United States, Sweden, Japan, Canada and Germany have already sent their scouts to Tanzania. Prokon, a German company known primarily for its wind turbines, has already begun growing jatropha curcas on a large scale. It expects to have 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) — an area about the size of Luxembourg — under cultivation throughout Tanzania soon.

The jatropha plant is an efficient producer of oil, which can be turned into biodiesel. But the plant is inedible, and displaces food crops.

But the reality is quite different apart from access to potential farmlands gone for the next 99 years, local farming communities are not being consulted, no compensation is being given for lands. As to the promise of jobs and building of infrastructure and services, we’ve all heard this before ………….

With similarly enticing promises, small farmers were talked out of their land several decades ago to make way for coffee plantations. In the 1990s, foreign mining companies arrived in Tanzania to dig for gold. “They promised us jobs, new roads, new wells and schools,” says journalist Joseph Shayo. “And what happened? No schools, no wells and few jobs, which were low-paying jobs, to boot.” To make matters worse, large mining zones were fenced off and became inaccessible to the original residents.

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