Chevron oil has just be cleared of any responsibility for the May 1998 shooting and killing of protesters from Ilaje in the Niger Delta. Some 100 local villagers occupied Chevron Platform for 3 days protesting over compensation for environmental damage and demanding jobs. The Nigerian army who were flown to the platform on Chevron helicopters and paid by Chevron to disperse protesters, killed two people and wounded many others. Despite Chevron winning, the case has serious implications for local communities suing multinationals for human and environmental rights violations…

The case is one of several currently pending against Big Oil companies accused of assisting brutal governments in abusing the human rights of local populations in the oil-producing regions. Because such cases rarely go to trial, the outcome of this one is likely to be precedent setting. Already, the district court has ruled that Chevron could be liable if it encouraged or assisted government-sponsored brutality against the plaintiffs.

Although this initial case has been lost, [the plaintiffs will appeal] this is still a victory as multinationals now know that they can and will be held to account for their obnoxious behaviour towards local communities.

This is the first time a case against a company for aiding and abetting human rights violations overseas has even gone before a jury. And although we are disappointed that the plaintiffs did not prevail in this case, we are heartened by the fact that we are now entering a new era in the United States and abroad where people have seen the results of unregulated corporate excess (in the financial system and elsewhere) and want corporations to be reined in to prevent serious harms. Bringing this case to trial in the United States is a step on the path to corporate accountability. In the near future, corporations will no longer have a free ride to do operate with impunity in ways that are destructive and dehumanizing,” said Laura Livoti, founder of the group Justice in Nigeria Now.

“Regardless of the verdict, the Bowoto v. Chevron case represented a watershed in terms of corporate accountability. The details of the Nigerian case – of human rights abuses in the global operations of the oil and gas industry – can be replicated many times over in different industrial sectors in different parts of the world. Now communities around the world know that they have recourse to legal mechanisms to bring corporations that violate their human rights to justice,” said Michael Watts, a professor at UC Berkeley and author of numerous books on the Niger Delta, including Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta.

Historical background

Oil and oil companies are central to the political economy of Nigeria. Since the discovery of this resource in 1958 billions of dollars have been stolen by corrupt leaders and officials, in collaboration with the multinational oil companies (MNCs) - Shell, Agip, Elf, Chevron and Exxon-Mobil. The relationship between these oil companies and the Nigerian state is a complex and shifting one that goes back to the colonial period. Initially the oil companies were completely in control. In particular the Mineral Oil Ordinance and the Petroleum Profit Tax Ordinance of 1959 enabled oil companies to keep a disproportionately large share of oil profits. The major beneficiaries of this policy were British Petroleum and Royal Dutch/Shell, companies in which Britain had substantial interests. In post-colonial Nigeria, the monopoly of Shell/BP was to a large extent broken by the entry of other oil companies such as Esso, Agip, and later Chevron, Elf and Mobil. As the Nigerian state became more and more dependent on oil it sought ways to strengthen its relationship with the oil companies and at the same time, through a series of repressive decrees, increase its control over the oil producing communities of the Niger Delta.

The Nigerian state and the oil companies consolidated their relationship which was based on profit over and above any other consideration. In exchange for the oil and gas that is removed from the Niger Delta, the oil companies with the support of the Nigerian state and it’s military forces, have left behind ecological destruction, towns and communities reduced to rubble, poverty, prostitution, death by fire, murder and rape. The attacks against communities continues to day as the environmental destruction continues unabated.

Chevron [along with Texaco] is also facing another suit for abuses by it’s security forces in Nigeria plus they face a class action suit for polluting the Ecuadorean Amazon.

Links : Bowoto v Chevron Blog, Niger Delta

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On the 10th November, 1995 Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine were executed by the then Head of State, General Sani Abachi. The Ogoni nine were murdered because they exposed the systematic ecological destruction of Ogoniland by successive Nigerian governments and their allies the multinational oil companies namely Shell, Chevron and Elf AND demanded a greater share in the oil profits from their lands. The struggle continues today

It is important to note that the militancy that is taking place in the Niger Delta today has evolved out of the original non-violent struggle begun by Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni people in 1990 and the failure of successive Nigerian regimes including the present, together with their allies the multinational oil companies to respond to the demands and aspirations of the peoples of the Niger Delta. Violence will not be a solution but it will continue as long as the government refuses to acknowledge our aspirations and our human and environmental rights.

Tonights events at the LARC will show the films ‘Those Who Dance (trailer below)” and “Shadows and Light: Oil, Power, and the Niger Delta”

Links: Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa

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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…]