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NEWS & LETTERS, June -July 2007A Shell of democracy in Nigeriaby Shawn Hattingh Cape Town, South Africa--On May 16, Father Kukah visited the University of Cape Town to discuss the recent Nigerian elections. Kukah was appointed by the Nigerian state to "reconcile" the Ogoni people and Shell. Indeed, he has been working around the clock to get Shell back in Ogoniland through "reconciliation." Ever since Shell was kicked out of Ogoniland 13 years ago by popular protests, it has been desperate to get its grubby paws back on that area’s oil. Being so close to the Nigerian government, Kukah had a skewed view of the recent elections. He noted that even though the Nigerian election was flawed, it was a step forward from the previous military dictatorships that existed in Nigeria. What Kukah failed to mention, however, was that the rigged election results will not lead to an ounce of change in the lives of most Nigerians. For as long as the present system remains in Nigeria, the majority of Nigerian people will not see the benefits of Nigeria’s oil. He also failed to mention that the true holders of power in Nigeria are not the Nigerian people or the political parties that may claim to represent them. The real holders of power are rather the IMF, World Bank and the huge multinational oil companies that are sucking the resources out of that country. Certainly these institutions are not about to let go of the lucrative stranglehold they have over Nigeria or its resources. The World Bank and IMF have controlled the Nigerian economy for over two decades. They set the spending priorities of the Nigerian government, not the token figures who sit in the Nigerian Finance Ministry. Indeed, it is the IMF and World Bank that have dictated that Nigeria should focus its spending on debt servicing rather than on education and healthcare. They are responsible for forcing Nigeria to liberalize every aspect of the economy. This has seen the Nigerian state clamping down on workers rights; privatizing every government function including healthcare and education; relaxing environmental laws; and allowing multinational corporations to repatriate all of their profits out of Nigeria. Kukah also failed to note that the biggest beneficiary of the situation that exists in Nigeria has undoubtedly been Shell. Shell has been operating in Nigeria since 1958 and is responsible for over 80% of the oil that is extracted from the Niger River delta. This has seen Shell producing 400,000 barrels per day since. The result: Shell has made hundreds of billions of dollars. Most of this money has been whisked away by Shell, while a trickle has been handed on to corrupt Nigerian elites to keep the black gold flowing smoothly. Although Shell has drilling operations in over 28 countries, 40% of all its worldwide oil spillages occur in the Niger Delta. Since 1976, it has been calculated that Shell has been responsible for over 3,000 oil spills in the Niger Delta. The way in which Shell has dealt with these oil spills has been to set them alight. This has seen the land on which these spills have occurred becoming totally infertile and unusable. All of these spillages have also resulted in the death of aquatic life in rivers in the Niger Delta. Most of the water sources that are used for human consumption have been smothered with oil. Shell also flares the natural gas in the Niger Delta that is associated with oil extraction. Indeed, 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas is flared in the Niger Delta every day. This has seen massive amounts of greenhouse gases, such as CO2 and methane, being pumped into the atmosphere. The Nigerian oilfields release more greenhouse gases than all of the rest of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa combined. Due to this massive amount of air pollution, the Niger Delta regularly experiences acid rain. Shell, with the assistance of the Nigerian state, have also expropriated vast tracks of land from the indigenous population, with little or no compensation. By 1993, the people of the Niger Delta, spearheaded by the people of Ogoniland, struck back. They began to peacefully occupy the oil installations within the Niger Delta. The response from Shell, along with its allies in the Nigerian state, was swift and ruthless. Since 1993, over 2,000 people in the Niger Delta have been murdered by Nigerian state forces at the bidding of Shell. These victims have included people such as the activist and poet, Ken Saro-Wiwa. His crime--questioning Shell’s right to pillage the Niger Delta. Shell’s involvement with the Nigerian state and the military is so extensive that it has even openly admitted that it funds the Nigerian forces that are deployed in the Niger Delta. Shell has also let it slip that on at least two occasions it has directly paid military officials to storm specific villages. Naturally, being a government and Shell man, Kukah failed to mention anything about these atrocities. His solution to the problem of the Niger Delta is to tell the people of the Delta to stop resisting multinational oil companies, such as Shell. For Kukah there is simply no alternative. Fortunately, the peoples of the Niger Delta have not heeded the advice of the Shell stooge. |
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