Nnimmo Bassey is Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth Nigeria an ally of JINN.  He was just named one of Time Magazine’s Environmental Heroes of 2009 -Congratulations Nnimmo!

Nnimmo Bassey

It wasn’t an oil spill that made Nnimmo Bassey an environmentalist. It was a massacre — the 1990 assault by Nigeria’s armed forces on the village of Umuechem, where residents of the oil-rich Niger Delta had accused the Shell Petroleum Development Company of environmental degradation and economic neglect. In two days of violence, 80 people died and nearly 500 houses were destroyed. “We woke up from a sleep and … everything was collapsing around us,” says Bassey, 51, head of Environmental Rights Action, the Nigerian chapter of Friends of the Earth.

The deaths convinced Bassey and his colleagues that they needed to broaden their efforts. “We realized that if people don’t have a safe environment to live in, then they don’t have literally any other rights,” he says.

The petroleum wealth of the Niger Delta runs from the ground into government coffers and the accounts of foreign oil majors, leaving the region one of the poorest in the world. Its schools are crumbling. Its hospitals often lack doors — never mind modern equipment. Electricity, drinking water and employment are all in short supply. The oil itself doesn’t always flow smoothly. Spills are common, all the more so because thieves tap into pipelines and angry villagers prevent infrastructure maintenance. If oil catches fire, it can burn for days. Bassey’s group documents all these consequences and educates people about their rights. “Oil has been the destruction of the Nigerian economy,” says Bassey. “It destroys the relation between the people and the state.”

In a country where 85% of government revenues rely on oil money, Bassey’s positions often pit him against the authorities. Under the dictatorship of the 1990s, he was stripped of his travel papers and detained without trial several times. As the battle over Nigeria’s oil wealth has turned into full-blown militancy, he has found himself on the same side as the armed rebels who have taken on the now democratic government in Abuja. While Bassey disagrees with the militants’ tactics — kidnapping of oil workers, attacks on infrastructure, clashes with the military — he stops short of condemning them. “Any society that uses violence against its own people will eventually have a segment that stands up against it.”

Faris is the author of Forecast: The Surprising — and Immediate — Consequences of Climate Change

GREEN TIP
‘Plant a garden today, even if in boxes! Save all that energy used to transport food over thousands of miles.’ — Nnimmo Bassey

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Help US Win $1,000!

JINN has been nominated as a Human Rights Hero through Global Exchange’s Human Rights Heroes website!

We have a chance to earn $1000 toward our important work, but we need your VOTE.  Go to http://green.myhumanrightsheroes.org/entries#7325 and vote for us.  Please spread the word and encourage your friends to vote for us too.

MyHumanRightsHeroes.org is an interactive site designed to honor the unsung heroes working for human rights here at home and around the world! The site allows you to nominate and/or vote for your Human Rights Heroes from now until October 5, 2009.  There are three categories: Peace, Economic Justice and Green Alternatives. Global Exchange will award one hero in each category with $1,000 toward their work.

Please help spread the word. Post MyHumanRightsHeroes.org on your FaceBook page, Twitter, or website.  The more web BUZZ we can generate about our nomination, the better chance we have to be honored.

Don’t forget to check back October 22,2009 to find out who won!

We’re honored to be recognized through Human Rights Heroes at Home, and we hope you’ll take the time to nominate, vote, and spread the word.

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Climate Activists Say Chevron and Other Climate Polluters Have No Business Dictating Climate Policy

San Francisco, CA – A broad coalition of organizations from up and down the west coast arrived in force today to deliver a strong message to US lawmakers and polluting corporations that are decimating our prospects of meaningful climate solutions.

The protest rally started at 11:00am today at the San Francisco office of Senator Barbara Boxer (1700 Montgomery St., SF), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that will be presenting a Climate and Energy Bill currently in Congress by the end of the week.

“If Congress wants to protect the public interest, they would never consider adopting the current climate bill (the American Clean Energy & Security Act) that was written by big oil and energy corporations in the first place”, said Carla Pérez of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology project, “Cap and Trade legislation coupled with direct subsidies to oil, coal, nuclear, bio-fuels and incinerator industries will only serve to add hundreds of toxic smokestacks in our backyards.”
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Last week, it was reported that the Nigerian government is gearing up for another offensive in the Niger Delta, despite the government’s pledge to support an amnesty and a 60-day ceasefire and the widespread belief that a military offensive will not solve the crisis in the the Delta.  Below is an analysis by the Director of the African Security Research Project

Analysis by Daniel Volman,  Director of the African Security Research Project

Reprinted from Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sep 13 (IPS) – There is mounting evidence that the government of Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’adua is set to launch a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta when a ceasefire declared by rebels ends on Sep. 15.

And this time, Nigerian military forces will be using special warships, helicopter gunships and troop transports, and unmanned drone intelligence planes and ships sold to Nigeria by Israeli, Malaysian, Singaporean, Dutch and Russian companies.

Israeli and Russian instructors have been providing specialised training to Nigerian Navy and Air Force sailors and pilots in how to operate the ships and helicopters over the past few months, and some of these instructors may help operate them during the offensive.

On Jul. 15, President Yar’adua declared a 60-day amnesty for members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the armed group that has been conducting an insurgency campaign in the Delta for the past five years. The amnesty offer is set to expire at midnight on Oct. 4.

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