An Exxon Valdez sized oil spill has occurred on average every year for the past 50 years in the Niger Delta. Exxon is responsible for 6 spills in the same area of the Niger Delta since December 2009.
Early this morning, Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua returned–via ambulance–to his home in his nation’s capital, 3 months and one day after he left Nigeria for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.
According to Presidential spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi, although Mr. Yar’Adua’s health has improved, “while the president completes his recuperation, Vice President Jonathan will continue to oversee the affairs of state.”
Nigeria’s parliament voted to officially recognize Mr. Jonathan as Acting President on February 10, 2010. That vote specified that Mr. Jonathan would cede power to Mr. Yar’Adua once he was medically fit to resume leading the country.
Mr. Yar’Adua has not made any public appearances since he left Nigeria on November 23, 2009, and he has not spoken in public since a BBC radio interview from a hospital bed on January 13, 2009. (That BBC interview served as the president’s official communication that he was not well enough to rule–the basis for the legislatures’ recognition of Mr. Jonathan as Acting President.)
In response to the news of Yar’Adua’s return, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson welcomed him back but expressed concern about Nigeria’s future:
“Recent reports … continue to suggest that President Yar’Adua’s health remains fragile and that he may still be unable to fulfill the demands of his office….We hope that President Yar’Adua’s return to Nigeria is not an effort by his senior advisers to upset Nigeria’s stability and create renewed uncertainty in the democratic process.”
Photo credit: Pius Utomi Ekpei/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Yesterday marked 78 days since Umaru Yar’Adua left Nigeria for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia without officially transferring his presidential powers.
Yesterday also marked the Nigerian legislature’s official recognition of Mr. Goodluck Jonathan transition from Vice President to Acting President of Nigeria.
Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, 52, who is from the Niger Delta, governed Bayelsa state from December 2005 to May 2007 and is a member of the ruling People’s Democratic Party. In Nigeria, the ruling party alternates leadership between the North and the South, making the transition of power to Mr. Jonathan a moment of promise for the Niger Delta.
However, Mr. Jonathan’s position is far from secure.
Since Mr. Yar’Adua’s departure in December and a federal court’s handing of power to Mr. Jonathan as Acting President in January, some challenged Mr. Jonathan’s authority, arguing that the President had not followed official procedures requiring a formal statement transferring his power. Both houses of Nigeria’s legislature voted yesterday to accept the broadcast of the President’s statement to this effect (in a January 12 interview with the BBC) as sufficient notification to satisfy the constitutional requirement.
Whether Mr. Yar’Adua’s supporters, among others, will accept this statement as legally binding remains in question. As Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka told CNN, the ruling party has acted slowly to address the president’s absence because “certain elements within the ruling party love this hiatus, they love the headlessness of government because they can proceed to loot and create their own little empires while the president is away.”
If you didn’t already know, Nigeria is renowned for its film scene. Every Thursday in February, the Smithsonian features Nigerian movies as part of the Nollywood Film Festival.
Chevron is a key sponsor of the event. Chevron’s track record inNigeria of human rights and environmental abuse makes it a bad choice for a sponsor.
When JINN phoned the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art Corporate Membership office to express concern about Chevron’s sponsoring of the event and to ask about the criteria for evaluating prospective sponsors, the Smithsonian replied that it could not divulge its criteria; that they are aware of Chevron’s track record inNigeria, but that they did not concern themselves with the political ramifications of what their funders do, since the Smithsonian’s objective is to fund art.
JINN, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), and Global Exhange created a postcard (see photos above and below). At each Thursday event, RAN will distribute, collect, and deliver postcards to the Smithsonian.
If you are in DC–or know people in DC–JINN encourages you to attend the festival to support Nigerian filmmakers, but be sure to let the Smithsonian know that you disapprove of Chevron as the sponsor for this event.
Justice in Nigeria Now is excited to announce a new partnership with Sweet Crude, an acclaimed documentary that captures the realities of the Niger Delta. Directing attention to a region devastated by oil, Sweet Crude movingly portrays the strength, beauty, and resilience of communities in the Niger Delta while unpacking myths about the region, particularly by exposing actual distortions in reporting by international media. JINN joins Sweet Crude as the official activist partner of the film team, enabling engaged viewers to take action in theaters and beyond.
At the screenings, viewers will find JINN ready to provide them with ways to call for much-needed constructive action and attention to the Niger Delta. Examples include urging Secretary of State Clinton to support international mediation and peace talks in the Niger Delta, and asking senators to support legislation requiring transparency in oil companies’ payments to foreign governments.
JINN and Sweet Crude’s common goals of respect for human rights and environmental justice, along with our common objectives of peace talks and corporate accountability in the Niger Delta, make us—alongside our friends on the ground in Nigeria—natural partners in working toward a peaceful resolution to decades of injustice in the Niger Delta.
Check back here to find out when and where you can Sweet Crude in the coming months.
[Photo Credit: Kendra E. Thornbury for Sweet Crude]
Early this morning, Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua returned–via ambulance–to his home in his nation’s capital, 3 months and one day after he left Nigeria for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.
