Wikileaks On Nigeria: Shell’s Ann Pickard Says Turai, Tanimu and NNPC GMD Yar’adua Were Collecting Bribes From Oil Lifting Contracts Posted: January 24, 2011 – 13:38, SaharaReporters, New York

A cable recently released by Wikileaks paints a portrait of the extent to which powerful oil giant, Shell, was involved in the political schemes in Nigeria. The US ambassador routinely contacted Shell to discuss important political and economic developments in Nigeria.

In this cable, Shell executive, Ann Pickard, reveals that Umaru Yar’adua’s wife, Hajia Turai, his economic adviser, Tanimu Kurfi, and the former Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Engr. Abubakar L. Yar ‘Ádua, were receiving bribes from companies lifting oil from Nigeria. SaharaReporters revealed these illicit activities in a report we did on Turai in 2008.

Reference ID     Created     Released     Classification     Origin
09ABUJA259     2009-02-10 16:04     2011-01-22 21:09     SECRET//NOFORN     Embassy Abuja
Appears in these articles:
www.spiegel.de

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INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 ABUJA 000259

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STATE PASS USTR FOR AGAMA
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E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2028
TAGS: EPET ENRG ELAB PINR ECON SENV PGOV NI
SUBJECT: (C) NIGERIA: SHELL BRIEFS AMBASSADOR ON OIL GAS ISSUES,
COMMENTS ON PRESIDENT’S HEALTH AND HIGH-LEVEL CORRUPTION

REF: ABUJA 203

Classified By: Ambassador Robin R. Sanders for reasons 1.4. (b
& d).

1. (S/NF) SUMMARY: Shell’s regional executive vice president for Africa Ann Pickard and government relations representative Pete Francis met with the Ambassador on January 27 in Abuja and provided an update on problems in the oil and gas sector. Pickard said that things were going from bad to worse, especially the security situation. She said that Nigeria now had one of the highest negative ratings for maritime operations, creating problems for Shell in hiring oil tankers to load, as tanker operators will work only under highly selective conditions. Last year there were about 80 piracy attacks on land and water combined. This year already 15 have been tallied, which includes 3 for Shell and 3 for Exxon. On corruption, Pickard said that Nigerian entities control the lifting of many oil cargoes and there are some “very interesting” people lifting oil.

Oil buyers would pay NNPC GMD Yar’Adua, Chief Economic Advisor Yakubu and the First Lady Turai Yar’Adua large bribes to lift oil. Pickard also reported an instance of the Attorney General Aondoakaa allegedlysoliciting a $20 million bribe to sign a document. The International Oil Companies (IOC) are quite concerned about the “very flawed” new petroleum sector energy bill. The IOCs will be asking U.S., Dutch, and U.K. COMs to convey points on the bill to GON policymakers. Pickard agreed that the President’s health is a guessing game. She said that in her recent meetings with Yar’Auda he seems alert, though very drawn in the face, thin, and frail. Her information is that the President was not in danger of dying soon, but also was unlikely to ever fully recover from his ailments. (Note: see septel on oil/energy sector issues for the Ambassador’s meeting with the new Minister of Petroleum Resources. End Note). END SUMMARY.

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Nigeria’s Promise, Africa’s Hope, CHINUA ACHEBE, Op-Ed, New York Times, January 15, 2011

“How do we begin to solve these problems in Nigeria where the structures are present but there is no accountability?
ONE initial step is to change the nation’s Official Secrets Act. Incredible as it may seem, it is illegal in Nigeria to publish official government data and statistics — including accounts spent by or accruing to the government. This, simply, is inconsistent with the spirit and practice of democracy. There is now a freedom of information bill before the National Assembly that would end this unacceptable state of affairs. It should be passed, free from any modifications that would render it ineffectual, and assented to by President Goodluck Jonathan. This can and should be achieved before the presidential election in April.”

AFRICA has endured a tortured history of political instability and religious, racial and ethnic strife. In order to understand this bewildering, beautiful continent — and to grasp the complexity that is my home country, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation — I think it is absolutely important that we examine the story of African people.

In my mind, there are two parts to the story of the African peoples … the rain beating us obviously goes back at least half a millennium. And what is happening in Africa today is a result of what has been going on for 400 or 500 years, from the “discovery” of Africa by Europe, through the period of darkness that engulfed the continent during the trans-Atlantic slave trade and through the Berlin Conference of 1885. That controversial gathering of the leading European powers, which precipitated the “scramble for Africa,” we all know took place without African consultation or representation. It created new boundaries in ancient kingdoms, and nation-states resulting in disjointed, inexplicable, tension-prone countries today.

During the colonial period, struggles were fought, exhaustingly, on so many fronts — for equality, for justice, for freedom — by politicians, intellectuals and common folk alike. At the end of the day, when the liberty was won, we found that we had not sufficiently reckoned with one incredibly important fact: If you take someone who has not really been in charge of himself for 300 years and tell him, “O.K., you are now free,” he will not know where to begin.

This is how I see the chaos in Africa today and the absence of logic in what we’re doing. Africa’s postcolonial disposition is the result of a people who have lost the habit of ruling themselves, forgotten their traditional way of thinking, embracing and engaging the world without sufficient preparation. We have also had difficulty running the systems foisted upon us at the dawn of independence by our colonial masters. We are like the man in the Igbo proverb who does not know where the rain began to beat him and so cannot say where he dried his body.

People don’t like this particular analysis, because it looks as if we want to place the blame on someone else. Let me be clear, because I have inadvertently developed a reputation (some of my friends say one I relish) as a provocateur: because the West has had a long but uneven engagement with Africa, it is imperative that it also play an important role in forging solutions to Africa’s myriad problems. This will require good will and concerted effort on the part of all those who share the weight of Africa’s historical albatross.

In Nigeria, in the years before we finally gained independence in 1960, we had no doubt about where we were going: we were going to inherit freedom; that was all that mattered. The possibilities for us were endless, or so it seemed. Nigeria was enveloped by a certain assurance of an unbridled destiny, by an overwhelming excitement about life’s promise, without any knowledge of providence’s intended destination.

While the much-vaunted day of independence arrived to much fanfare, it rapidly became a faded memory. The years flew past. By 1966, Nigeria was called a cesspool of corruption and misrule. Public servants helped themselves freely to the nation’s wealth. Elections were blatantly rigged. The national census was outrageously stage-managed to give certain ethnic groups more power; judges and magistrates were manipulated by the politicians in power. The politicians themselves were corrupted by foreign business interests.

The political situation deteriorated rapidly and Nigeria was quickly consumed by civil war. The belligerents were an aggrieved people in the southeast of the nation, the Biafrans, who found themselves fleeing pogroms and persecution at the hands of the determined government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which had been armed to the teeth by some of the major international powers. My fellow Biafrans spent nearly three years fighting for a cause, fighting for freedom. But all that collapsed and Biafra stood defeated.

It had been a very bitter experience that led to the hostilities in the first place. And the big powers got involved in prolonging it. You see, we, the little people of the world, are constantly expendable. The big powers can play their games, even if millions perish in the process. And perish they did. In the end, more than a million people (and possibly as many as three million), mainly children, died either in the fighting or from starvation because of the Nigerian government’s economic blockade.

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New Law to Protect Indigenous Peoples Rights’ in the Congo, Cultural Survival,
Date: 01/11/2011

The Republic of Congo will become the first country in Africa to pass legislation that will protect its Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Ten percent of Congo’s population is Indigenous, many of whom are marginalized and even used as slaves.

After close to seven years of waiting, the bill was passed by both the Senate and National Assembly in late December and will become law once signed by the president. The law’s purpose is to address their marginalization and exclusion from receiving education and health services. Under the new law, Indigenous People will be protected and enjoy the same rights as the Bantu. It also mandates punishment and fines against anyone who uses Indigenous persons as slaves.

The term “Indigenous” is a controversial one in Africa, as many argue that all Africans are “Indigenous.” To learn more about this debate see our Cultural Survival Quarterly issue on Indigeneity in Africa.

Source: Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Your letters are urgently needed to help protect the life of Patrick Naagbanton, Coordinator of the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) a trusted ally of JINN’s, who has received a number of death threats in the last two weeks. Amnesty International believes his life to be in danger. Further, as stated on the Amnesty website, “Amnesty International believes the death threats to be linked to Patrick Naagbanton’s work as a human rights defender.”

In 1999, Patrick personally helped to escort a Global Exchange delegation in Nigeria that included JINN’s founder Laura Livoti. Patrick Naagbanton played a role in the case of Ogoni plaintiffs who won a settlement in their case against Shell which settled for $15.5 million. CEHRD just completed extensive monitoring of the Delta State election. The organization has taken on the risky work of monitoring arms trafficking related to the oil industry.

If your life is comfortable and secure right now, we urge you to make the effort to write a letter, get the postage and mail it to three places expressing concern for the safety of Patrick Naagbanton. Please note that the email addresses noted in the other links have been bouncing back, so the USPS is the preferred reliable means of making your voice heard.

In your letter:

Urge the authorities to take immediate and effective action to protect Patrick Naagbanton, and any other CEHRD staff members who may be at risk, in consultation with the persons concerned.

Ask the authorities to order an immediate, thorough and independent investigation into the threats made with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice.

Remind the authorities that human rights defenders have the right to carry out their activities without any restrictions or fear of reprisals, as set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups and Institutions to Promote and Promote Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Please send letters to:

Commissioner of Police for Rivers State
Suleiman Abba(Jan 2007)
Commissioner of Police Rivers State Command Headquarters
Moscow Road
Port Harcourt
Nigeria
Salutation: Dear Commissioner of Police

Please send a copy to each of the following:

Inspector General of Police
Hafiz Ringim
Force Headquarters
Loius Edet House
Shehu Shagari Way
Area 11 Garki, Abuja
Nigeria
Salutation: Dear Inspector General

Please send copies to:

His Excellency Dr Dalhatu S. Tafida,
High Commission for the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Nigeria House, 9 Northumberland Avenue,
London WC2N 5BX.
Fax: 020 7839 8746

More information on this story can be found here.

Read the Amnesty International Urgent Action alert here.

Today, Tuesday January 11th, 2011 Vote or Quench organizers ask that you donate your status on any social media vehicle you see fit including Twitter, Facebook, or Blackberry Messenger.

Simply type #IfNaijaVotes and add a hypothetical change that could happen. For example  “#IfNaijaVotes kids will be able to get a proper education.”

Voter registration takes place in Nigeria from the 15th to 29th of January, 2011. One needs to be 18 years old and have a government ID.

Vote or Quench is a youth based initiative in Nigeria that seeks to encourage youth to reject complacency and get involved in creating the change that they would like to see in Nigeria.

JINN received an email from one of the organizers of Vote or Quench. The following is a portion of that email:

At the end of last year I moved to Nigeria to work on a Voter registration initiative called Vote or Quench, for Nigeria’s 2011 elections. The decision was taken after realizing the crisis my country was facing, and wanting to be a part of the solution, as opposed to waiting for someone else to help fix the problem.

Having been here for about 2 months now, I am becoming more and more aware of the underlying issues that have put our country in the sorry state it finds itself in. The saddest part is that there is a wealth of talent that was just never nurtured through proper educational facilities, crippling the human capacity that could drive this country to greatness.

The good news is that a number youth of the country are shaking off the spirit of complacency that once engulfed this country. Vote or Quench has teamed up with a number of organizations that are now seeking to raise awareness about our upcoming registration period that gives us only two weeks to register about 76.5 million eligible voters.

I am writing because I need your help in raising awareness in Nigeria and around the world about the upcoming registration period.

On Tuesday, January 11th, 2011 we are asking that you donate your status on any social media vehicle you see fit, from Twitter/Facebook/ Blackberry Messenger. All you have to type is #IfNaijaVotes and give a hypothetical change that could happen. For example  “#IfNaijaVotes kids will be able to get a proper education.”

We would like you to let the world know what changes could come to our country if we exercise our right to vote. Feel free to run with it, we want the world, and especially our leaders to know that we want change in our country.

There are kids out here dying because our leaders have let us down, and they do not have a smidgen of the opportunities a lot of us are lucky to have. I ask you to please perform this very simple act of kindness.

Thank you for taking the time out to read this email, and please feel free to forward it as you see fit.

facebook.com/VoteorQuench
http://www.facebook.com/pages/IfNaijaVotes/187854837893145?ref=ts
http://www.twitter.com/VoteorQuench
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Sahara Reporters highlights an article describing the origins of Vote or Quench.

Dutch MP shocked by devastation in Niger Delta

By Hélène Michaud, Published on Radio Netherlands Worldwide

“Shell is a Dutch company. If I didn’t care I wouldn’t have gone into politics… The oil that they get from there is put in my car. And I want to see that what I put in my car is not destroying somebody’s livelihood. That’s something I don’t want to accept. I’m very very upset about that, I’m very angry.”

Created 7 January 2011 12:04

What is it about?

A 2009 report by Amnesty International on the impact of oil extraction in Nigeria concluded that “the people of the Niger Delta have seen their human rights undermined by oil companies that their government cannot or will not hold to account.”

The organization called on governments of the home states of oil multinationals “to regulate how extractive companies operate at home and abroad.”

“I’m shocked at what I’ve seen in the Delta. The devastation caused by the oil spills is enormous. I’ve read about it and viewed some footage, but being there and standing in the crude oil myself made a huge impression on me. I’ve traveled a lot throughout Africa but I’ve never seen this amount of devastation.”

Sjoera Dikkers

Dutch (opposition) Labour Party MP Sjoera Dikkers has just spent four days in Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta, in preparation for a parliamentary hearing on Royal Dutch Shell’s activities there.

Complex situation
Ms. Dikkers, a former activist with non-governmental organisations, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that her visit made her realise the complexity of the situation, adding “shades of gray” to her picture of the Delta region. She said she almost longed for her activist days, “when companies were bad and NGO’s were good.”

On January 26, environmental, human rights, and scientific research organisations, along with representatives of Royal Dutch Shell plc, the main petroleum company in the Niger Delta, will be heard and questioned by Dutch parliamentarians. They will try to find out who should be held responsible for the extensive environmental degradation in that region.

“Open mind”
Ms Dikkers intends to take part in the discussions with an “open mind”.

“I’m not biased at all. But I’ve seen that Shell is by far not doing enough, and I’ve seen myself that the government, to say the least, is not helping. They are only making things worse. Most people who bunker(tap) oil illegally get military protection, which is a sign that government officials are very much involved and making huge amounts of money out of it.”

“There’s no very reliable data available and everybody’s telling you a different part of their story. So I have to digest all of this to get the whole picture and draw my own conclusions,” she adds.

Ms Dikkers, who mentioned that she had paid herself for her trip, was preceded in the Niger Delta by another member of the opposition, Sharon Gesthuizen (Socialist Party). Both lawmakers say they were shocked after flying above polluted parts of the Ogoni region and speaking with farmers who can no longer cultivate their land because of oil spills.

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