Justice In Nigeria Now

For Human Rights, Environmental Protection and Community Livelihood

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Richmond City Council Passes Resolution Calling for Corporate Accountability and Diplomatic Talks in Nigeria

Posted by jinn on 16th December 2009

Council Urges U.S. to Pass Transparency Law To Force Chevron and Other Oil Companies to Report Payments to Nigeria and Other Foreign Governments

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin

Richmond, CA – On Tuesday December 15, 2009, the Richmond City Council voted unanimously in favor of a resolution urging the U.S. Senate to pass a bill that would require oil companies to disclose payments to foreign governments as part of a larger movement to increase corporate accountability across borders. Councilmember Nathaniel Bates was absent.  A similar resolution was unanimously approved by the Oakland City Council and with one abstention in the Berkeley City Council in October.

The Energy Security Through Transparency Act (ESTT) Act was introduced by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) in September and if passed would effect oil companies in Nigeria as well as the rest of the world.

“Here in Richmond, we see the links between human rights and corporate accountability issues in our city as the same struggle as those that are demanding a right to their livelihood in Nigeria.  Oil companies need to take responsibility where ever oil in produced and refined,” stated Richmond resident Jovanka Beckles who spoke at the meeting.

The Richmond resolution also calls on the State Department to support diplomatic peace talks in the Delta to negotiate a way forward to address the root causes of the current crisis—environmental destruction – particularly gas flaring - and lack of investment in the oil producing region. The city’s call contrasts with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s pledge in August to explore further U.S. military assistance to the government of Nigeria. The resolution along with the passage of the resolution in Oakland and Berkeley marks a new level of support to pressure the United States to adopt a foreign policy that promotes constructive change through dialog in alignment with the American values of democratic civic engagement, and freedom of speech and the press.

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Take Action: Tell your Senator to Support the Oil Company Transparency Bill

Posted by jinn on 20th October 2009

JINN is supportive of the efforts of the Publish What You Pay U.S. Coalition that helped get a new bill  introduced into the the U.S. Senate of the “Energy Security through Transparency Act of 2009,” (ESTT) by Sens. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Ben Cardin (D-MD). The Act, if passed, would require companies like Chevron and Shell to report how much they pay foreign governments for access to their oil, gas and minerals. This disclosure would apply to all companies that file with the SEC, regardless of where they are based.  Most of the world’s extractive industries would be covered by this law, and would set a new international standard for corporate and state behavior. (Note:  The ESTT act was formerly introduced as the Energy Transparency Through Disclosure Act).

Take Action: Write to your local member of Congress today asking them to support the fight against corruption.

Read the Press Release about the ESTT

Background information

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Berkeley, Oakland Pass Resolutions Concerning Niger Delta, Corp. Disclosure

Posted by jinn on 19th October 2009

Berkeley, Oakland urge oil money transparency

By Josh Richman
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

Reprinted from The Contra Costa Times Political Blogger

Berkeley City Council last night approved a resolution urging the U.S. Senate to approve S.1700, the “Energy Security Through Transparency Act” by U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., which would urge the Obama Administration to require that companies disclose payments to foreign governments for oil, gas and mineral rights. Oakland City Council passed a similar resolution last week.

“Good governance in extractive industries contribute to a better domestic investment climate for U.S. businesses, increase the reliability of commodity supplies, promote greater U.S. energy security and thereby strengthen our national security,” says the summary on Lugar’s Web site.

San Francisco-based Justice in Nigeria Now hails the cities’ actions as a moral victory.

“I was tortured and imprisoned by the Nigerian military for my peaceful protests against Shell Oil’s destruction of our land,” Suanu Kingston Bere, a Nigerian activist who spoke at the Berkeley City Council meeting, said in JINN’s news release. “I believe the City’s support sends a strong message that communities in the U.S are concerned about the human rights abuses and environmental damage associated with oil extraction. I do not want to see my people continue to go through what I went through.”

Berkeley’s resolution also calls on the State Department to support third-party peace talks in the Delta to address environmental destruction and lack of investment in the oil producing region. The resolution was co-sponsored by Councilmembers Jesse Arreguin, Darryl Moore and Max Anderson and was introduced to the council through the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission, which worked with JINN to draft it.

JINN says 50 years of oil exploitation in the Niger Delta has produced over $700 billion in oil revenues shared between the Nigerian government and oil giants like San Ramon-based Chevron as well as Exxon Mobil and Shell. More than 40 percent of Nigeria’s oil is exported to the U.S. Yet despite the corporate oil wealth, local residents’ quality of life has deteriorated – their drinking polluted, their food fisheries poisoned, their access to education, health care and even electricity limited.

“Oil companies in Nigeria have had long a relationship with the notoriously corrupt and historically brutal Nigerian government where rampant corruption, fraudulent elections and violent suppression of peaceful protests are the norm in the Delta,” Nigerian writer and activist Omoyele Sowore said in JINN’s news release. “The proposed ESTT Act in the Senate is an important step toward holding oil companies accountable for their collusion with the Nigerian government, which protects their profits while killing and injuring innocent local people and destroying the Delta’s fragile environment.”

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