Tell Secretary Clinton -- Military Assistance in Nigeria is Not a Solution!
Join JINN in urging Secretary Clinton and the Obama administration to rethink the U.S. role in bringing peace to the Niger Delta.
Support diplomatic negotiations, not military assistance.
In honor of International Women’s Day, Justice in Nigeria Now highlights the work of an inspiring, accomplished women’s leader in the Niger Delta: Emem Okon.
Ms. Okon, the Executive Director of Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre, uses her passion for mobilizing and empowering women to promote human rights, democratic principles, and social justice in the Niger Delta. Ms. Okon helps women to develop their leadership potentials and project their voices in Nigerian political, social, and cultural spheres.
Based in the Niger Delta, where women face particular adverse impacts of violence—both in terms of violence against women and in the effects of violent conflict on economic and social livelihoods—Ms. Okon advocates for peace and capacity-building, with and for the women of the Niger Delta.
Much of Ms. Okon’s work stems from the challenges that women in the Niger Delta face living in the shadow of oil companies’ operations, where resulting gas flaring and oil spills afflict harm on the people and the environment.
Read this profile on Emem Okon in the National Catholic Reporter as part of its series, Women: Birthing Justice, Birthing Hope:
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.”
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]
"SHELL, COME TO TERMS WITH NIGERIA" Photo Credit: Radio Netherlands Worldwide
On December 30, 2009 a civil court judge in the Hague ruled that Royal Dutch Shell can be sued in the Netherlands—its corporate headquarters—for pollution it caused in Nigeria.
Four Nigerian villagers and Friends of the Earth Netherlands (Milieudefensie) brought the claim, forcing Shell to face up to charges of environmental and social damage it has caused in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Estimated damage from pipeline spills and gas flaring caused by the oil industry as a whole amounts to up to $20 billion, according to a variety of independent organizations. Royal Dutch Shell is the largest oil company operating in Nigeria.
The case charges Shell with environmental degradation arising from its oil operations in the village of Oruma, where a high-pressure wellhead spewing oil and gas ran uncontained for 12 days, polluting land and drinking water in nearby communities, with “clean-up”—comprised of dumping toxic waste into pits and burning them—beginning four months later. Shell also faces claims for damage in Goi, where in 2005, Shell’s Trans-Niger pipeline caught fire and destroyed farmland and homes and polluted fisheries, with the mess remaining for 33 months, as well as for an enforcement action of a court order against Shell to stop the illegal practice of gas flaring, which the federal high court of Nigeria declared a violation of human rights in 2005.
The first substantive hearing, which pertains to the Oruma oil spill, is slated to begin in the Hague Civil Court tentatively in spring 2010.
Royal Dutch Shell continues to deny responsibility for, and contest jurisdiction abroad over, its actions in Nigeria.
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
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.
Militancy and amnesty aside, the challenge of resolving the puzzle that has denied the many communities and clans of the resource rich Niger Delta has reached emergency levels. Although the crisis was easily predictable, successive governments had treated the anger and protests as mere irritations that can be brushed aside with warning shots, arrests or in extreme cases, devastating attacks on communities.
For scholars and survivors, there is something new that should worry all lovers of peace and livelihood - the completed project of the regionalization of anger and the now emerging nationalization of grievances anchored on stubborn defiance.
In the early days of the struggles by our people against the corporations and governments, the focus of mobilisation remained in islands of clans with small numbers of dedicated individuals and rarely was cross clan collaboration involved. In the renewed agitations of the 1990s, the idea of clan collaboration began to take firm root with the emergence of the Chikoko Movement and several groups worked like this. Read the rest of this entry »
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.”
Sweet Crude Playing at United Nations Film Festival - SF screening, Free Admission
Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 2:50pm
San Francisco, Variety Screening Room
582 Market Street, San Francisco -Map
Sweet Crude, is playing for FREE on Sunday October 18th in San Francisco as part of the United Nations Film Festival. The award winning documentary captures the complex reality of how the oil industry and the Nigerian government have left the Delta in such desperation that some have turned to militancy while others struggle to survive. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with the Director and experts and activists focused on the issues in the Niger Delta.
Stay for the panel discussion with film’s Director Sandy Cioffi, Nigerian activist Suanu Bere, Professor Michael Watts who is featured in the film and Daniel Volman, Director of the African Security Research Project.
This film gives one of the best historical contexts to the current conflict in the Niger Delta, where oil companies and the Nigerian government have left the region in abject poverty, created major environmental disasters and a history of human rights abuses.
“Good characters make good docs, and Cioffi is fortunate to have thoughtful men and funny, feisty women (and sometimes vice versa) to ornament a film that provides enough history to make sense and enough humanity to wash it down. Despite the utter destruction of their environment and the fact that mothers now have to describe to their children the animals that once ran free around their homes, a sense of despondency and/or resignation is absent from what Cioffi presents. There are plenty of reasons for dread; the speed with which the air quality rots the zinc roofs of the houses makes one shudder to think what it’s doing to the inhabitants. But the mood is generally upbeat and optimistic, despite anyone’s prognosis”
On Sunday, several of the Niger Delta’s prominent militants agreed to the Nigerian government’s offer of amnesty at the 11th hour before the deadline on October 4th. However, it’s unclear if this is a step toward peace in the Delta or just another failed attempt of the government to gain back control of the oil producing states. The situation is still tenuous and nothing of substance has been negotiated. Here are a few perspectives:
Hector Igbikiowubo
MORE than 90 days after the amnesty package for militants in the Niger Delta came to a close, an air of uncertainty persist over the effectiveness of the initiative, especially against the backdrop of threats by the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to call off its cease-fire and reports that government has been busy acquiring fast attack helicopters and flat bed speed boats for a final showdown with militants. Read Full Article
By Caroline Duffield BBC News, Niger DeltaTalk to taxi-drivers and hotel clerks in Nigeria’s Delta region, and you hear the same words again and again: “We must give peace a chance.”
Shopkeepers smile with delight, chattering with customers about decommissioning and peace talks in the country’s oil-producing area.
For the past three months, people have watched militant warlords hold disarmament ceremonies, bringing out thousands of their followers, and stacking guns high in public.
Rocket-propelled grenades, guns, explosives, ammunition and even gunboats have all been dumped. Read Full article
Thousands of militants surrendered their weapons under the just-concluded amnesty program after years of fighting in the oil-producing Niger Delta. Government officials have hailed the amnesty as a huge success. It may be too early to say whether the initiative will translate into lasting peace. Read Full Article
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
In honor of International Women’s Day, Justice in Nigeria Now highlights the work of an inspiring, accomplished women’s leader in the Niger Delta: Emem Okon.
