Nigeria's Ogoni & Ken Saro-Wiwa
Nigeria, home of the Ogonis
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Ten years ago, on November 10 1993, Ogoni rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others were executed in Nigeria by the military regime in power at the time. He had been accused of ordering the murder of four prominent Ogonis, but many believed that he had been framed, and there was international condemnation of the execution. Nigeria was expelled from the Commonwealth. Fellow members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which wants Ogoni autonomy, remember the dead every year and continue the struggle.
Nigeria is just over twice the size of California with a population of around 130 million people, and just under a third of the land is arable. The country is now a net importer of food. Natural gas and petroleum are its major sources of income, providing 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of budgetary revenues. There are many oil fields in Nigeria south of a line drawn through Enugu, both on land and offshore. Nigeria is the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports. The revenue has been very good for the government. Little of it has reached the local people, however, and there has been considerable environmental damage.
The Ogoni people are one tribe that lives in the area. Ken Saro-Wiwa managed to bring his people's plight to the international stage, but international pressure did not move the military government of the time to make any improvements or to spare Ken Saro-Wiwa and the others. Many Ogonis were driven away by the military in punishment for their protests.
Ogoniland lies on the fringes of the Niger Delta wetlands north and east of Port Harcourt. It comprises densely-inhabited forest and farmland. There are around 500,000 Ogonis. With more than 250 different ethnic groups in the country, the Ogoni people are one of the minorities. When Ken Saro-Wiwa was alive they had no representation in any institution of the federal government, as well as no water supplied by pipe, no electricity and no job opportunities in federal, state or public sector work, or in the private sector companies such as the oil companies. Little has changed since.
The oil has devastated the mangroves upon which the people depended for fuel and polluted the water in the streams. There is soil degradation and rapid deforestation. Fishing has been harmed. The country is also suffering from AIDS and many other diseases.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights heard the Ogonis' case in 1992, and they joined as a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) in 1993. The UNPO General Secretary visited Port Harcourt to join in commemoration with the Ogoni people. Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Amnesty International and many other NGOs took up their case. There were boycotts and protests against Shell Oil.
Nigeria reverted peacefully to civilian rule in 1999 after 16 years of military rule, and elections were held in 2003. The new administration has to deal with rebuilding the economy after corruption and mismanagement, and defusing high ethnic and religious tensions. Whilst MOSOP is a non-violent organisation, many others in the country are not, and at least 1,000 people are killed every year. Oil facilities are sabotaged, causing further environmental damage and costs to the oil companies.
There are a number of oil companies operating in Nigeria. Shell is the one that owns the rights to pump Ogoni oil. There were more than 4,000 oil spills in Nigeria's Niger Delta in the 40 years to 2001. In 1973 a Shell pipeline burst and spilled approximately 2,000 barrels of crude oil onto local land and into the Osadegha stream. Shell disputed liability but eventually paid a moderate amount of compensation. A Nigerian court found against Shell concerning a large oil leak in the 1970s, awarding US$40 million compensation, but Shell contested the ruling. The government has introduced more stringent standards for environmental practice and agreed them with the various multinational oil companies. Although Shell earned considerable revenue from Ogoni oil, it shut down its pumps in 1993 before the executions and is in no hurry to return. It remains to be seen if the increase in oil prices and peak oil cause it to change its mind.
Recent news stories involving the Ogoni include:
This article relates to the November 10 Environmental Roundup.
Index of topics in this series.
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