NIGERIA'S "DRILLING FIELDS"
SHELL OIL'S ROLE IN REPRESSION
By Steve Kretzmann
Steve Kretzmann is an energy campaigner with
Greenpeace in Washington, D.C.
In the early hours of Sunday, May 22, 1994, the Nigerian
military and police dragged Kenule Saro-Wiwa, author and
campaigner for human and environmental rights, from his bed.
Saro-Wiwa knew it was coming. He had been arrested at least
a half dozen times before, but this time was clearly going
to be different. Eight months later, he is still being held
without formal charge, and is under the threat of execution.
"This is it," said Saro-Wiwa 12 days before he was
arrested. "They [the military] are going to arrest us all
and execute us. All for Shell."
In his hands, Saro-Wiwa held a copy of a memo written
by the Nigerian Rivers State Commissioner of Police,
entitled "Operation Order No. 4/94 - Restoration of Law and
Order in Ogoni Land." The order detailed an imminent,
extensive military operation that involved members of the
Nigerian Army, Air Force, Navy and police. One of the stated
purposes of Order 4/94 was to "ensure that ordinary law
abiding citizens of the area, non-indigenes resident [sic]
carrying out business ventures or schooling within Ogoni
land are not molested."
"The drafting of such a large force into the small
Ogoni area [404 square miles] is meant to intimidate and
terrorize the Ogoni people in order to allow Shell to
recommence its operations in the area without carrying out
the environmental, health, and social impact studies which
the Ogoni people have demanded since 1992," said Saro-Wiwa.
Two weeks later, Saro-Wiwa was arrested. Although he has
been accused of inciting and directing his supporters to
violence, he has never been formally charged. Amnesty
International has declared Saro-Wiwa a prisoner of
conscience and believes that his arrest is "part of the
continuing suppression by the Nigerian authorities of the
Ogoni people's campaign against the oil companies."
Saro-Wiwa is the leader and spokesperson for the
Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP). Since
early 1992, MOSOP has campaigned against what it calls
Shell's "environmental terrorism" of the Ogoni homeland in
southeastern Nigeria. Today, more than a half a year after
Order 4/94 went into effect, Ogoni is under military rule
and the leaders of MOSOP are either in detention or hiding.
Their campaign has attracted support from around the world.
Ogoni is a tiny place, but the forces at play there
have made it a symbol for all of Nigeria. Oil is at the
center of the Nigerian economy and stands behind the
succession of military regimes that have ruled Nigeria in
recent years. Of the oil companies operating in Nigeria,
Shell is by far the most powerful and the most despised.
The Ogoni maintain that Shell has funded and directed
much of the repeated violence against their villages. "Human
life does not mean much to those who have benefited from the
oil," Saro-Wiwa says.
Shell maintains that its role is a purely commercial,
"non-political" one. Eric Nickson, head of public affairs
for Shell International in ukkk, says the Ogoni complaints
stem from the political frustrations of a small,
marginalized ethnic minority that is conducting an
international campaign against Shell as a means to promote
two goals: political self-determination and a greater share
of oil revenues.
At a minimum, critics say Shell is providing valuable
foreign capital to a repressive regime bent on suppressing
internal dissent -- particularly dissent directed against
Shell -- by whatever means necessary.
THE SHELL GAME
The Royal/Dutch Shell Group is one of the largest
businesses in the world, with interests in over 3,000
companies and operations in over 100 countries. Shell's
Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company
(SPDC), accounts for almost 14 percent of Shell production
and is the company's biggest producer outside of the United
States. Today, SPDC is the sole operator of a joint venture
in which it has a 30 percent interest with the majority
partner, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC),
which holds a 55 percent stake in the venture. Industry
observers say Shell is interested in purchasing an
additional 4 percent of NNPC. Despite the repression, Shell
clearly intends to remain in Nigeria for the long haul.
Oil is the single most important commodity in Nigeria,
and Shell is the backbone of the oil market. SPDC is
currently the largest oil and gas production company in the
country, accounting for more than 50 percent of Nigeria's
crude oil output. Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of
the country's foreign exchange, and more than 80 percent of
federal government revenue.
The links between Shell and Nigeria stretch back to
British colonial rule. In the late 1920s, Shell products
were first imported into Nigeria. In 1937, Shell formed a
joint venture with the British authorities. That venture,
known as Shell D'Arcy, was granted carte blanche to explore
for oil. But the first commercially viable oil find did not
occur until 1956. That oil strike was on Ogoni land.
"Shell originally had an exclusive concession,"
explains Shehu Othman, an independent oil analyst based at
Oxford University. "Once they had the best, they ceded the
rest" to the Nigerian government, which in turn either
explored that land or sold it to other foreign interests. As
a result, Shell today still controls the best, most
productive fields in all of Nigeria. Othman concludes that
despite the breakup of Shell's monopoly, the company
maintains control over "about 60 percent" of the
commercially viable oil bearing land in Nigeria. "The
Nigerian government cannot afford to let Shell suffer," he
says.
Shell is not just the dominant economic player in
Nigeria. "Whether they like it or not, Shell is deep in the
politics of Nigeria," says Sister Majella, a Catholic
missionary who has worked in Nigeria since 1964. There seems
to be a revolving door in between the management of SPDC and
the Nigerian government. Sister Majella recalls a meeting
with Emeka Achebe, general manager for business development
of SPDC, where "he spoke with great pride of the former
Shell employees that were currently in the government." One
prominent Shell alumnus is Chief Rufus Ada George, the
former executive governor of Rivers State. Another is Ernest
Shonenkan, the former director of SPDC who replaced General
Ibrahim Babangida and was President of Nigeria for a brief
period before General Sani Abacha, the current ruler.
Shell acknowledges many political problems in Nigeria,
but maintains that these are "clearly issues where private
companies have neither the right nor the competence to
become involved and must be addressed by the people of
Nigeria and their government."
Greenpeace's Andrea Goodall says, "Shell's professions
of innocence ignore the fact that the Nigerian government is
far from democratic, and that Shell itself is the most
powerful political actor on the Nigerian stage -- both
historically and currently. In Nigeria, the power doesn't
come from the people, it comes from Shell. If Shell
[executives] wanted to make a difference, they could."
SHELL NEXT DOOR
When Shell first began production of oil on Ogoni land
in 1958, it brought drill rigs and promises of a better
life. Today, despite the company's extensive operations --
including nearly 100 wells, two refineries and a fertilizer
complex -- the area remains deeply impoverished. The 404
square mile area's only hospital is in an unfinished
building and schools rarely open. Shell officials
acknowledge that conditions are not ideal in Ogoni and
throughout the oil-producing regions, but they blame the
Nigerian government for failing to distribute money
properly. They say the situation will improve as its
community assistance programs progress. The company spends
$21 million a year on Nigerian schools and scholarships,
Nickson says.
Sister Majella, who met three times with Shell
representatives in Lagos last summer, notes that Shell
"spends a lot of time planning and very little time
effecting" community assistance programs.
Oil is environmentally destructive, wherever it is
produced. But the environmental practices of Shell in
Nigeria set a new low for this dirty business. Many of
Shell's practices and equipment would be illegal according
to the environmental laws of most countries. Irresponsible
flaring of gas, poor pipeline placement, chronic oil
spills, and unlined toxic waste pits plague the Nigerian
Delta region. Nickson, who says he has visited the area,
acknowledges that there are environmental problems. But he
says activists have falsely characterized the scene as one
of environmental devastation. "There are problems, we're
addressing these, pipes need to be reviewed," he says.
Nickson says Nigeria established a new Federal Environmental
Protection Agency in recent years that has established a
stringent set of environmental laws meeting international
standards. Shell can meet these standards without too
significant of an investment, he says.
Footage shot in Ogoni for the British Channel Four
documentary, "The Drilling Fields," reveals that gas flares
are routinely situated near villages. Ken Saro-Wiwa
describes the gas flaring in a December 1992 pamphlet as
having "destroyed wildlife and plant life, poisoned the
atmosphere and therefore the inhabitants in the surrounding
areas and made the residents half deaf and prone to
respiratory diseases. Whenever it rains in Ogoni, all we
have is acid rain which further poisons water courses,
streams, creeks, and agricultural land."
Shell maintains that the problems have come as a result
of communities expanding into the vicinity of oil operations
and that it relocates gas flares when this happens. The
Ogoni and Sister Majella say no gas flare has ever been
relocated.
Pictures of Ogoni also reveal a network of poorly
maintained, above-ground pipelines that haphazardly
crisscross through villages. According to Shehu Othman, some
pipelines even run through people's homes. Shell's network
of pipelines in the Nigerian delta is so extensive that if
it were laid in one line it would stretch from New York to
ukkk, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The antiquated pipelines routinely spill oil. According
to an independent record of Shell's spills, Shell spilled
1.6 million gallons from its Nigerian operations in 27
separate incidents from 1982 to 1992. Of the total number of
spills recorded from Shell -- which operates in more than
100 countries -- 40 percent were in Nigeria.
Shell spokesman David Williams claims that in 1992
alone, 60 percent of the spills in the Ogoni area were
"caused by deliberate sabotage so that compensation claims
could be made."
Shehu Othman says that there may be some truth to the
claim that some Ogoni are engaging in sabotage of Shell
installations. "It's certainly a very small minority
though, and compensation is certainly not the motivation.
That idea is absolute nonsense, because compensation for
spills is a very small sum paid for the loss of crops, but
not for the loss of the land itself. Frankly, if there is
sabotage it strikes me as a legitimate act of the
powerless."
Shell has long maintained that it had conducted a full
environmental assessment of the area and of the potential
effects of its operations, although it had denied requests
by the Ogoni and nongovernmental organizations to scrutinize
this assessment. In March 1994, Shell agreed to allow a
consultant to the Body Shop access to its assessment. The
consultant noted that the studies seem to have been
conducted after the construction of the two pipelines that
were their subject. The standard practice is to determine
the environmental impact of an action prior to undertaking
that action. In addition, the consultant concluded that the
studies "lack a focused assessment of significant impacts
and do not lend themselves to aiding either the planning
authorities or Shell in putting the levers in place to
effectively manage the environmental implications of
[Shell's] operations."
If this is the quality of information that Shell will
make available, albeit reluctantly and selectively, what
would an on-site investigation of the region reveal? Shell
now says that it is "committed to supporting an objective
assessment of the impact of oil operations on the Nigerian
Delta region [and is] presently talking to a number of
outside organizations." The company hopes to announce
details of a plan for a new environmental survey of the area
by late February 1995. Nickson said he believes the survey
will put to rest many environmental concerns about its
operations.
BLOOD FOR OIL
Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP spent years trying to convince the
Nigerian government to do something about the environmental
damage and living conditions in their land. They had drawn
up a Bill of Rights for the Ogoni people, and called for
true representation in the Nigerian Federation.
The fact that their appeals went nowhere has much to do
with being a Southern minority group in a society dominated
by Northern ethnic majorities. Eventually, Saro-Wiwa and
MOSOP began a vigorous campaign targeting Shell at home and
abroad.
Dr. Gary Leton, the ex-Chancellor of Rivers State
University, summed up the purpose of the campaign. "We have
woken up to find our lands devastated by agents of death
called oil companies," he told a Nigerian daily. "Our
atmosphere has been totally polluted, our lands degraded,
our waters contaminated, our trees poisoned, so much so that
our flora and fauna have virtually disappeared. We are
asking for the restoration of our environment, we are asking
for the basic necessities of life -- water, electricity,
education; but above all we are asking for the right to self
determination so that we can be responsible for our
resources and our environment."
In January 1993, MOSOP organized the first "Ogoni Day"
rally, meant to unify the community. Over 300,000 people
attended the non-violent demonstration, the focus of which
was an end to the repression caused by Shell in Ogoni.
On April 30, 1993, Willbros, a U.S. pipeline
contractor, began laying Shell pipes on Ogoni farmland,
destroying freshly planted crops. As peaceful protests
against the pipe laying culminated in a demonstration of
over 10,000 people, soldiers opened fire on the crowd,
killing one, wounding 10 and leaving one woman without an
arm.
Following this attack, the general manager of SPDC
wrote to the Governor of Rivers State -- himself a former
Shell employee -- asking for further assistance so that
pipeline construction could be completed.
When asked about the military's protection of Shell's
interests and installations, Shell officials have said the
company is legally bound to notify the authorities if there
is a threat to continued oil production. Nickson told the
Wall Street Journal that "unavoidably, therefore, the
company has on occasion been compelled to ask for
assistance" from the Nigerian government. Andrea Goodall of
Greenpeace says that this statement amounts to Shell's
"tacit consent" to the use of force on its behalf. MOSOP is
more blunt, saying, "Ogoni peasants peacefully protesting
the seizure of their land have been shot and killed by
Nigerian troops hired by Shell."
Repression escalated in the summer of 1993. The
government arrested Ken Saro-Wiwa four times, and seized his
passport as he sought to attend a UN conference on human
rights. He was eventually imprisoned for 31 days, charged
with six counts relating to seditious intention, publication
and unlawful assembly.
Almost immediately after Saro-Wiwa's release, Ogoni
police were drafted away from Ogoni and replaced with
officers from different ethnic groups. A series of brutal
attacks on Ogoni villages followed, leaving hundreds dead
and thounited snakesnds homeless. Shell and the Nigerian government
have blamed the attacks on ethnic clashes, but Amnesty
International concludes: "An inquiry into attacks by the
neighboring Andoni community in 1993 found no obvious cause
for dispute. Soldiers were said to have instigated and
assisted the attacks and then followed the attackers into
Ogoni villages, destroying houses and detaining people."
OGONI OCCUPIED
As Operation 4/94 has gone into effect, the situation
has gone from bad to worse. "In Ogoni, people are terrified
out of their wits," says Sister Majella. "They keep lookouts
in all of their villages, and simply scatter at the sight of
Shell or the military now. All semblance of economic
activity has stopped."
Ogoni is virtually cut off from the outside world,
though several individuals have succeeded in visiting it. In
July 1994, Oronto Douglas of the Nigerian Civil Liberties
Organization visited Ledum Mitee, vice president of MOSOP,
who was arrested along with Ken Saro-Wiwa in May. In jail,
the military flogged Douglas and two companions with an
electrical cable after they visited Mitee. Immediately after
the beating, the three men were taken to see Major Okuntimo,
who is widely reported to be in charge of the military
occupation of Ogoni.
According to Douglas's report, "the major said that
Shell company has not been fair to him in these operations.
He said he has been risking his life and that of his
soldiers to protect Shell oil installations."
Ken Saro-Wiwa, writing from jail several weeks after
hearing of the incident, claimed, "This confirms a fact that
is well-known; that Shell, the multinational oil giant,
having successfully waged an ecological war against the
Ogoni people since 1958, has been paying protection money to
the Nigerian security agencies to complete the genocide
which it began. Shell always stands in the background, in
these cases denying all responsibility. The truth is
gradually coming out."
In January of 1995, MOSOP obtained a May 12, 1994 memo
from a government source that gives added weight to the
Ogoni case. The Rivers State Internal Security Task Force
memo, signed by Major Okuntimo 12 days before Saro-Wiwa's
arrest, says, "Shell operations still impossible unless
ruthless military operations are undertaken for smooth
economic activities to commence." The document goes on to
recommend that the 400 soldiers undertake "wasting
operations," "wasting" Ogoni leaders who are "especially
vocal individuals." Finally, the memo recommends pressure on
oil companies for "prompt, regular" payments to support the
cost of the military operation.
Nickson says the authenticity of the memo has not been
fully established. "If correct," he says, "it is very
disturbing." Nickson says Shell had had no knowledge of the
memo and no input or contact with the military. "We have
condemned the use of violence," he says. Shell has not
operated on Ogoni land since January 1993 because of attacks
on its staff and equipment, Nickson says. Shell contractors
who have continued to work there report vandalism that would
cost $40 million to repair. "We would like to return, but
only if welcomed by the people," Nickson says.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
On December 13, 1994, Ken Saro-Wiwa collapsed in his
cell. He is reported to be in extremely poor health,
suffering from a heart condition and eight months
confinement in a jail cell.
Although he has not yet been formally charged, Saro-
Wiwa is due to be tried for murder by a special military
tribunal in February, 1995. Observers fear that the trial,
which is widely regarded as political, will merely pave the
way to Saro-Wiwa's execution.
But Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP's efforts have succeeded in
focusing the international spotlight on the Ogoni's
mistreatment at the hands of Shell and the Nigerian military
government. Several days before his collapse, Saro-Wiwa was
awarded the 1994 Right Livelihood Award (known as the
alternative Nobel Peace Prize) in absentia, for his and
MOSOP's environmental campaign.
The Ogoni campaign sparked organizing in oil-producing
areas throughout Nigeria. Communities such as the Ogbia, the
Igbide, the Ijaw, the Etche, the Izon, the Irri and the
Uzere have all recently become much more vocal in airing
their historic grievances. The Ogonis success also
emboldened and inspired a recent oil workers' strike. Oil
strikers demanded the release of Saro-Wiwa and Moshood
Abiola, who is widely considered to be the winner of the
last election, which the military annulled. After several
months, the hungry workers ended their strike last summer.
When asked how Nigeria was able to maintain some of its
oil flow during the strike, Nigeria's Ambassador to the
United States, Zubair Kazaure, said "the military filled
in." Kazaure, who alleges that the strike had been financed
by the Nigerian opposition, did not seem to see anything
wrong with military involvement in a commercial enterprise.
Shell spokespeople have reportedly described Nigeria as
the company's "worst public relations nightmare" since South
Kmt. By continuing to prop up a ruthless regime, Shell is
repeating its pattern of abuse and repression elsewhere in
Kmt.
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