19-03-2014, 03:19 PM
ROYAL DUTCH/SHELL: Human Rights in Nigeria
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Introduction
In 1995, a Nigerian military tribunal, in what most observers described as a sham trial, ordered the execution of noted author and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. The Ogoni are a 500,000 member ethnic group of farmers and fishermen that live in Nigeria’s coastal plain. For several years, the Ogoni had been waging a vigorous political campaign against Nigeria’s military rulers and the giant oil company Royal Dutch/Shell. They had been seeking greater self-determination, rights to the revenue stemming from oil exploration on traditional Ogoni lands, and compensation for the environmental degradation to their land caused by frequent oil spills from fractured pipelines. Shell had been pumping oil from Ogoni lands since the late 1950s. In 1994, four Ogoni chiefs who advocated cooperation rather than confrontation with Nigeria’s military government were lynched by a mob of Ogoni youth. Though he was not present, Saro-Wiwa, a leader of the protest movement, was arrested and subsequently sentenced to death along with eight other Ogoni activists.
Despite intensive international pressure that included appeals to Shell to use its influence in the country to gain clemency for the convicted, the executions went ahead as scheduled on November 10, 1995. After the executions, Shell was criticised in the Western media for its apparent unwillingness to pressure Nigeria’s totalitarian regime. The incident started some soul-searching at Shell about the social and environmental responsibility of a multinational corporation in societies such as Nigeria that fall short of
Western standards for the protection of human rights and the environment.
Background
The African nation of Nigeria won independence from Britain in 1961. At that time, many believed Nigeria had the potential to become one of the engines of growth in Africa. The country was blessed with abundant natural resources, particularly oil and gas; was a net exporter of foodstuffs, and had a large population that by African standards was well educated (today Nigeria has the largest population in Africa, with over 110 million people). By the mid-1990s, it was clear that much of that potential was still to be realised. Thirty-five years after winning independence, Nigeria was still heavily dependent on the oil sector. Oil production accounted for 30 per cent of GDP, 95 per cent of foreign exchange and about 80 per cent of the government’s budget revenues. The largely subsistence agricultural sector had hailed to keep up with rapid population growth, and Nigeria, once a large net exporter of food, now had to import food. GDP per capita was a paltry $230, one-quarter of what is was in 1981, and the country was creaking under $40 billion of external debt. Nigeria had been unable to garner financial assistance from institutions such as IMF because of the government’s unwillingness to account for how it used the revenues from oil taxes.
Problems in the Ogoni Region
In 1958, Royal Dutch/Shell struck oil on Ogoni lands. By some estimates, the company has extracted some $30 billion worth of oil from the region since then. Despite this, the Ogoni remain desperately poor. Most live in palm-roofed mud huts and practice subsistence agriculture. Of Shell’s 5,000 employees in Nigeria, in 1995 only 85 were Ogoni. Because they are a powerless minority among Nigeria’s 110 million people, the Ogoni are often overlooked when it comes to the allocation of jobs either in government or the private sector.
Starting in 1982, the Nigerian government supposedly directed 1.5% of the oil revenue it received back to the communities where the oil was produced. In 1992, the percentage was increased to 3 %. The Ogoni, however, claim they have seen virtually none of this money. Most appears to have been spent in the tribal lands of the ruling majority or has vanished in corrupt deals. Although there 96 oil wells, two refineries, a petrochemical complex, and a fertiliser plant in the Ogoni region in 1994, the lone hospital was an unfinished concrete husk and the government schools, unable to pay teachers, were rarely open.
Nigeria and Shell under Pressure
Saro-Wiwa’s arrest achieved the goal that the protests and bloodshed had not; it focussed international attention in the plight of the Ogoni people, the heavy-handed policies of the Nigerian government, and Shell’s activities in Nigeria. Several human rights organisations immediately pressured Shell to use its influence to gain the release of Saro-Wiwa. They also urged Shell to put on hold plans to start work on $3.5 billion liquefied natural gas project in Nigeria. The project was structured as a joint venture with the Nigerian government. Shell’s central role in the project gave it considerable influence over the government, or so human rights activists believed.
Shell stated that it deplored the heavy-handed approach taken by the Nigerian government to the Ogoni people and regretted pain and loss suffered by Ogoni communities. The company also indicated it was using “discreet diplomacy” to try to bring influence to bear on the Nigerian government. Nigeria’s military leadership, however, was in no mood to listen to discreet diplomacy from Shell or anyone else. After a trial by a military tribunal that was derided as nothing more than a kangaroo court, Saro-Wiwa and his associates were sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out shortly after sunrise on November 10, 1995.
Aftermath
In the wake of Saro-Wiwa’s hanging, a storm of protest erupted around the world. The heads of state of the 52-nation British Commonwealth, meeting in New Zealand at the time of Saro-Wiwa’s execution, suspended Nigeria and stated they would expel the country if it did not return to democratic rule within two years. U.S. President Bill Clinton recalled the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and banned the sale of military equipment, on top of aid cuts made in protest at Saro-Wiwa’s arrest. British Prime Minister John Major banned arms to Nigeria and called for the widest possible embargo. Ambassadors from the 15-nationa EU were recalled, and EU suspended all aid to Nigeria.