Nigerian activists fight environmental battles

Toussaint Losier

Nearly ten years ago, Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists from the minority Ogoni ethnic group led a series of non-violent protests challenging the environmental devastation, grinding poverty, and military repression wrought by the Shell Corporation and the federal government in the oil-rich Niger river Delta.

During a historic march of 300,000 Ogonis, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People demanded community control over natural resources, more sustainable oil drilling and, an equitable distribution of Nigeria’s oil wealth.

In response, the military dictatorship arrested Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogonis on false murder charges and executed them in the face of international condemnation on November 10, 1995.

In preparation for the tenth anniversary of Saro-Wiwa’s execution, his son, Ken Wiwa, spoke at MIT’s Kirsch Auditorium Friday evening. Ken Wiwa’s visit was part of the national Price of Oil tour honoring both his father’s memory and highlighting the role of Shell and other companies in human rights abuses.

“My father was so important because his struggle brought various issues together, whether it was human rights, environmental, or freedom of speech,” Ken Wiwa said.

“That and the network of international organizations that he was able to bring together forced the corporations onto the back foot.”

Foreign companies first pumped crude oil from the Niger Delta in 1957. In the past five decades billions of dollars in petroleum have come from a region comprising only one tenth of the country’s territory. Today, Nigeria is the world’s seventh largest oil producer, pumping nearly 2.5 million barrels of oil per day with proven reserves at 35 billion barrels.

Despite these natural resources, 70 percent of an estimated 134 million Nigerians live in poverty, as very little of the oil profits have gone to meet the needs of the majority of the population, particularly those in the Niger Delta.

Since independence from Britain in 1960, democratic governments have been toppled by a succession of military coups, with each dictator collaborating with oil companies to siphon oil profits to private bank accounts.

There have also been roughly 4,000 oil spills in the Niger Delta, fouling the land and water of people who traditionally relied on farming and fishing for their livelihood.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was a successful businessman, television producer, and writer who took up the plight of the Ogoni people in 1990 while Nigeria was still under military rule. Through his writings and non-violent action, Saro-Wiwa campaigned for genuine democracy and corporate accountability.

In his presentation, Ken Wiwa, a writer and human rights activist in his own right, emphasized that ten years later, the struggle for control over resources continues.

In 1993, Saro-Wiwa and others were able to stop Shell from drilling in Ogoni. But now, as Ken Wiwa points out, “Shell wants to go back in, symbolically, to show they have done nothing wrong. If they can go back into Ogoni, they get away with murder.”

Dimierari Von Kemedi, the head of Our Niger Delta, spoke after Wiwa and reiterated this point, “the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa was a deliberate attempt to quiet things in the Niger Delta.”

But rather than halting resistance, the Ogoni struggle inspired other Delta ethnic groups to challenge oil companies drilling in their territory.

More significantly, the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa gave birth to hundreds willing to pick up guns to bring about change.

“We see the value of what Ken did, but some of these people just see that Ken’s struggle did not lead to a change in policy on the side of the government or the oil companies,” said Kemedi.

“They go the way of violence.” Violent conflict over control of oil resources has brought few reforms and contributed to the death of over 1,000 people a year in the Delta region.

While explaining Nigeria’s dynamic, Wiwa and Kemedi also raised the issue of the U.S.’s increasing presence in the region.

“The U.S. is very interested in the Gulf of Guinea – Nigeria, Angola, Sao Tome and Principe – as it seeks to get away from oil from the Middle East,” explained Kemedi. Nigeria is fifth-largest supplier of crude oil to the U.S. and the percentage of its oil that it sends to the U.S. is projected to increase by 50 percent in the next decade.

Urging students to get more engaged in the politics of the country to change policies, Wiwa offered “the current U.S. policies are so focused on oil when there are alternatives available.”

Steve Kertzmann, executive director of Oil Change International stated that the anniversary of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s execution is an international day of action in which students can participate.

The audience of 50 students and professionals frequently applauded Wiwa and Kemedi.

“It’s good to come to have things like this and remember where the world is going. You wake up a little bit more,” commented Fletcher School student Tega Shivute.