Ken Saro-Wiwa died because he had dared to assert the Ogonis'claims to their In Nigeria, the giant wheels of progress have been leaving a veritable wasteland behi them in the course of their ingress into the home turf of the Ogonis - denuding fores devastating farmlands and ravaging wetlands. The Ogonis' defiant protest against this has only earned them state-sponsored repression
Outrage
IN my innocence of the false charges f face here, in my utter
conviction, I call upon the Ogoni people, the people of the
Niger delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to
stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their
rights," said Ken Saro-Wiwa, the 54-year-old leader of the
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (mosop), after
the special tribunal appointed by the ruling military junta in
Nigeria pronounced his death sentence. And that is precisely
what the struggle of the Ogonis, that began in 1990 and has
now taken a momentous turn with the execution of the person
who spearheaded it, is all about.
It is not really about the violation of human rights on
which the West is raising such a hue and cry. Environmental
degradation of the Niger delta, thanks to indiscriminate oil
extraction by multinationals, is also not what Saro-Wiwa
fought against and finally died for. He was the torch bearer of
self-rule - he wanted to wrest for his people the right to
demand a price for their natural resources.
"He sensitised his people to both the politics and
economics of soil," comments Clinks Iloegbunam, a Nigerian
journalist who was a close friend of the dead leader. And the
General Sani Abacha regime silenced him by sending him to
the gallows.
Ogoniland, located in Nigeria's south-eastern River
State, has been blessed with the presence of oil beneath it.
Foreign oil companies, most prominently the Royal Dutch
Sbell, have - for decades - exploited the reserves. An
estimated us $30 billion worth of oil has been extracted
From Ogoni lands since 1958 when Shell struck oil here.
The military government has, naturally, benefitted handsomely
from this. In fact, it is flushed with petro-dollars. Oil accountants fiat 80 per cent of the Nigerian government revenues 90 per cent of its export earnings. For the 6 million Ogoni people however, it is quite a different story. They have remained dirt poor, while the lush green mangrove swamps and rain forests around them were reduced to wastelands.Their once fertile farmlands are ravaged by constant oil spills and acid rain. Puddles of ooze, the size of football fields, dot their landscape.
The waterbodies in the region are the worst affected. They
are swirling pools of ink-black fluid, bereft of fish or any
other
kind of marine life. In short, the Ogonis have lost their
soil,
their water and their livelihood. They have been left with
noth-
ing except a legacy of rusting pipelin6, thousands of unsightly wells and refineries. Their share of oil revenue has been
nil,
while the military bosses stole and squandered petro-dollars,
stashing them away in British banks outside the country.
Saro-Wiwa wanted all this to change. Five years ago, he
founded the mosop, which came up with some very specific
demands on behalf of the Ogonis. It presented a Bill of Rights
which demanded - from Shell - several billions of dollars in
compensation and back rent. It also called for self-determination for Ogoniland, virtually declaring it an autonomous state.
The mosop did not stop at that. It pressed for greater
national representation for the Ogonis who had till now -like the other 200-odd minority tribes in the Niger delta -been practically disenfranchised by the army chiefs. Attaining
a more decisive control over the environment was the other
issue which figured prominently in the mosop agenda.
Nothing could have rankled more with the military rulers.
Managing the vast oil reserves of Ogoniland was a job they
wanted to keep exclusively for themselves. Any strident assertion of rights on the part of the Ogoni people instantly raised
their hackles. For, a threat to the oil revenue was a threat to the
government itself. Already the administration was under pressure. In 1990, even before Saro-Wiwa emerged on the scene,
the people had begun demonstrating
against Shell. They were peaceful enough.
But on one such occassion, the Shell Gen Abacha
authorities pressed the panic button and
called for police protection. The Mobile
Police Force (MPF), a wing of the ruling
military junta, notorious for its brutality,
arrived on the scene and proceeded to
massacre 80 people and destroy 495
homes.
The movement spread like a raging
bushfire since that incident, with SaroWiwa managing the front ranks. In the
summer of 1992, the MPF was despatched
to villages in the Gbaran oilfield, where
it shot 30 persons and beat up 150
others. Deeply disturbed by the growing turbulence at home, Saro-Wiwa
decided that the only option left
before him was to attract the attention of the international community.
In July 1992, he adoressed the UN
Working Group on Indigenous
Populations in Geneva and followed this
up with a visit to the UN in New York. "Oil
exploration has turned Ogoni into a wasteland. In
and . Indin an return, we have recieved nothing," he said in an
emotionally charged speech in Geneva. "The Ogoni
tear case has exposed simmering hatred that could tear
Nigeria apart".
As it turned out, his sense of the future combat
strategy of the Sani Abacha government was very accu
rate. The government now sought to subdue the Ogonis
by playing the neighbouring ethnic groups against them, even
encouraging them to attack the villagers. By this time, the
mosop had issued an ultimatum to Shell, asking it to provide
us $ 10 billion or leave.
The military regime, scared out of its wits by this blatant
act of defiance, turned vicious. The worst act of repression hit
the Ogonis in January 1993 after a mass rally. This time the
police did not just kill, although the number of their victims
reached 2,000. They burnt down 27 villages and forced 80,0
people to flee. Under such pressure, the Ogoni movemel
too, began to show signs of disintegration. It was split betwee
the moderates who were willing to compromise and the fl
lowers of Saro-Wiwa who resolved to maintain their belligerent stand.
At this juncture, in 1993, the Abacha government
announced the presidential elections. The turmoil within tic
communities of the Niger delta was palpable. The conservatives, the older generation - including some of the tribi
chiefs - supported the businessperson and civilian candidate
Moshood Abiola. On the other hand, Saro-Wiwa and his s4
porters were hell-bent on a total boycott of the elections,
which they termed as "completely farcical". He was prov
right once again when the elections were summarily annuille
by the junta and Abiola was thrown behind bars.
As for the 'defiant' Ogonis, now it
open war against the junta. The
an!
stooges covered the region with troops
special forces. But when elections for repri
sentatives to a national constitutional conference were contemplated once again in M I
last year, splits erupted in the Ogoni community. Four Ogoni chiefs, who were consider
to be rivals of Saro-Wiwa,
during a riot.
This was all the provocation that Abacha
and his goons needed. Although Saro-wiwa
himself was incarcerated at the time of
murder, the military claimed that he
incited his followers to "go for the enemies.
He and nine of his colleagues were put 10
trial. The court sat as a Civil Disturban,
Special Tribunal, presided over by two judge
and a military officer. They could not be ovelm
ruled and there was no right of appeal.
they sentenced Saro-Wiwa to death.
authority which confirmed the conviction
the Provisional Ruling Council, in effect
country's government.
Saro-Wiwa's death has driven a particle
larly disconcerting message home: that international opinion amounts to nothing
rogue regime is determined to have its wa
General Sani Abacha not only brushed as
the fervent appeals made by the state leader
to pardon the Ogoni leader but he confirmed the sentence of death b
carrying out the execution just a day beil
the summit of the Commonwealth heads of government was
to begin in Auckland, New Zealand. He flung his decision
the face of politicians who seemed confident till the Iasi
minute that the Nigerian rulers could be won over by the hoe
eyed words of their respective foreign offices. Even Nelson
Mandela, the South African president, preferred "quie
words" to sanctions despite the inceasingly desperate pleas ot
help from Saro-Wiwa's son.
Of course there was a wave of shock and outrage after the act was done. The Commonwealth suspended Nigeria's membership. This was the first time ever that such a drastic step was taken against a member state. Several countries including France, Britain, and Netherlands and Germany recalled their envoys from Nigeria. "It is judicial murder. I do not see how Nigeria can stay in the Commonwealth until they return to democratic government," raged John Major, the British prime minister. He was backed by Mandela, who till a few hours ago
woclhn; cautious appproach vis-a-vis the Abacha
like that is whether within the Nigerian economy they would
cause worse unmployment, worse poverty, worse misery and
worse starvation than is already being suffered," he said.
So the best effort the international community could come
up with was a decision by the private sector lending arm of
the
World Bank, the International Finance Corp (IFC), to halt its
planned funding for a us $3 billion natural gas project in
Nigeria. Prohibited in its by-laws from making decisions based
on a country's internal politics, the 1FC which was to to
take a
two per cent stake in the venture, ascribed its move to
"insufficient progress in economic reforms".
While Saro-Wiwa's mourners across the globe are bitterly
disapponted at the delayed and pathetically inadequate
response of the world community, their anger is mainly directed towards the Shell company, which they view as the primary
accomplice of the murderous Abacha regime. The companys
subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company, operates
a joint venture agreement with the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation and
its capacity is one million
barrels a day. In other words,
as a source of revenue,
Nigeria is a goldmine for
Shell.
A report - The
Environmental and Social
Costs ofLiving Next Door to
Shell - published by the
Greenpeace International
two days after the brutal
murder of Saro-Wiwa says,
"Since the beginning of
Shell's operations in the
Niger delta, the company has
wreaked havoc on neigh-
bouring communities and
their environments. Many of
its operations and materials
are outdated, in poor condition.and would be illegal in
other parts of the world."
Even though it was the
main factor behind it, Shell
has always conveniently distanced itself from the raging
conflict between the Ogonis
and the Abacha regime. It
claimed that it was the
Nigerian ' government's
responsibility to look after
the people's demand. It was,
after all, operating legally in
Nigeria and could not inter-
vene in a conflict over self-determination between the people
and their government. It was, however, forced out of
Ogoniland in 1993 after direct clashes with the long-suffering
locals. As of now, it is a party to a us $3.6 billion natural gas
deal in Nigeria.
The company wrung its hands in ritual sorrow after the
news of the hanging of Saro-Wiwa hit the world. "It is with
deep regret we hear this news. From the violence that led to the
murder of the four Ogoni leaders through to the death penalty having been carried out, the human cost has been too high,"
rued the official statement issued by the company. But the
activists who are determined to punish the "murderers" of
Saro-Wiwa are in no mood to listen to such rhetorics. "Shell
has blood on its hands. Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged for speaking out against Shell," rages Lord Melchett, chairman
Greenpeace UK. He and his colleagues are convinced that
company could have saved the Ogoni leader's life if it had
desired. The Nigerian military rulers would not have risk
inviting the ire of the biggest producer of oil in their coun
- the commodity which is the lifeblood of their regime.
Instead, Shell adopted an appproach of 'quiet diplomacy',
which cost Saro-Wiwa his life. The only way it can atone for its
sins is by scrapping its natural
gas plant there and by scaling
back its huge oil operations.
insist the campaigners. The
controversy has certainly land
ed the company in trouble
Especially so because it is drawing comparisons with last sum
mer's Brent Spar brouhah
when the company found its
at the centre of a Greenpeace-led campaign, blocking it froc
sinking an obsolete oil rig in the
North Sea. It had buckle
under pressure then, but this
time it has no intentions 19
doing so. The top rung execu-
tives of Shell have very firrrc
reiterated their stand that noth-
ing will prompt a change in tic
company's strategy in the
African state. "False aid
grotesque accusations," were
being hurled at Shell, they complained. The company has beer
active in Nigeria for 50 year
and has big operations there
which it intends to maintain.
The projects were, after all,"an
investment in the long-term
future in Nigeria and the Niger
delta region," was the line of
defense taken by Shel.
It is true that global business has routinely refused to
indulge itself in the quagmire of domestic politics. And that is
definitely the correct strategy. After all, the business of world
business is business and not fine-tuning unfamiliar or broken
political systems. But it is also true that investors from abroad
contribute significantly to nation building. Their search for
profit often encompasses a long-term commitment to creating
jobs for people, for the general upliftment of their lot.
The Ken Saro-Wiwa case could have been made an
exception to the rule of multinationals avoiding poilitical
controversies, for he was trying to seek the most basic of
human rights - the right of the people over their land and
their water. But it was not. And the rum-amock regime of Sani
Abacha was given a free hand to execute the most brutal form
of censorship - murder.
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