africa from saps to prsp: plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose || oil & injustice in...
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ROAPE Publications Ltd.
Oil &Injustice in Nigeria: Ken Saro-WiwaAuthor(s): Amnesty InternationalSource: Review of African Political Economy, Vol. 32, No. 106, Africa from SAPs to PRSP:Plus Ca Change Plus C'est la Meme Chose (Dec., 2005), pp. 636-637Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20059116 .
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636 Review of African Political Economy
Endnotes
1. According to the Biafra Foundation sources, VOBI transmits on shortwaves at 7384 KHz (41 metres band) only on
Saturdays between 21.00
22.00 hours UTC or 10.00-11.00 p.m. Nigerian time (see http://www.biafraland.com/Biafra_ 2003.htm); accessed on 21 August 2004.
2. Vilification of Ibo leaders who disagree with
the neo-Biafra cause is one of the major weapons of propaganda used by the movement. VOBI
weekly news analyses published in the AF website
are full of such vilification accounts (see various
editions of 'This is the News Analysis Segment of the Voice of Biafra International Broadcasts'
in the AF website, but in particular, http:// www.biafraland.com/newsanalysis080704. htm.
Bibliographie Note
Achebe, G (1958), Things Fall Apart, London: Heinemann.
Awhofawhori, M. (2004), 'Who Leads Biafran
Nation in 2004?' The Gleaner News Online.
August, http://www.gleanernews.com/biafra. html; accessed on 21 August 2004.
BAF (2003), 'Actualising Biafra', Biafra Actualisation Forum; http://www.biafraland.
com/actualizing_biafra.htm; accessed on 22
August 2004.
BF (2003), 'Communique: International Con
ference on Biafra Held in Greenbelt, Maryland on
18 October'; accessed on 13 July 2004; (2004), 'New Year Message to the People and Nation of
Biafra from Biafra Foundation', 1 January; http: /
/www.biafraland.com/new_year_message_ 2004$$$.htm; accessed on 15 August 2004.
BF (2004), 'New Year (2004) Message to the
People and Nation of Biafra from Biafra
Foundation', January 1, http://www.biafra
land.com/new_year_message _2004$$$.htm; accessed on 15 August 2004.
BNW Magazine (2002), 'MASSOB Leader, Chief
Ralph Uwazurike Takes the Hot Seat',
September; Biafra Nigeria World; accessed on
15 August 2004. http://magazine.biafra
nigeriaworld.com/BNWstaff/2002sepll.html.
Daily Champion (2004), 'MASSOB Declares
August 26 Stay-at-Home Day', Daily Cham
pion, 12 August; http://allafrica.com/stories/ 200408120443.html; accessed on 13 August 2004.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) (2003), 'Nigeria: Human Rights Violations Against Members of Self-determination Groups', Human Rights
Watch, February, http://www.hrw.org/
reports/2003/nigerial203/7.htm; accessed on
20 August 2004.
Ihenacho, D. A. (2004), 'The Ojukwu Enigma in Nigeria' Nigeriaworld, 20 September; http: / /
mgeriaworld.com/columnist/ihenacho/092004. html; accessed on 10 October 2004.
Uwazurike, R. (2000), 'Declaration of our
Demand for a Sovereign State of Biafra,'
MASSOB, 21 May; http://www.kwenu.com/ biafra/massob/ aba_declaration.htm; accessed
on 19 August 2004.
Oil & Injustice in Nigeria: Ken Saro-Wiwa
Amnesty International
Ten years after the execution of Ken
Saro-Wiwa, the struggle for justice for the people in the Niger Delta continues.
The execution of writer and human
rights campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa and
eight other activists, (the 'Ogoni nine') on 10 November 1995, raised a storm of
outrage across the world. Their deaths
highlighted the suffering of the Ogoni people in the oil-rich delta of the Niger river. The Nigerian government was
widely denounced and the oil company Shell condemned for its ambiguous and belated interventions. But 10 years later, how much has changed for the people of the Niger Delta?
Ken Saro-Wiwa fought for an end to the environmental damage that was turning his homeland into what he described as a 'wasteland', endangering the people's health and livelihoods. Today oil spills still blacken the land and pollute the
waterways. Hundreds of gas flares burn
day and night, filling the sky with soot
and fumes. Operational practices such
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0/7 & Injustice in Nigeria 637
as these, so close to people's homes,
farms and waterways, would not be
tolerated in the countries where the oil
companies have their headquarters.
The inhabitants of the Niger Delta re
main among the most deprived oil com
munities in the world - 70% live on less
than US$1 a day. In spite of its windfall
gains, as global oil prices have more than
doubled in the last two years, the Nige rian government has failed to provide services, infrastructure or jobs in the
region.
The military government which executed
Ken Saro-Wiwa and his companions was replaced in 1999 by a civilian
government. Yet government security forces continue to kill people in the Niger
Delta with impunity. Excessive force is
used to protect the oil industry and
restore law and order - and the human
rights of communities are regularly vio
lated.
The powerful oil companies operating in
the region are perceived by communities
and many activists on the ground as
complicit in past human rights abuses.
Some oil companies have admitted that
their operations have contributed to fuel
ling conflict. In recent years, under pres sure to demonstrate corporate
responsibility, companies have devel
oped voluntary codes of conduct, but
these have not been able to reduce the
negative impact of their operations in the
region.
It is like paradise and hell. They have
everything. We have nothing... If we
protest, they send soldiers. They sign agreements with us and then ignore
us.
We have graduates going hungry, with out jobs. And they bring people from
Lagos to work here, says Eghare W.O.
Ojhogar, chief of the Ugborodo com
munity in Delta State.
On 4 February 2005, soldiers fired on
protesters at Chevron's Escravos oil ter
minai on the coast of the western Niger Delta. One man was killed and at least 30
others were injured. The protest was over
the company's failure to fulfil an agree ment to provide jobs and development projects to the local Ugborodo commu
nity.
Just two weeks later, at least 17 people were reported to have been killed and two women raped when soldiers raided the town of Odioma. The attack was
ostensibly to arrest members of an armed
vigilante group suspected of killing 12
people, including four local councillors. Members of this group were reported to
have been recruited by a sub-contractor
of Shell's subsidiary in Nigeria and to be
responsible for security in an area where oil exploration was being conducted,
despite their alleged criminal record. The
suspects were not captured but 80% of homes in Odioma were razed.
The Delta's marginalised peoples have no effective recourse
against such hu
man rights abuses. It is time for the
Nigerian government to end the impu nity enjoyed by the security forces for human rights violations past and
present. It is time for oil companies and the international community to ensure
that business operates within a frame work of international human rights standards for companies, like the UN
Norms for Business. Ten years after the
'Ogoni nine' were executed, it is time for
justice for the people of the Niger Delta.
Editor's Note: See ROAPE 66, 1995 for our Tribute to Ken Saro-Wiwa. Also see Caroline
Ifeka & Sylvanus Abua, 'Nigeria: Conservation, Traditional Knowledge & the Commons' in
ROAPE 104/05, June/September 2005.
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