“I tell you this, I may be dead but my ideas will not die!” Ken Saro-Wiwa.
BRIEF HISTORICAL TRUTH OF OGONI NATIONALITY
Ogoni is inhabited by the Ogoni people one of many indigenous peoples in Southeastern region of Nigeria. They now number over One Million people and live on 404 Square miles (1,050 Square kms) which they refer to as Ogoniland. Ogoni has six kingdoms, Babbe, Eleme, Gokana, Ken-Khana, Nyo -Khana, and Tai, with two special areas, Bori Urban and Ban-Ogoi. The primary occupations of the Ogoni people are agriculture, fishing, palm oil cultivation, and trading. Bori is the administrative headquarter of Ogoniland.
OIL DISCOVERY IN OGONILAND
In 1936 The Royal Dutch Shell Group established a venture in Nigeria with the precursor British Petroleum (BP Plc); and thereafter discovered oil in commercial quantity in Ogoniland in 1958. Oil discovery culminated into a changing landscape for the people’s way of life, the environment, and ecosystem. In 1973, Nigeria government took 55% ownership, Shell 30%, France’s Total 10%, and Italy’s Eni 5%. Shell assumed the operatorship of the venture.
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
Ogoniland according to the BBC saw over 2,976 oil spills between 1976 and 1991; the Department of Petroleum Resources estimates that 1.89 million barrels of Petroleum were spilled into the Niger Delta between 1976 and 1996; whereas the UNDP states that 6,817 oil spills were recorded between 1976 and 2001 which is 3 million barrels of oil; a quarter in swamps, and 6% on land. According to Reuters, SPDC pumps more than 1 m barrels of oil per day from Ogoni land as of 2003.
MOSOP AND CALL FOR REMEDIATION
In 1990, the Ogoni people formed the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) to draw the attention of the Nigerian Government, Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company, and the International community to oil exploration, spillages, leaks & slicks in their area. The movement was necessary because oil spillage was threatening their environment, ecosystem, and way of life. The movement was led by Africa’s renowned environmentalist and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa. Nigeria in collaboration with Shell Oil silenced him and the Ogoni movement by hanging Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of the leaders of the movement in 1995. “I tell you this, I may be dead but my ideas will not die,” Ken Saro-Wiwa.
UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM (UNEP)
In 2011 following international outcry against oil spills in Ogoniland and the effects, Nigeria and Shell Oil commissioned the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) to conduct a scientific environmental assessment of Ogoniland. According to the UNEP recommendations, “oil contamination in Ogoniland is widespread and severely impacting many components of the Ogoni environment. The Ogoni people live with this pollution every minutes of the day, 365 days a year.” It also identified communities in Ogoniland that have been consuming water with benzene over 900 times the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline. The report also asserted that it would take upward of 30 years and an initial capital injection of $1 billion to flag off the cleaning of the Ogoni environment and ecosystem.
On June 2nd, 2016 the Buhari Administration launched the flag off of the clean-up of Ogoniland and commissioned the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) as its pivotal agency in charge of the project. The agency which is now smeared in corrupt practices has so far released the names of 16 contractors it awarded the contract for the Ogoni cleanup and remediation. HYPREP has also supposedly paid N714.45 million as upfront advanced payment representing 15% for the project cost according to the project coordinator; whereas nothing to show for it beside a signage that reads, “PROHIBITION: WATER NOT FIT FOR USE”(attached). Also, a Report by Premium Times a local publication (attached) revealed that some of the awardees have nothing to do with environmental remediation rather some were in the business of oil palm plantation and refining.
THE POSITION OF OGONI NATIONALITY ON CLEAN-UP
The Ogoni people have insisted that the Nigerian Government and Royal Shell Oil Company should apply the same standard, methods applicable to oil cleaning, and remediation in the western world. That, hiring a consortium of international oil spill remediation firms with knowledge of environmental remediation, ecosystem, and wetland under the supervision of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is the best remedy.
NIGERIA GOVERNMENT – CLAMOUR FOR OIL RESUMPTION IN OGONILAND
In the mist of the confusion resulting from award of contracts for the clean-up of contaminated oil sites in Ogoniland of which, nothing has being done; on March 01, 2019, Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari released a memo, with reference number: SH/COS/24/A/8540 transferring operatorship of Shell Oil assets to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), and Nigerian National Development Company (NNDC). The memo was a revocation of the operating licenses of Shell oil for OML 11 in Ogoniland transferring such to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and its upstream subsidiary the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NNDC.
The decision has fueled so much insecurity and bloodshed in the Ogoni area and nobody can tell the sponsors of those gladiatorum but the Ogonis are well aware that the Nigerian government and Royal Shell Oil Company are culpable. But I tell you this, I may be dead but my ideas will not die!
PUBLIC HEALTH
While the Nigerian Government and Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company are masquerading and focused on oil exploration in Ogoniland because of the richly Sulphur free oil content from Ogoniland, there is an undiscussed issue which is the health of the Ogoni people. The raising death toll, the miscarriages, migraines, cancer, diarrhea, and the increasing carcinogens/toxic in water and food chains is concerning. Pope Francis deeply deliberated on the value of our ecology. Vegetation has been the primary source of Ogoni medical remedy. However, know that our entire ecosystem has been destroyed by Shell. Now, to whom shall we turn to?
The Ogoni people are now demanding a Social impact Assessment and Biometrics Studies in Ogoniland. This study would reveal the impact or effects of toxic chemicals in the human body. The biometrics monitoring would enable the measurement of the presence and concentration of chemical compounds or their metabolites in human bio specimens such as blood, urine, breastmilk, adipose tissues, hair, saliva and meconium.
In this day and age we ought not to be at peace over this critical issue such as Ogoni’s lamentation. I earnestly plead and invite the world not to ignore the rapid slow death of the Ogoni ethnic nationality. The Nigerian Government and Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company are poised to displace the Ogoni people by whatever means necessary to be able to harness the oil resources endowed in the area.
Understand that Ogonis are not against oil exploration, but they have insisted that their demands in the Ogoni Bill of rights (OBR); exoneration of their leaders murdered in the 1990s; and the cleanup of the contaminated environment & ecosystem; and a social and biometric assessment of the Ogoni people and environment are foremost remedies before oil resumption in their area.
“I tell you this, I may be dead but my ideas will not die!” Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Br. Anthony Kote-Witah, OFM, Cap.
Capuchin JPIC 