Ogoni seek meaning in Shell agreement

Thirteen years and a huge settlement have done nothing to alleviate the controversy surrounding the violent outcome of Ogoni people’s resistance to crude oil exploration activities in their community.

If anything, the $15.5million (₦2.26 billion) out-of-court settlement announced by Shell one week before the company’s arraignment before a New York court has come under heavy criticism from supporters of the four Ogoni leaders whose murders were the basis on which Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others (known as the “Ogoni Nine”) were tried and executed.

The Ogoni leaders were arrested in 1995 in connection with the murders of Albert Badey, Edward Kobani, Samuel Orage and Theophilus Orage after a fallout within the leadership of the Movement for the Support of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) over a May 1994 election of delegates to the national constitutional conference.

The multiple deaths had thrown the Ogoni people into a bout of recriminations and angst.

Last week, the family of the late leader of MOSOP, Ken Saro Wiwa, and five other families reached an agreement with Shell in a long-running legal battle against the oil giant. Following the settlement pact with Shell, the son of the late environmental activist, Ken Wiwa Jnr., said the settlement “enables us draw a line under the past.”

Other Ogoni, especially the family of the four, said this is hardly the case.

Desmond Orage, a son to one of the four and a nephew to another is also a maternal cousin to Ken Wiwa Jnr. He said the settlement was a commendable thing generally, especially if it was addressed to the entire Ogoni nation. He said the agreement was compensation to the people behind the death of his father.

“While Shell Petroleum Development Corporation was/is directly responsible [for] what led to the hostilities in Ogoniland, we see their settlement of the Ogoni 9 as a reward,” Mr. Orage said in a statement sent to NEXT. “This, more than ever, is very injurious to my soul and calls for a complete re-evaluation of focus. It is like a second blow below the belt.

There is nothing that says whoever shouts the loudest tells the most truth. Everything that has happened to us in this saga has been very untimely. Shell has become so unpopular because of the pollutions in the Niger Delta that a judgement against it by anyone becomes a welcome relieve.”

In fact, this was part of the message that his family sent out in the wake of last week’s agreement. “Any lawsuit that results in a settlement or judgment by any person or entity against any company or companies anywhere in the world that recklessly pollute and destroy the environment of their host communities without regard is welcome news,” the statement said. “That was the essence of our late fathers’ struggles and ultimate sacrifice.”

The president of MOSOP, Ledum Mitee, told NEXT last week that the organisation was also in support of the agreement reached between Shell and the Ogoni families. He also stated the group’s readiness to work with the Wiwa family in running the trust fund that would be created for the Ogoni people.

Mails sent to Ken Wiwa by NEXT were not responded to. He was, however, quoted as saying the judgement was a victory for the Ogoni people.

The case against Shell

Mr. Mitee also said the case against Shell by the Ogoni has not ended, as several other suits against the company are still ongoing in several legal jurisdictions across the world.

Supporters of further legal actions against Shell were delighted with a story carried by a United Kingdom weekly, Independent on Sunday. The weekly, in a story entitled “Secret papers show how Shell targeted Nigeria oil protesters,” quoted copiously from internal Shell documents it claimed to have seen. The paper said the documents “revealed how the energy giant enlisted the help of the country’s brutal former military government to deal with protesters.”

Questions sent to Shell about this and other issues, including next week’s case against it by an Asaba court, were not responded to at press time.

Donu Kogbara, an Ogoni journalist, said the creation of a trust fund was not likely to endear the Ogoni people to Shell. She said the linkage of the money to the settlement with the Wiwa family would create problems for the managers of the fund.

“Ogoni are not saying they don’t want a trust fund” she said. “It is just the manner in which it came about. Majority of the Ogoni people that I have spoken to said, ‘Well, what is this trust fund that came about through Ken’s children, are they going to control it?’ People are not happy because it wasn’t an independent thing that came from Shell. It was attached to a suit by Ken’s children. And so those who are not happy with Ken in Ogoniland do not want anything to do with the trust fund.”

Ms. Kogbara said several other Ogoni felt cheated by the agreement reached by Shell with the five Ogoni families that sued it. According to her, “everybody is angry” with the case. “Do you know I have not met a single Ogoni person who is happy that the compensation was paid? It is not bad belle in most cases,” she said. “The thing is not just straight forward.

Most people still think it would have been better for Shell to do something for the whole community. But I spoke to one man last week and he said his own attitude is that since Ken’s children have now got their own, let everybody else also get their own. I have not seen anybody expressing happiness about it.”

Kenneth Kobani, son of the late Nnaa Edward Kobani, told NEXT his family was also considering its own options in the light of the Shell agreement. Mr. Kobani said the family was cheated by the turn of events and that they have contacted their lawyers to have a legal opinion on how to proceed. “If people thought this is the end of the story, then they are mistaken,” he said. “We are just starting and we will start our own legal fights,” he said.

Blame the government

Several Ogoni leaders however felt the greater blame should go to the federal government. Mr. Orage said the Nigerian government has not been fair to his family in its actions. He said the only way true reconciliation could come to the area was through massive rehabilitation of the environment.

“To go directly to your question, we want Shell, in collaboration with the Nigerian government, to carry out all the ‘marshall plans’ for the Niger-Delta... They do these things on paper when there is tension. Once people start forgetting about it, they bury the file. We want them to go in there and clean up the place expeditiously,” he said.

Ms. Kogbara also expressed a view that is very popular across the Niger Delta: blame the federal government for the entire problem.

“I want the Nigerian government to admit that it is the cause of the entire problem,” she said. “I want them to admit that when you leave a whole bunch of men with not job, no hope, no future, you leave them open to all kinds of criminal activities.

The resolution of this problem is—kindly go and develop these areas. For as long as those areas are poor, you will have problems on your hand. Even as a privileged Niger Delta person living in a good place and all that, sometimes when I drive through Abuja I get annoyed. I say this is our money.”