# Shell, Oil Colonialism, and the Ongoing Struggle of Nigeria’s Environmental Activists

An episode of [Drilled](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1439735906), 5 Mar 2024, 43 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/SxlTEPDY7xDg35RXkASs/pdrl.fm/3e5572/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/9a7ab5ee-ce11-48ff-a544-b3ec00ea9b1e/d091bf16-6b54-4340-8f1b-b3ec00eeb18e/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=7f82f371-6316-4ea6-a108-b3ec00ea9b2d

Decades after the Ogini 9 were executed for opposing Shell's operations, Nigeria continues to grapple with the environmental and political fall out of oil extraction. With Shell shutting down onshore activities in 2023, they leave behind poisoned water, various political and economic crises, and a country that is measurably worse off than when its oil industry began. Meanwhile, the government continues to target environmental activists. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:03] Speaker 1: Over the past few years, the fossil fuel industry's focus
[0:06] Speaker 1: has increasingly been on Africa, where it is fast tracking
[0:10] Speaker 1: new fossil fuel development and infrastructure, and often talking about
[0:14] Speaker 1: it as a way to pull Africa out of poverty,
[0:17] Speaker 1: despite the fact that a lot of the oil being
[0:19] Speaker 1: produced there and moved around is ultimately for exporting to
[0:24] Speaker 1: global North countries, which oil majors will profit off of,
[0:28] Speaker 1: but developing countries maybe not so much. Proponents of this
[0:33] Speaker 1: build out often talk about how it will bring both
[0:36] Speaker 1: development funding and the money necessary to adapt to climate change.
[0:41] Speaker 1: For countries in Africa. They talk about rampant energy poverty
[0:46] Speaker 1: on the continent. That's the term used to describe lack
[0:49] Speaker 1: of access to consistent power in a lot of ways.
[0:53] Speaker 1: It's a real indictment of international climate negotiations that countries
[0:57] Speaker 1: in Africa and other parts of the global sete South
[1:00] Speaker 1: feel like they have to depend on oil majors to
[1:04] Speaker 1: pay for climate adaptation. We've talked about that before, especially
[1:08] Speaker 1: in our season on Exxon's project in Guyana. In the
[1:12] Speaker 1: absence of the money that's long been promised, first as
[1:16] Speaker 1: climate reparations and then as loss and damages, many countries
[1:20] Speaker 1: feel like they can't really escape extractive industry. Unfortunately, it's
[1:25] Speaker 1: also pretty unlikely that fossil fueled development will actually pay
[1:29] Speaker 1: off for these countries In Africa, Nigeria, the country with
[1:34] Speaker 1: the oldest, largest, and most established fossil fuel industry on
[1:38] Speaker 1: the continent, is a prime example. Nigeria currently has the
[1:42] Speaker 1: world's lowest energy access rates, and while oil and gas
[1:47] Speaker 1: has made a handful of elites wealthy there, that benefit
[1:51] Speaker 1: has not extended to the vast majority of Nigerians. They
[1:55] Speaker 1: have experienced the lion's share of contaminated water and soil
[2:00] Speaker 1: oil spills, though, all of which has driven decades of
[2:05] Speaker 1: protest against oil drilling projects in the Niger Delta and
[2:10] Speaker 1: a corresponding backlash to that activism from both government and
[2:14] Speaker 1: oil majors. Next year marks the thirty year anniversary of
[2:18] Speaker 1: the killing of the Ogoni nine activists who had fought
[2:22] Speaker 1: against Shell Oil's activities in Nigeria and were arbitrarily hung
[2:28] Speaker 1: after an unlawful arrest and unjust trial. Shell has been
[2:33] Speaker 1: accused of being complicit in those murders, though never held accountable.
[2:37] Speaker 1: In the decades since that event, despite facing intense and
[2:42] Speaker 1: often violent repression, activists have continued to shine a light
[2:47] Speaker 1: on the destruction that fossil fuel development has brought to Nigeria.
[2:52] Speaker 2: Today, Ugochi Anyaka Luigo takes us to Ogoniland to bring
[2:56] Speaker 2: us the story of those activists' long fight, how they've
[3:00] Speaker 2: stuck with it for so many years and some of
[3:03] Speaker 2: their recent wins. That story is coming up after this
[3:07] Speaker 2: quick break. I'm Amy Westerbelt and this is drilled.
[3:22] Speaker 3: It's a cloudy day in Buri and Ogni community in
[3:26] Speaker 3: Nigeria's Nigerdelta region. Hundreds of people are guarded here to
[3:30] Speaker 3: remember the struggle, suffering and killing of thousands of Organi
[3:36] Speaker 3: people in a brutal government supported crackdown of peaceful demonstrations
[3:41] Speaker 3: in the nineteen nineties. Orguni people were non violently protesting
[3:46] Speaker 3: the devastating impacts of oil exploration by Shell Nigeria, a
[3:51] Speaker 3: subsidiary of Royal Dotch Shell Oil Company, on their land.
[3:56] Speaker 3: Every November ten, memorial events like this one ahead in
[4:00] Speaker 3: several cities across the world. It was on this day
[4:04] Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety five that activists Kenu Le Sararewa, John Wayna,
[4:10] Speaker 3: Dr Barnam Kobell, Paul Levra Barry Bombera, nor Do I
[4:16] Speaker 3: will Saturday Dorbe, Daniel Boko and Felix Noirte were executed
[4:22] Speaker 3: under the military leadership of General Sania Baja. Their arrest
[4:26] Speaker 3: and hasty judgment were backed by Shell march into Ken
[4:32] Speaker 3: Sararella's home and final resting place. Children and adults are
[4:36] Speaker 3: holding banners with messages like leave orguny oil in the ground,
[4:41] Speaker 3: climate justice now, Shell out of Niger Delta and their
[4:46] Speaker 3: new slogan for shell Shell bringing hell to the Niger
[4:50] Speaker 3: Delta since nineteen fifty eight. On their way, they are
[4:57] Speaker 3: stopped by police officers standing in front of the Bory
[5:00] Speaker 3: police station. After a brief standoff. Activist Bernie Friday addresses
[5:06] Speaker 3: the crowd.
[5:08] Speaker 4: No, no, that can so muche everybody today He's a
[5:17] Speaker 4: freedom for the day to day.
[5:22] Speaker 5: He's a day now. You're gonna be bore.
[5:25] Speaker 4: Declare as a interna should have freedom day true today,
[5:34] Speaker 4: maggot the twenty address. After the killing of our father
[5:40] Speaker 4: and our hero, can't sell Rivera and.
[5:43] Speaker 5: Not on us. Today the youth are coming together.
[5:47] Speaker 4: Don't know be laws, don't fall first together and demand
[5:52] Speaker 4: or God in justice our father, love father, cancel We
[5:57] Speaker 4: were is alive and you're gonna good after me oh Glli.
[6:02] Speaker 5: Bibo, you're not that different that your stall afterne me
[6:07] Speaker 5: oh golli. You know that.
[6:12] Speaker 3: Sains The discovery of oil in Agni in the late
[6:15] Speaker 3: nineteen fifties. The region has produced about thirty billion dollars
[6:19] Speaker 3: worth of oil. It has also experienced six thousand, eight
[6:24] Speaker 3: hundred and seventeen oil spills between nineteen seventy six and
[6:28] Speaker 3: two thousand and one alone, accounting for over two million
[6:31] Speaker 3: barrels of pollution. The region's economy previously relied on farming
[6:37] Speaker 3: and fishing activities. The spills destroyed the village of Goi,
[6:43] Speaker 3: a traditional Fisian village, was declared unlievable. Inhabitants had to evacuate,
[6:49] Speaker 3: but were never properly resettled or given any compensation or
[6:53] Speaker 3: antiquate support. The money taken from their land did not
[6:56] Speaker 3: translate to development, a better line life, inclusivity, wealth, or development.
[7:04] Speaker 3: It did not bring the basics like water, electricity, hospitals,
[7:08] Speaker 3: good roads, or schools either. As the Orgoni people began
[7:12] Speaker 3: to assert their rights, their protests were occurred using force,
[7:17] Speaker 3: a pattern that continues today. Any opposition to oil production
[7:21] Speaker 3: is seen as a threat not only to the economy
[7:24] Speaker 3: but to the political system. Offices of environmental rights organizations
[7:30] Speaker 3: have been raided, generally targeted, and in five years thousands
[7:34] Speaker 3: of Orgones were detained or beaten by the River State
[7:38] Speaker 3: Internal Security Task Force ISTF, a military body especially created
[7:44] Speaker 3: by the Abacher administration in nineteen ninety four to suppress
[7:48] Speaker 3: the protests organized by the Movement of the Survival of
[7:51] Speaker 3: the Orgoni People. Mossop Shechell provided the ISTF with logistical
[7:57] Speaker 3: support and even rewarded them. Shell paid the commander at
[8:02] Speaker 3: the time, Major Paul o'cuintimore, and twenty five of his
[8:05] Speaker 3: troops and quote honorarium as a show of gratitude and
[8:10] Speaker 3: motivation for a sustained favorable disposition.
[8:15] Speaker 6: The response from the authorities, like the police, whenever there
[8:19] Speaker 6: is say, protest against oil companies is always different from
[8:23] Speaker 6: how they respond to other protests.
[8:26] Speaker 3: Fine Face dom Nominee is an environmental activist from Ogoni.
[8:32] Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety three, the government banned public gatherings and
[8:36] Speaker 3: declared that disturbances of oil production were treasonable offenses. As
[8:42] Speaker 3: the military invaded communities. The killings which had started in
[8:45] Speaker 3: nineteen ninety became even more brutal. About four thousand organes
[8:50] Speaker 3: were murdered and women someone's young as thirteen years old
[8:53] Speaker 3: were ripped by the Maroudin soldiers. Hundreds of those who
[8:58] Speaker 3: were able to escape to neighbor in countries like ben
[9:01] Speaker 3: A Republic have not returned to the ancestral homes since then.
[9:06] Speaker 3: Bene hosts a community of over one thousand, two hundred
[9:11] Speaker 3: Orgoni refugees living in camps on the terrible conditions. They
[9:16] Speaker 3: remain stateless and unable to integrate into Benin Nuits society.
[9:21] Speaker 3: They are also unable to work as they depend on
[9:24] Speaker 3: handouts by angels, churches and generous natives. In nineteen ninety nine,
[9:31] Speaker 3: Fine Boy Cuckoo, a former print journalist and member of MOSSAMP,
[9:35] Speaker 3: escaped to Benar Republic. He lives in a crammed single
[9:39] Speaker 3: room with his wife and four children. He spoke to
[9:42] Speaker 3: me from exile, I.
[9:45] Speaker 7: Have been in Benie Republic for about twenty three years today.
[9:53] Speaker 7: The basic reason why I ran away from Morgoni land,
[9:58] Speaker 7: what was due to my political belief in the ideas of.
[10:04] Speaker 8: Suppressions and they tracked my.
[10:07] Speaker 7: Life, so I have to sneak out of the country,
[10:11] Speaker 7: not that I ran openly a sneak out, A fleed
[10:14] Speaker 7: into the Republic of being for fear of my life,
[10:22] Speaker 7: which I've been persistent as I got into Benie in
[10:26] Speaker 7: nineteen ninety A good registered with the UNIX zero, you know,
[10:31] Speaker 7: thee Nation for High Commission for refugees. Unfortunately, because of
[10:36] Speaker 7: the language barrier and other cultural barrier, we are unable
[10:40] Speaker 7: to fit in. But for the sake of life, we
[10:44] Speaker 7: until whatever we passed through, day after day and year
[10:47] Speaker 7: after year.
[10:49] Speaker 9: I'm here with them to save guide us from being kid.
[10:55] Speaker 5: For sure.
[10:56] Speaker 7: Those co activists that were arrested within the time we freed,
[11:03] Speaker 7: most of them have been silently keyed. And the reality
[11:09] Speaker 7: is either your attacked as a court member, you'll be
[11:13] Speaker 7: a xecute even with a question. Some are kids even
[11:18] Speaker 7: where they were taken from the prison or stations where
[11:22] Speaker 7: they kept them for some time. And so I'm even
[11:28] Speaker 7: better up here being alive, nor mark a level of
[11:32] Speaker 7: deprivations and suffering we passed through concerning the land Rude
[11:39] Speaker 7: Acts and the Petroleum out Law. These were two draconian
[11:44] Speaker 7: laws that were from Montay by the military hero of
[11:49] Speaker 7: State General Lucago Bason Job in nineteen summary the Land
[11:55] Speaker 7: News Acted that whatever is six feet up to the
[12:02] Speaker 7: surface of the belongs to the land Schulna, but anything
[12:07] Speaker 7: seven feet eight feet below belongs to the government.
[12:16] Speaker 3: Leaving his wife and baby. Kuku said he fled to
[12:20] Speaker 3: Beerner Republic twenty three years ago after the targeting of
[12:24] Speaker 3: Ugunius who were in support of Mossop. Many of those
[12:28] Speaker 3: he knew got killed or imprisoned. He also talks about
[12:31] Speaker 3: Nigeria's land used the cree of nineteen seventy eight and
[12:35] Speaker 3: the Petroleum Act of nineteen sixty nine that hans land
[12:39] Speaker 3: and everything underneath to the Nigerian government a continuation of
[12:43] Speaker 3: a colonial policy. The laws gave everything to the government
[12:48] Speaker 3: and technically to the oil companies.
[12:51] Speaker 9: That law is very operational.
[12:53] Speaker 7: It is this law that deprived the land owners of
[12:58] Speaker 7: the resources embedded in their land. Distarvation we go through
[13:03] Speaker 7: most of the time is because we have been discharged
[13:07] Speaker 7: from our environment, from our localities where we used to
[13:12] Speaker 7: stay peacefully as Ugune people. So the suffering here is
[13:17] Speaker 7: quite above us. That is why you can see many
[13:23] Speaker 7: of us are sick. Have so many ideas. We organize
[13:27] Speaker 7: ourselves to do minion jobs. We don't even have official
[13:32] Speaker 7: documents or recognitions as refugee or a salis, which would
[13:38] Speaker 7: have enhanced us been set into the system or to
[13:42] Speaker 7: be considered.
[13:43] Speaker 9: For any little or meiger employment that the case maybe.
[13:47] Speaker 3: Cuckoo said that many asylum applications were rejected because of
[13:52] Speaker 3: Better Republic's decision to stop granting refugee status to Orgonese
[13:56] Speaker 3: in Benet since the year two thousand. In two thousand
[14:00] Speaker 3: and four, the UNHCR decided that Ogoni refugees can now
[14:04] Speaker 3: return safely to Nigeria since military rule has ended. But
[14:09] Speaker 3: for those like Cuckoo, home is still not safe enough.
[14:13] Speaker 7: Well, we port our children, most of them with tired
[14:15] Speaker 7: bad papers, because what removed us from home is still there.
[14:20] Speaker 7: If you go to Gone, you will not see any protests,
[14:23] Speaker 7: no matter the trauma, no matter the oppression, no matter
[14:27] Speaker 7: the oppression, no matter the killing. What they call curtism
[14:32] Speaker 7: is the legal metal the government of employed to kid
[14:35] Speaker 7: the ute, and the ute are their prime target.
[14:39] Speaker 3: Angered by the resource and justice and pollution, armed groups
[14:43] Speaker 3: started attacking oil installations and kidnapping oil staff in the
[14:47] Speaker 3: early two thousands. This morphed into courturism and gang violence.
[14:53] Speaker 3: Cuckoo says that the government still targets are going to use,
[14:56] Speaker 3: but this time under the guise of tackling contuism and islands.
[15:01] Speaker 9: There is no possibility.
[15:02] Speaker 7: I cannot see in the near future the hope of
[15:06] Speaker 7: wimber And to the precise, we miss whole. Everybody missile
[15:14] Speaker 7: even most of the time it's our children. They asks
[15:16] Speaker 7: us are we from this country? They ask a lot
[15:20] Speaker 7: of questions. Refugee is not a suitnam to bear because
[15:26] Speaker 7: it engaged a lot of trauma, so much pain and pressure.
[15:34] Speaker 3: Nigerian security forces that sometimes also arrested, beating or intimidated
[15:39] Speaker 3: relatives of activists. In nineteen ninety seven, the mother and
[15:43] Speaker 3: sister of Organese student activists Sony Kobo were detained.
[15:48] Speaker 7: While my wife let also in the year two thousand
[15:52] Speaker 7: too made me up in Cotton Been Republic. I my
[15:57] Speaker 7: wife was left at home because my time I life
[16:00] Speaker 7: that night, there was no way I could even get
[16:04] Speaker 7: them proper information. You know, women, but on her own,
[16:09] Speaker 7: why does security keep coming to ask for the husband
[16:16] Speaker 7: that I must be produced.
[16:18] Speaker 9: Next the way the girl in my position.
[16:22] Speaker 7: It was then that she complained to some of my
[16:24] Speaker 7: working colleagues that were closer to us about Imborian protacot
[16:30] Speaker 7: who organized for her to run towards then a Republic
[16:37] Speaker 7: to look for her husband since there was no way,
[16:41] Speaker 7: no hope of bringing me back because if I'm seen,
[16:47] Speaker 7: they were all aware that of what will happen to me.
[16:50] Speaker 7: So my wife had to run after me with the kids.
[16:55] Speaker 7: It was early Sunday morning. She arrived where we stay.
[16:59] Speaker 7: If she was at them and maybe she would have
[17:02] Speaker 7: been kid.
[17:04] Speaker 3: From the nineteen nineties till twenty twenty three, physical protests
[17:08] Speaker 3: in Nigeria have become increasingly dangerous. In May twenty twenty three,
[17:13] Speaker 3: a bill that provides a five year sentence for illegal
[17:16] Speaker 3: protests past a second reading in Nigeria's House of Representatives.
[17:22] Speaker 3: This comes on the heels of the end SAS protests
[17:26] Speaker 3: that rocks Nigeria in twenty twenty. It's not the SAZ
[17:30] Speaker 3: you might be thinking of. In Nigeria. SAS is an
[17:33] Speaker 3: acronym for a police task force called the Special Anti
[17:37] Speaker 3: Robbery Scord. Beginning on October four, twenty twenty, and through
[17:41] Speaker 3: the next few weeks, thousands of Nigerian youths took to
[17:44] Speaker 3: the streets to protest decades of police brutality and extrajudicial
[17:50] Speaker 3: killings often committed by the squurt. During the protest, the
[18:04] Speaker 3: Nigerian army opened fire on un aimed peaceful protesters and
[18:09] Speaker 3: killed fifty six of them. According to Amnesty International, the
[18:13] Speaker 3: brutality of the end SAZ protests left a mark in
[18:16] Speaker 3: the hearts of This granted Nigerians, especially the younger population,
[18:21] Speaker 3: so much so that when the current President, Bola Ahmed Tinobu,
[18:25] Speaker 3: in his first speech announced the removal of fuel subsidy
[18:28] Speaker 3: and assistance provided by the government to reduce the price
[18:31] Speaker 3: of fuel for consumers, Nigerians braced for suffering instead of protesting,
[18:37] Speaker 3: like the deed in twenty twelve, when former President could
[18:40] Speaker 3: Lock Jonathan made the same announcement. With protests becoming increasingly
[18:47] Speaker 3: deadly a grief people in oil polluted communities have found
[18:51] Speaker 3: ways to get justice. Some seek it in the courts,
[18:54] Speaker 3: but not Nigerian courts. Although the US Supreme Court has
[18:58] Speaker 3: struck down the idea that that a multinational firm can
[19:01] Speaker 3: be held accountable in its home country for its actions overseas,
[19:05] Speaker 3: both the UK Supreme Court and the Dodge High Court
[19:08] Speaker 3: have agreed to hear cases against Shell brought by Nigerian communities.
[19:13] Speaker 3: In twenty fifteen, thousands of community members from the border
[19:18] Speaker 3: region suit Shell over the impact of chronic spills in
[19:21] Speaker 3: the area and received a settlement of more than fifty
[19:25] Speaker 3: million pounds. And even in twenty twenty three, post brexits,
[19:29] Speaker 3: the UK Supreme Court agreed to hear a case filed
[19:32] Speaker 3: on behalf of thousands of Nigerian fishermen against Shell. Elizabeth
[19:37] Speaker 3: Riscol is a law student at the University of Bristol
[19:40] Speaker 3: and jurist UK chief of staff.
[19:43] Speaker 10: In that landmark decision being made in the UK, all
[19:47] Speaker 10: cases that are involving Nigerians wanting to sue Shell are
[19:51] Speaker 10: likely to go to the UK first in the future,
[19:54] Speaker 10: especially if they're of this size, you know. So we're
[19:58] Speaker 10: unlikely to see any more Dutch cases or Nigerian cases
[20:03] Speaker 10: because there's now a relationship set up between the courts
[20:06] Speaker 10: and this judgment.
[20:10] Speaker 3: In January twenty twenty one, after thirteen years of litigation,
[20:14] Speaker 3: a Dutch court rule that shares Nigerians Subsidiary is responsible
[20:18] Speaker 3: force pills that polluted Goi rumor and they catered outdoor communities.
[20:24] Speaker 3: The company paid fifteen million euros in compensation. In early
[20:27] Speaker 3: twenty twenty three to be shared among the three communities.
[20:31] Speaker 3: The twenty twenty one You Never report on Okaney indicates
[20:35] Speaker 3: that one billion US dollars is needed for the cleanup
[20:38] Speaker 3: of Okney pollution every door from GOI is among the
[20:42] Speaker 3: farmers who won the case.
[20:47] Speaker 11: As I speak with you, some people have not even
[20:49] Speaker 11: received their own due to some unexpected issues that arises
[20:56] Speaker 11: as a result of wrong information from their banks. Not
[21:00] Speaker 11: everybody has got in their compensation, but for me, I've
[21:03] Speaker 11: gotten my majority of the people have got in their compensation.
[21:07] Speaker 8: The money that was paid was used for the renovation
[21:13] Speaker 8: of houses.
[21:15] Speaker 9: People use it.
[21:15] Speaker 8: Some people use their own in.
[21:18] Speaker 11: Acquiring landed property and the money were collated and the
[21:23] Speaker 11: using the land where they will now do alone. Some
[21:28] Speaker 11: use their own for business. Most more businesses that we
[21:32] Speaker 11: sustain them. It is some that will not use it judiciously. Also,
[21:37] Speaker 11: this morning, as I speak with you, is very small
[21:43] Speaker 11: and cannot sustain us. The swamp is where our source
[21:48] Speaker 11: of revenue, our source of livelihood comes from our people
[21:52] Speaker 11: solely depending depended on fishing and farming. And because these
[21:57] Speaker 11: streams and the swamp have been polluted, the farmland have
[22:00] Speaker 11: been pulled by crude oil.
[22:02] Speaker 8: Where will they go and where would sustainability comes from?
[22:07] Speaker 11: When our all sorts of sustainability comes from the land
[22:11] Speaker 11: and the sea, so I cannot say it is sustainable.
[22:15] Speaker 11: It is only when the government will maintain their facilities
[22:20] Speaker 11: and ensure that there is no further pollution and ensure
[22:24] Speaker 11: that the livelihood of the people are restored, the mediation
[22:27] Speaker 11: activities take place. That is when we can now sustain
[22:32] Speaker 11: what had been given to us. It wasn't sustainable at all.
[22:37] Speaker 11: It couldn't settle the problems of livelihood that have been impacted.
[22:44] Speaker 11: It couldn't settle the problem of the mediation and restoration
[22:49] Speaker 11: of our environments.
[22:52] Speaker 3: Can Tember Barrido is the coordinates of oil Watch International.
[22:55] Speaker 3: His organization campaigns against fossil fuel exploration in orgony.
[23:00] Speaker 12: I was related because for me, it was a judgment
[23:03] Speaker 12: for the people, it was a judgment for the communities,
[23:06] Speaker 12: it was a judgment for the environment. And it's a
[23:09] Speaker 12: clear lesson that you cannot cheat the people forever. If
[23:13] Speaker 12: the government does start standing with the people and start
[23:15] Speaker 12: with the multinationals, one day there.
[23:17] Speaker 8: Will be in the talk. Justice is gradually being saved.
[23:20] Speaker 12: Like Sarua said that It's not the only world and
[23:23] Speaker 12: trial Shell another multinational companies are also on trial. And
[23:26] Speaker 12: as I speak to you, the trial of mutinationals all
[23:29] Speaker 12: over the world is gaining traction and the people communities
[23:33] Speaker 12: are winning all over the world.
[23:38] Speaker 3: In my reporting, I have visited Ugani. I've watched fishermen
[23:43] Speaker 3: toil for hours and return with only a handful of fish,
[23:48] Speaker 3: oily nets and broken hearts. I've watched them open crabs
[23:52] Speaker 3: of fish to reveal oil in their gods, no living
[23:56] Speaker 3: thing has a survival chance there. Portable war in some
[24:00] Speaker 3: of the communities is nonexistent. When the tap is opened,
[24:04] Speaker 3: the smell of fruit oil feels the air. The average
[24:08] Speaker 3: life expectancy there is forty one. As Shell prepares to
[24:15] Speaker 3: sell of its subsidiary and exits Nigeria's on show exploration
[24:20] Speaker 3: to focus offshore, I wonder what the fate of polluted
[24:23] Speaker 3: communities would be. The spills are not just in Ogni,
[24:27] Speaker 3: but throughout the Niger Delta. In May twenty twenty three,
[24:30] Speaker 3: a report published by the Biosa State Oil and Environmental
[24:33] Speaker 3: Commission fingered Shell and other oil majors in massive pollution
[24:38] Speaker 3: in Biosa State. Also in Nigeria's Nigerdelta. According to the report,
[24:43] Speaker 3: shell Any Chevron total and Eggs and Mobile spilled at
[24:48] Speaker 3: least one hundred and ten thousand bars of oil in
[24:51] Speaker 3: Biosa over the past fifty years. Like the Unit Report
[24:55] Speaker 3: or Agony that specified about thirty years for a clean up,
[24:58] Speaker 3: the Bioso spills required twelve years and twelve billion dollars
[25:02] Speaker 3: to be remediated. It means that more cases would likely
[25:05] Speaker 3: make it to the courts. A very Equable is an
[25:09] Speaker 3: environmental lawyer and activist. She spoke to me from the
[25:12] Speaker 3: Country to eight Climate Conference in Dubai where there are
[25:15] Speaker 3: speculations that ironically new all ideals were being signed as
[25:19] Speaker 3: a conference was on the way.
[25:21] Speaker 13: There are so many were so many spopulations as to
[25:23] Speaker 13: the real agenda of the COP and why Uai was
[25:27] Speaker 13: the host country for COP because of course we know
[25:30] Speaker 13: that Uae is an oil rich country and all of that.
[25:35] Speaker 13: But you see there are so many that these are
[25:37] Speaker 13: all speculations. If you say you want to phase out
[25:40] Speaker 13: for silf well and by possive well coming from the
[25:43] Speaker 13: oil and gas industry, it will mean that there will
[25:45] Speaker 13: be a higher commitment financial commitment from the developed countries
[25:48] Speaker 13: or the developing countries, and would there be grants because
[25:51] Speaker 13: if you're giving us loans, the country presently is already
[25:54] Speaker 13: on the recession. But I'm looking at it, I'm perspectible.
[25:57] Speaker 13: What are there's going to be increasing in the oil
[26:00] Speaker 13: and gas sector unless oil and gas is phased out
[26:05] Speaker 13: in Nigeria. They definitely we keep on being litigation issues.
[26:10] Speaker 13: Existence of pollution is of degradationalgation. And of course the
[26:15] Speaker 13: people who keep suing the oil.
[26:17] Speaker 3: Companies ideals at the Climate conference, even as shelf is
[26:26] Speaker 3: to resume oil exploration. In Organy Celesting and Caby Robbery,
[26:32] Speaker 3: coordinator of Organist Solidarity firm, says that the government and
[26:36] Speaker 3: oil companies are trying in different ways to stifle the
[26:40] Speaker 3: voices of local people. In his words, the.
[26:43] Speaker 6: Plan of the government before that education what to make
[26:46] Speaker 6: organic land and oil feed where no human being we live.
[26:50] Speaker 6: But after the education and they saw international cry and condemnation,
[26:56] Speaker 6: the showers were later withdrawn from oganland after two years.
[27:00] Speaker 6: And that's why some of us see our life since
[27:04] Speaker 6: I was than it is okay because I'm there are
[27:09] Speaker 6: being several leakages. In fact that it is hardly a
[27:12] Speaker 6: week we passed without any serious OI spill. Don't forget
[27:20] Speaker 6: that the transn that that are pipeline, the pipeline that
[27:24] Speaker 6: conveyed every croup oil produced in the Niger Deta to
[27:27] Speaker 6: Borney as PARTI and our passes through a gun line.
[27:29] Speaker 6: And so every time you see explosions, you see leakages.
[27:36] Speaker 6: The warehas of the oil companies are still here. You know,
[27:40] Speaker 6: they don't carry out rotentions, so from time to time
[27:43] Speaker 6: there are leakages and spills.
[27:46] Speaker 3: Our library says one way that Shell and the government
[27:50] Speaker 3: deal with the protests in the country today is to
[27:52] Speaker 3: try to turn some of the more vocal leaders in
[27:55] Speaker 3: the environmental movement into allies to divide and conquer. It's
[28:00] Speaker 3: a common tactic deployed by the fossil fuel industry all
[28:03] Speaker 3: over the world, as is another tactic used in Nigeria
[28:08] Speaker 3: in filteration.
[28:09] Speaker 6: As we speak, the movement for the survivor of gun
[28:13] Speaker 6: people have been infiltrated by government and the oil companies.
[28:17] Speaker 6: So the extent that we you now have five different
[28:20] Speaker 6: factions with five different presidents. The only way to keep
[28:25] Speaker 6: movement is to poorarize the movement.
[28:28] Speaker 3: He says. The military and judicial systems have been corrupted
[28:31] Speaker 3: as well. They use the military to chase people.
[28:35] Speaker 6: They adopt divide a rule, get people to bribe them
[28:38] Speaker 6: on the pedal, then they go to then court.
[28:41] Speaker 5: They compare you.
[28:42] Speaker 6: You go to court and they will keep bribing the judges,
[28:45] Speaker 6: bribing the courts until somebody who died that we die
[28:49] Speaker 6: or people get tired, but they all get sick and
[28:51] Speaker 6: can't go to court.
[28:52] Speaker 9: Togel.
[28:53] Speaker 6: The current President of Nigeria, presidentbul Ahmed, appointed the former
[29:02] Speaker 6: MASSA president ledle Meete, the only man that survived the
[29:07] Speaker 6: young man he went on trial with cancer Awar. It
[29:11] Speaker 6: was the president of MASA that took over from cancer Awar.
[29:15] Speaker 6: He aretabably appointed or not other board but an emprincible
[29:20] Speaker 6: that did a national patorium compression.
[29:23] Speaker 3: Just to make sure you caught that. In late twenty
[29:26] Speaker 3: twenty three, the President of Nigeria appointed leadle Meete, a
[29:31] Speaker 3: man who stood trial with cancer. We were and took
[29:34] Speaker 3: over as president of MOSSOP. After they were going to
[29:36] Speaker 3: nine were executed to the board of the Nigerian National
[29:40] Speaker 3: Petroleum Corporation.
[29:42] Speaker 9: Well, we went to fight them.
[29:43] Speaker 6: They have spent billions of money bribing people. They want
[29:48] Speaker 6: to kick start by production without addressing the legitimate issues
[29:54] Speaker 6: that they're going to people and that enshineding they're going
[29:57] Speaker 6: to be the right.
[30:02] Speaker 3: In two thousand and five, the Leavin Memorial, an art
[30:06] Speaker 3: installation created from a life sized boss, was commissioned by
[30:10] Speaker 3: the UK Activist collective Platform and designed by the Nigerian
[30:14] Speaker 3: British artist so Carried Douglas Camp to highlight the importance
[30:18] Speaker 3: of transportation in environmental debate. In twenty fifteen, it was
[30:23] Speaker 3: sent as a gift to Aguni people to mark the
[30:26] Speaker 3: twentyeth anniversary of the death of the Uguni Nine, alongside
[30:31] Speaker 3: annivasary flyers designed to commemorate the event. It was seized
[30:35] Speaker 3: by the Nigerian Customs and the Director of Secret Service DSS.
[30:41] Speaker 3: The boss, which had been on display in the UK
[30:44] Speaker 3: for nine years, had Sarawewa's name on the side and
[30:47] Speaker 3: the names of the eight other men inscribed on oil
[30:51] Speaker 3: drums on top of the bus, along with a quote
[30:54] Speaker 3: from Sarawewa I accused the oil companies of practicing genocide
[30:58] Speaker 3: against the Agni in what has been termed a move
[31:02] Speaker 3: to suppress the memory of the mattered activists. It was
[31:06] Speaker 3: seized for its quote political value. It is seen as
[31:10] Speaker 3: a symbol of protests.
[31:12] Speaker 6: The Boss did not commit any offense.
[31:14] Speaker 8: It is just an artwork.
[31:16] Speaker 6: The former head of Customs Nadia Customs, Ahmed Ali, was
[31:23] Speaker 6: the only military officer that sat on the Kangaroo tribuna
[31:29] Speaker 6: the sentence cancer overa to death.
[31:34] Speaker 3: When you learn that the head of Customs who kept
[31:36] Speaker 3: blocking the Boss happened to have been the only military
[31:40] Speaker 3: officer involved in sentencing cancer you were to death in
[31:43] Speaker 3: nineteen ninety five, his decision to block the Boss suddenly
[31:47] Speaker 3: takes on more.
[31:47] Speaker 6: Meaning and so everything in the name of cancer were
[31:51] Speaker 6: should not be honored. And he does not know as
[31:54] Speaker 6: a separatest personal biasis from this work. As head across
[32:02] Speaker 6: from Nigeria. The same people that send the Boss send
[32:05] Speaker 6: some flyers the boxes turning the flyers.
[32:09] Speaker 5: We're also seized.
[32:10] Speaker 6: By the DSYS at a different agency of government, different
[32:15] Speaker 6: arm paper flyers, simply because we will use the flyers
[32:21] Speaker 6: for the commemoration of cancer or work.
[32:25] Speaker 3: He says that the government seems to be afraid that
[32:28] Speaker 3: anything celebrating cancer. We were we just inspired, the were
[32:32] Speaker 3: going to people to keep fighting and that's the last
[32:35] Speaker 3: thing the government wants.
[32:40] Speaker 6: We have been pushed at the wall. We are taken
[32:42] Speaker 6: our destiny in our hands. If we see that we take,
[32:46] Speaker 6: we see life we take. But we are not afraid
[32:50] Speaker 6: of what the oppressor we throw at us. They have
[32:54] Speaker 6: divided of our hands. Definitely were prone hunger.
[32:59] Speaker 3: The government ment has used all of its power to
[33:02] Speaker 3: fight against its own people in Uguni on behalf of
[33:06] Speaker 3: foreign oil companies.
[33:07] Speaker 6: The oil companies cannot do without the military and the police.
[33:12] Speaker 6: In nineteen ninety you had this story in a chair.
[33:15] Speaker 6: We had the community people went to the gate of
[33:17] Speaker 6: Share to come back for water and according the riot
[33:21] Speaker 6: policemen that came into Key people out of fear. Community
[33:26] Speaker 6: people ran into the pallas of the king. But these
[33:31] Speaker 6: men that do not have respect for no but they
[33:33] Speaker 6: got into the palace, set the palace on fire, the
[33:37] Speaker 6: key to the king, keys, wise and children and every
[33:40] Speaker 6: present that ran into the palace'll be arrested by military men.
[33:46] Speaker 6: I can't forget one all the time. Myself, Nimmo, Basi,
[33:49] Speaker 6: Chaga and several complexts were there before we knew it.
[33:53] Speaker 6: One trunk load of soldiers. I can't and because up
[33:56] Speaker 6: they didn't tell where they were taken us two. But
[33:59] Speaker 6: the good thing that before they picked phones from us.
[34:02] Speaker 6: We are communicated the journalists they saw it and for them,
[34:06] Speaker 6: hey these people you're here. There are important people and
[34:10] Speaker 6: we were release. I don't know what they would have
[34:13] Speaker 6: kid us government gave them power to carry arms.
[34:18] Speaker 3: In twenty sixteen, Nigeria's National Assembly as the Customs Office
[34:22] Speaker 3: to release the Boss. The service flouted the directive, so
[34:26] Speaker 3: the organly Solidarity from Nigeria and Social Action found the
[34:30] Speaker 3: lawsuit in the Federal High Court. I reached out to
[34:33] Speaker 3: the Nigeria Custom Service to get their comment on the bus,
[34:37] Speaker 3: but they did not send back any reply. In June
[34:40] Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, after Connell Hammed Ali left his posts
[34:44] Speaker 3: as Controller General of the Nigerian Custom Service, according Legas
[34:49] Speaker 3: ordered that the Boss be released. Celestine was happy. He
[34:53] Speaker 3: imagined that it will be released right and time to
[34:56] Speaker 3: be fully displayed. On November tenth, twenty two three, he
[35:01] Speaker 3: had plans to dress the Boss in traditional clothes and
[35:05] Speaker 3: honor it in a parade.
[35:07] Speaker 6: The Boss will be on a truck as you tire
[35:10] Speaker 6: uppart on the waste of important people dialdic Boss will
[35:14] Speaker 6: be tied a clock who dressed the boat. Traditionally we
[35:18] Speaker 6: treat the Boss as a human being and a lot
[35:22] Speaker 6: of traditional dances. It will take like three days.
[35:26] Speaker 3: But again he was disappointed, as were his Orgoni kinsman.
[35:31] Speaker 3: The Boss did not make an appearance on this twenty
[35:35] Speaker 3: eighth anniversary. The Nigerian customs did not release the Boss
[35:39] Speaker 3: despite the court order exiling far away USA. The Neebari
[35:45] Speaker 3: Agstin Queynan has never joined the memorial event in Agni.
[35:50] Speaker 3: He is the younger brother of John Wunan, one of
[35:53] Speaker 3: the Orgoni nine. He fled to Benet in nineteen ninety
[35:56] Speaker 3: six and then to the USA three years later.
[36:01] Speaker 8: My elder brother left down.
[36:03] Speaker 5: Willen was so dear to me.
[36:07] Speaker 14: He was like a father because our father left when
[36:11] Speaker 14: I was like twelve years old. So when he was
[36:15] Speaker 14: the very reason I joined the Movelevo the survivor Na people.
[36:19] Speaker 9: He was a very good Christian.
[36:21] Speaker 14: Paul Cultimo told me that he was going to kill
[36:24] Speaker 14: me and that was how I escaped the hangman, even
[36:27] Speaker 14: though they would have killed me too.
[36:31] Speaker 3: The night before the anniversary in the city of Portacus,
[36:34] Speaker 3: the crowd had gathered in front of Sarawa's house, a
[36:37] Speaker 3: two story building situated a few meters between the Portacar
[36:41] Speaker 3: Prisons where they organ in nine were incarcerated on the
[36:44] Speaker 3: right and Portacut Cemetery where they were buried before Sara
[36:48] Speaker 3: Wella's exumption on the left. Ken Sarah we were leaved
[36:52] Speaker 3: between the two facilities that sealed his fate. As the
[36:57] Speaker 3: lead candles and prayed laureate of the Right's Livelihood of
[37:01] Speaker 3: World and one of Time Magazine's Heroes of the Environment,
[37:05] Speaker 3: Nimo Bassi spoke to the new generation of protesters.
[37:10] Speaker 15: The whole lot of young people here tonight who were
[37:14] Speaker 15: not born when this event happened, but they have lived
[37:19] Speaker 15: the experience of what led to this struggle. Children who
[37:24] Speaker 15: were born after those who are born even today they
[37:27] Speaker 15: are living in Niger data where all those hams are
[37:31] Speaker 15: still happening.
[37:33] Speaker 5: I thought this is a very significant to remind the.
[37:36] Speaker 15: People that look, this struggle is not over, and the
[37:41] Speaker 15: young people was engaged in the struggle.
[37:45] Speaker 3: In October twenty twenty three, another oil spill occurred in
[37:49] Speaker 3: ky Dairy community of Kukana Local Government Area of River State.
[37:53] Speaker 3: It took Shell five days to stop the Gershian crude.
[37:58] Speaker 3: Chelle had denied that it's old pipe clients were responsible
[38:01] Speaker 3: for spills. As we're producing this episode, I heard some
[38:05] Speaker 3: news from Mogani.
[38:07] Speaker 14: So they are supposed to inform us. They are supposed
[38:12] Speaker 14: to consult the people and tell them that okay, if
[38:16] Speaker 14: we are then routine maintenance which is necessary that they
[38:21] Speaker 14: should do because it is the lack of that that
[38:25] Speaker 14: make oil spillages destroy our environment because of ruptured.
[38:30] Speaker 5: Pipe and.
[38:32] Speaker 8: Five that were laid in the fifties.
[38:35] Speaker 3: Today we in and works for the organization that cancer
[38:38] Speaker 3: Welway started MOSSAMP. In February, several indigenous people from the
[38:43] Speaker 3: ky Dairy community reported seeing men out working on oil
[38:47] Speaker 3: pipes in the region. Share is selling off its own
[38:50] Speaker 3: show business in Nigeria, so no one will show what
[38:54] Speaker 3: was going on, especially as security guard in the science
[38:57] Speaker 3: were aggressive towards curious visitors. Within a few days, it
[39:02] Speaker 3: was confirmed that they were working for Shell repairing pipelines
[39:06] Speaker 3: in the region.
[39:07] Speaker 14: So if they are coming to repair or changing the pipes,
[39:12] Speaker 14: they should never ship our consulted people and let them
[39:16] Speaker 14: know what they are coming to do in their place. Well,
[39:20] Speaker 14: that is not done, and they just one morning wake
[39:24] Speaker 14: up and started digging people's land and proper destroying what
[39:28] Speaker 14: belongs to people. Without consultation or that all those things
[39:31] Speaker 14: are unacceptable and they look it means.
[39:36] Speaker 8: That they don't regard us as people.
[39:39] Speaker 3: There is no respect, no respect from Shell, but also
[39:43] Speaker 3: no respect from the Nigerian government.
[39:46] Speaker 14: He says, government don't own no Gouni. There was agony
[39:50] Speaker 14: before Nigeria. In fact, Agi existed hundreds of years before
[39:55] Speaker 14: the contraption called Nigeria came in. That was just about
[40:00] Speaker 14: one hundred years ago. And while Ogoni have lived long
[40:05] Speaker 14: longer time longest before that Nigeria we were forcing to Nigeria.
[40:12] Speaker 5: We were living on our own.
[40:13] Speaker 14: There is no nationality in Nigeria that can lay claim
[40:17] Speaker 14: to Aguli that they were ruling the Buddy people before
[40:21] Speaker 14: the British government came in. And I know that we
[40:25] Speaker 14: are under the people that have a very strong story
[40:28] Speaker 14: that the British can always tell about because of the resistance.
[40:33] Speaker 14: Three times they tried to come to colonize of body
[40:36] Speaker 14: people and they failed.
[40:39] Speaker 3: On the land and in the courts. The Aguni are
[40:43] Speaker 3: still resisting today. Read It's an original Critical Frequency production.
[40:53] Speaker 3: This episode was reported and written by me Uguchi and
[40:57] Speaker 3: with recording assistance by Immanual we.
[41:00] Speaker 15: Our senior editors are Alien Brown and Sarah Ventry.
[41:04] Speaker 3: Malos Starling contributed reporting to this episode.
[41:07] Speaker 2: Our senior producer is Martin Saltz Austwick.
[41:10] Speaker 16: Martin also did the sound design in scoring for this episode.
[41:14] Speaker 3: And composed much of our music.
[41:17] Speaker 9: A theme song is Better in the Hand by four Known.
[41:20] Speaker 16: Mixing and mastering by Peter Duff, fact checking by Rudan Jan.
[41:25] Speaker 3: Our artwork is by Matt Fleming.
[41:27] Speaker 16: James Wheaton is our First Amendment attorney. The show was
[41:31] Speaker 16: created by Amy Westerveldt, who has.
[41:33] Speaker 3: Helped edit this episode. More stories and documents from this
[41:37] Speaker 3: series are online at Trio dot Media.
[41:41] Speaker 16: You can also sign up for our newsletter there to
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[41:48] Speaker 2: It's never more than a ten minute read, and people
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[42:10] Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week.

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