Nigeria - poverty amid plenty

Despite claims that Shell has lifted its game, it still burns rather than processes most of the natural gas that is pumped to the surface with the oil. The resulting flares contribute more greenhouse gases than all other sources from sub-Saharan Africa combined. The flaring also condemns adjacent communities to acid rain, increased asthma and cancer rates, and premature death.

When ERA and FoE International joined with local communities to mount what turned out to be a successful court case against the gas flaring in the Iwherekan community in Delta State, Shell decided it didn't want to accept the courts findings. Despite a demand from High Court Justice C.V. Nwokorie that flaring stop by the end of 2006, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (Shell) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) did not take, in the opinion of the community, sufficient action. According to Nnimmo Bassey, of ERAand FoE Nigeria:

Since judgment was passed Shell has not halted her illegal activities. What we are witnessing is a clear demonstration of the fact that Shell has scant respect for the lives of the people in whose communities they carry on their business. While the people are dying, Shell cares only for her profits. We see a multinational corporation that has no respect for the rule of law but who at every turn loves to characterise local people as vandals and saboteurs.

The judge also declared the Nigerian gas flaring law to be unconstitutional. Contempt of court proceedings began in the Federal High Court of Nigeria in December 2005 against Shell and the NNPC for disobeying the court order. This case continues.

Nnimmo Bassey is the director of ERA, and has been a relentless advocate for justice in the Delta region. He identifies the broad community demands to the oil industry as being:

• keep oil in the ground. There should be an immediate moratorium on new developments as well as an assessment of existing operations, with a view to bringing them up to standards which would be acceptable in countries like Australia;
• there should be community control over community resources (including the question of whether future drilling occurs); and
• oil companies should honour the court processes.

The situation is as bad now as it was in the mid-1990s when the Ogoni struggle was known worldwide. What I heard during my brief visit was a clear call for a rebuilding of a global movement for solidarity. This can be done: we can remind our organisations, friends and community about what is going on; we can start to ask questions of Shell and the other companies about their actions in the Delta and why they still flare gas; we can demand community control over the local resources; we can make the corporations accountable.

Apart from the simple necessity of human solidarity, support for affected communities would also be a responsible action for people in places like Australia, where demand for oil is driving global warming and ecological destruction across most, if not all of the major oil producing regions across the planet.