Oronto Douglas: A Messenger of Justice
EVincent Obia nvironmental rights activist Oronto Douglas accepts that he may not be the most pained victim of oil production in the Niger Delta or the most qualified mouthpiece of the neglected natives, but he remains unapologetic in his demand for justice for the delta.
“If being unswerving in the demand for justice for my people and being called names by reapers of the present socioeconomic iniquity against the Niger Delta peoples is what it means to be a rebel in Nigeria,” he told Daily Independent, “then I would say I am happy to be an unrepentant rebel.”
The Niger Delta has suffered vicious economic, political, and military repression since petroleum oil was discovered in the region in the late 1950s. The people feel that the Nigerian state and the oil multinationals – particularly Shell – have worked in a criminal alliance to orchestrate this violence against the land and inhabitants of the Niger Delta in order to perpetuate exploitation and expropriation of the delta’s oil resources. Despite the region’s abundant oil wealth, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the Nigerian government revenues, the Niger Delta remains a sorry picture in virtually all human development indices.
If “robotic acceptance” of this condition is loyalty, “resistance” could well be the better option, Douglas believes.
Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the group that has claimed responsibility for attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta since late last year, “to prevent Nigeria from exporting oil,” is certainly resisting perceived injustice against the region’s peoples. “We will attack all oil companies, including Chevron facilities. Pipelines, loading points, export tankers, tank farms, refined petroleum depots, landing strips and residences of employees of these companies can expect to be attacked. We know where they live, shop and where the children go to school,” MEND, whose attacks have been mainly on installations belonging to Shell, stated in a release posted by e-mail to media houses.
MEND is waging an armed struggle with a base that is built more on popular opposition to economic injustice symbolised by the oil infrastructure in the delta than approval of their tactic.
The group kidnapped nine foreign oil workers on February 18, the second of such action since January. Six of the men were released on March 1, and the group says its demands, which include release of two Ijaw leaders - Alhaji Mujaheed Asari Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, and ex-governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State who are being detained and tried by the Federal Government, respectively, for alleged treason and money laundering – and greater local control of Niger Delta’s oil wealth, must be met before the rest three hostages would be allowed to go.
MEND has come to recognise Douglas as more than just an opponent of the exploitative status quo that they hate so much. They see him as one who could be trusted to negotiate a lasting peace in the seething Niger Delta with the Federal Government.
“Dear Oronto,” MEND wrote in an e-mailed letter inviting Douglas to be a mediator between them and the Federal Government, “we are in agreement that you be asked to stand in between our group … and the Nigerian government in negotiating our conditions for the cessation of attacks against the oil industry. Our conditions are, the release of Asari and Alamieyeseigha, payment of compensation of $1.5 billion U S dollars by Shell as damages for pollution suffered by communities in Bayelsa State, the control of the resources of the Niger Delta by the people of the Niger Delta, and related issues such as compensations and claims relating to the operation of oil companies in the Niger Delta.”
A leading environmental human rights attorney who was called to the Supreme Court of Nigeria as an advocate in 1992, Douglas, 39, was educated in Nigeria and England. He has traveled widely throughout Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa, and presented papers and lectures in universities and community organised events.
Issues of livelihood, environmental rights, natural resource protection, and community development are passionate to him. As a result of his activism, he has been arrested, harassed, tortured, and detained by successive military regimes in Nigeria.
Douglas has met with several world leaders including former United States president Bill Clinton, chancellor of British Exchequer, Mr. Gordon Brown, former Canadian finance minister Paul Martin, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, several Ambassadors, top United Nations officials, among others.
He has given parliamentary briefings in Ireland, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, etc, on the state of environmental rights in his native Niger Delta and Nigeria. He was in the defense team of the Ogoni minority rights leader, environmentalist, and writer Ken Saro Wiwa who became a victim of “judicial murder” by the General Sani Abacha regime in 1995.
Most people have been impressed with Douglas’ clear understanding of the Niger Delta question and his dogged belief in political, rather than military, answer to the question – something that became more apparent in his contributions to the National Political Reform Conference.
Douglas has lashed out at the Nigerian government for failing to tackle the Niger Delta problem genuinely and allowing the people’s struggle to be hijacked by “fringe groups.”
Now, he is saddled with making the best out of the bad situation. It remains to be seen whether the Nigerian government would listen to him and act sincerely this time.
– This article was first published in Daily Independent, Tuesday, March 21, 2006.