The Dutch
parliament yesterday placed the Royal Dutch Shell before the mirror in
a groundbreaking act of scrutiny over the severe environmental and
social footprint of the oil giant on the Niger Delta.
Shell may be the
only one being grilled but that does not by any means suggest that the
likes of Chevron, Exxon, ENI and Total are not mired in the serial
abuses in the region. The spotlight at The Hague needs to be replicated
in Washington, Rome, Paris, Oslo, and elsewhere.
The Dutch
parliament’s action is very significant and illustrates how lawmakers
should keep their ears open to the cries of the peoples they represent.
It should send a signal to their counterparts in Nigeria who prefer to
keep a blind eye to the destructive extractive practices going on in
the country.
It is widely
acknowledged that Shell’s operations in Nigeria fall far short of
international standards. They do not only spill huge volumes of crude
into the marshlands and creeks of the delta, they have also been
stoking the air with toxins and greenhouse gases for decades with no
sign that this will stop.
It should be noted
that the Dutch parliamentarians are not examining Shell’s actions based
on mere hearsay, some of them had to come to the Niger Delta to see
things for themselves. As has been said, the evidence of the eyes
speaks far more than what is merely told and heard. It is also
significant that these parliamentarians did not merely visit the area
but also spent time with the oil giant, hearing their stories and
probably having helicopter rides over the incredibly ravaged area.
That some of the
parliamentarians came to the Niger Delta must be seen as an indication
of their commitment to seek information that should guide their
decisions and positions in the face of warnings that the region is a
no-go area and should not be visited by foreigners.
Discovery mission
One of such
parliamentarians to come on a fact-finding visit is Ms. Sharon
Gesthuizen, of the Socialist Party. She is also the spokesperson of the
economic committee.
When she visited in
December, we went to Oben, Edo State, with her, community people, and
Sunny Ofehe of the Hope for Niger Delta Campaign (HNDC). Our mission
was to see a typical gas flare. And we did.
The facility was
set up by Shell over 30 years ago and has been noisily belching toxic
elements into the atmosphere all this time. But officers of the Joint
Military Task Force (JTF) would not allow us to leave the location.
They kept us there until almost midnight before letting us off.
The worst part of
this illegal restriction of Nigerians and a foreign parliamentarian was
that the soldiers refused to notify their superior officers of their
actions and instead resorted to a series of threats, literally at
gunpoint. Regrettable as that incident was, it helped to underscore the
insecurity in the region and the serious curtailment of the freedom of
movement of the people.
If there is one
thing that oil companies hate, it is being placed in a situation where
they have to respond to issues relating to their activities in the oil
fields they bestride as conquerors. This is understandable seeing that
the world is so dependent on crude oil and national energy security has
been equated to overall security of nations.
Indeed, the oil
companies hold the ace in international politics and have the ears of
players in state houses and can even chew those ears if and when they
wish. At their behest, wars are fought and at their behest policies are
shaped to ensure that their wishes come through.
The embedded nature
of the companies in the seats of power provides them the audacity to
ride roughshod over environments and local peoples in the most blatant
ways imaginable.
While the Dutch
parliament is examining the situation, Friends of the Earth
International, Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) and
Amnesty International have filed a complaint against the oil company
before the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) over the company’s outrageous claims that oil spills in the
Niger Delta are almost entirely due to acts of the local communities.
The complaint was
filed with the Dutch National Contact Point to the OECD and brings up
questions on the non-transparent, inconsistent and misleading figures
that Shell has given with regard to the causes of oil leaks in Nigeria.
The complaint pushes the position that Shell’s claims are unjust and
that the figures are random and are not independently verified.
One must say that
this is not the first time that the company has been challenged over
serious statistics. They were challenged in the past over related
spills percentages used in advertisements in the United Kingdom. They
backed down after the challenge and stopped their advertisements that
sought to lay the bulk of the blame on third party actions.
United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) officials, with regard to their research
work in Ogoni, picked up current figures cooked by their propagandists.
Whereas UNEP thereafter sought to distance itself from the percentages
cooked by Shell, the oil company still insists on referring to UNEP as
having validated their position about the victims being the guilty
ones.
It is hoped that
Shell’s day in the dock of the Dutch parliament will help the world to
see the danger of having corporations continue with impunity on the
ground and then use random figures to attempt to hoodwink the world.
As we watch events
unfold, the question must be asked: when will our lawmakers wake up to
the environmental and human tragedies in our nation?
