by Cheta Nwanze
In August 2011 when it was announced that cleaning up Ogoniland in the Niger Delta region would cost at least $1 billion, and would take up to a generation, only two of Nigeria’s online media outlets considered the story worthy of being their lead as soon as the report was released. Some did not even cover it at all.
In Nigerian dominated online chatrooms and forums, the story just got a cursory mention, not much of a glance, and people mainly moved on to the more important topics of Hamza al-Mustapha’s claims about the conduct of Afenifere chieftains, and of course, Barack Obama’s 50th birthday which was on the same day as that announcement.
Those actions showed two things: Nigerians are not their brothers’ keepers, and more importantly, Nigerians, especially the “educated” middle classes who have almost constant internet access, including “the better enlightened diasporans” have little or no sense of what truly is important.
For this article, I am more concerned about our lack of empathy towards one another. Our sense of focus is another topic, one for a PhD dissertation.
For comparison’s sake, almost as soon as the Ogoni report was released in Abuja, it became breaking news on the BBC, and was third lead story on CNN, second lead on Al-Jazeera. The first Nigerian station to make it lead story was the oft-criticised, and now moribund NN24, which made it lead about three hours after the BBC. Channels TV for a very long time only had it as a rolling ticker. To be fair to the FG, President Jonathan talked about the report. On the night, it was the NTA’s top story in their 2100 network news bulletin.
Now, for the sake of clarity, the report in question, coupled with Royal Dutch Shell’s acceptance of culpability in a limited number of oil spills the previous day is one that had/has the capability of turning our entire oil industry on its head. Shell is meant to pay out a hefty sum to the Bodo community for damages, an unprecedented move in the Nigerian work space, and one with far reaching implications for our oil industry as more communities rush to Western courts in order to get justice for oil spills. It is VERY instructive that the community in question failed to get justice in Nigeria, and had to go to the UK to achieve that. As far as I know the payment has yet to be made as Shell is appealing, but like the lack of focus thing talked about earlier, dat na PhD topic.
What we will be seeing in the coming years is a rash of class action suits against the oil majors (and maybe other multinationals) in their own home jurisdictions. These suits will no doubt be aided by Western lawyers, who would of course offer the communities no-win, no-fee deals. The result could well be that the oil majors may adopt global best practices in our country, finally…
Or will they?
No, they are selling off and shutting shop gradually as other countries make oil finds, and well, there is shale oil.
Like it or not, a lot of what will happen rests squarely with the Federal Government. A lot depended on how the FG reacted to the UN report which made it clear that the amount of oil spilled in Ogoni land is way more than what has ever been accepted by the oil majors. Sadly, how it reacted to first, Shell’s admittance of culpability in Bodo left a lot to be desired.
Will the FG finally begin to make efforts to hold these foreign firms, and in many cases, their local partners to account? Will our Federal Government finally begin to look out for the interests of the Nigerian people?
On the evidence of the reaction to the initial announcement, and the fact that two years later, the Petroleum Industry Bill in whatever form has yet to be passed, I sincerely doubt that, and I will explain why…
You see, regardless of whether we like it or not, our government emanates from the people of Nigeria. The current officials in government were for the most part “floor members” of the community just over a decade ago. What has made them so far and above the rest of us? It is the culture of acceptance, the culture of impunity, and above all, as exemplified by the muted reaction to the UN report, the fact that in reality, we are not our brothers’ keepers.
For the records, THAT is what has to change before our country can even begin to go from its current state of failure, to any form of progress, no matter how little. We the people of Nigeria have to learn to care for one another genuinely, regardless of our stations in life.
I will end this with one of my favourite quotes, from a chap named Niemöller. He wrote,
“First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
hmm…
with time there will be solutions we just have to be patient and if not that the country has been plauged by Boko haram, we would have gone far.
Excellent work of the 21st century.
Good job of the 21st century keep it up.