by Chimeka Garricks

 

For years, Big Oil has alleged that the bulk of spills are caused by sabotage (for example, according to a Reuters article, Shell admits that 198 spills occurred last year, of which 37 were caused by operational failure and 161 by sabotage).  But, perhaps because of our default-mode distrust of corporations, we’ve largely ignored their claims.

I follow @dejitinubu on Twitter.  His profile says, “If not for birds and booze, I would’ve played for England”.

I understand. If I’d been allowed to play football as child, I’d be a professional footballer now.  I blame my mother. When other kids played outside and honed their skills, I was stuck indoors, being a nerd, on her orders. I never consider that I may not have had the skill, discipline, luck, and other variables to succeed. No. It’s all her fault. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.

Scapegoats. We all have them.  Many atheists blame most of the world’s evils on religion; some Nigerians hold the politicians solely responsible for our corruption; some Africans blame underdevelopment on slavery/colonialism/the IMF; and several controversial refereeing decisions in English football are blamed on Manchester United.

Scapegoating can range from the partially true to the downright delusional, from serious life-and-death issues to the trivial. But in all cases, it distracts from the real and complete causes of the problem.  And without addressing those, solutions can never be found.

Now, let’s talk about the oil spills in the Niger Delta. We all know the stories, have seen the pictures/clips, and probably gotten the tee-shirts. But, what/who causes most of the oil spills?

The party line and single story from the media and activists is that it’s all Big Oil’s fault.  Big Oil’s pipelines are old and not properly maintained; Big Oil is corrupt and has compromised the government, regulatory authorities, security agencies, and judiciary.  These claims may be true, but they are not the whole truth.

In 2008, 4 Nigerian farmers and fishermen, as well as Friends of the Earth Netherlands (‘Milieudefensie’) filed 5 cases at the district court of The Hague, against Royal Dutch Shell (‘RDS’) and SPDC, its Nigerian subsidiary. The claims were for compensation and damages for 5 oil spills, which were all allegedly caused by poor maintenance of pipelines. It was a landmark because it was the first time a Dutch company was sued in the Netherlands over oil pollution in another country.

On 30th January 2013, the court delivered its judgment.  It dismissed 4 of the 5 cases.  In the final case, it decided that SPDC (not RDS,) had violated a duty of care, was liable for negligence, and should pay damages (to be decided later,) to that claimant, Mr. Friday Akpan, a farmer.

But the interesting part of the judgment was that the court found that all 5 oil spills were caused by sabotage. Even the spills which affected Mr. Akpan were caused by 2 incidents of sabotage in 2006 and 2007 with a simple monkey wrench, and SPDC was liable only because it could have prevented the sabotage by installing concrete plugs before 2006. In the other 4 cases, the claims were dismissed because the court was satisfied that SPDC had taken sufficient precautions to prevent sabotage to its underground pipelines (though the sabotage still occurred).

For years, Big Oil has alleged that the bulk of spills are caused by sabotage (for example, according to a Reuters article, Shell admits that 198 spills occurred last year, of which 37 were caused by operational failure and 161 by sabotage).  But, perhaps because of our default-mode distrust of corporations, we’ve largely ignored their claims. Unwittingly, the Dutch court confirmed these claims by finding that all 5 spills were caused by sabotage.  Is this causation part of the story being harped on by the media, activists, and government? Did it evoke any outrage?  Has it earned a hashtag on Twitter?

As we say, “na beans?”  Big Oil is still the scapegoat.  Media focus is mainly on Mr. Akpan’s David-versus-Goliath victory, which should be celebrated, but is not the entire story.  It is expected that SPDC and Mr. Akpan will negotiate a settlement.  After that, the tragicomedy continues.  Some Nigerians will continue to steal oil and cause spills, and the rest of us, when we bother to be shocked, will mainly pour our ire on Big Oil, the pantomime villain. This reminds me of Tupac’s lyrics in ‘Only God Can Judge Me’ – “And they say it’s the white man I should fear/ but it’s my own kind doing all the killing here”.

Milieudefensie are reported to be “stunned” by the judgment and intend to appeal.  If they are still buying the naïve narrative of Oil Company-Bad, Local People-Good, I hope the penny drops soon.  I wasn’t surprised by the judgment.  I have practiced law since 2001, doing a considerable amount of my work in oil spill litigation.  In my opinion, at least 80% of oil spill cases in Nigerian courts are unjustified (either because the claims are fictitious, shamelessly exaggerated, caused by sabotage, or exacerbated by delays or refusal to grant access to clean-up crews).

Don’t misunderstand me – I am not absolving Big Oil from complicity in the catastrophe we call the Niger Delta, God knows they have contributed more than their (un)fair share.  I am saying, Nigerians have contributed significantly more.  And until we acknowledge this, stop blaming everybody but ourselves, take serious steps to tackle sabotage/theft, oil spills will continue to poison our lands and people.

The choice is ours.  We can keep pointing hypocritical fingers at Big Oil, while nothing meaningful gets done.  Or we can do like Pogo, Walt Kelly’s comic-strip character, and say, “We have met the enemy and he is us”.

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Follow Chimeka Garricks on Twitter @ChimekaGarricks

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.