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Economics of Extraction
by Ben Amunwa This article first appeared in Foto8 magazine, The Legacy of Oil edition, 14 October 2010. Outside the plane window at the Niger Delta, the oil region of Nigeria, I can see a solid bed of rainforest with wide ribbons of water the colour of coffee dregs coiling through it. I try to…
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The price of oil: Shell in the Niger Delta
This blog first appeared on the Greenpeace UK blog on 7 October 2011. This time last year I was standing in a vast pool of oily water. It used to be a fish pond for local villagers, but now everywhere was coated with oil and the stench of petroleum was overpowering. A light rain was falling.…
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Shell has admitted liability but has a long way to go to make amends
This article first appeared in The Guardian, Comment is Free on 4 August 2011. by Patrick Naagbanton, as told to Ben Amunwa Oil spills destroyed my village in Nigeria and decades of environmental and social injustice are still to be addressed Shell’s admission of liability for two massive oil spills in 2008-09 in my village of…
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The FCO’s Human Rights Work 2010-11
Evidence submitted to the Parliamentary the Foreign Affairs Committee. The Committee’s inquiry posed the question of whether the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s mandate in prioritising British business interests contradicted its human rights mandate.
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World remembers Saro-Wiwa hangings
This blog post first appeared in the Comment Factory on 12 November 2010. World remembers Saro-Wiwa hangings by Ben Amunwa Fifteen years ago, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others were executed by the Nigerian military government, in collaboration with Shell Nigeria. The oil giant is under fresh scrutiny after secret documents revealed in The Guardian expose how Shell tried to cover…
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Oil firms must compensate the people of Nigeria
Platform coordinated this letter in the Observer newspaper, originally published on 4 July 2010. Oil firms must compensate the people of Nigeria Grilled in Congress, shares down to £3 and forced to pledge billions of dollars in compensation, BP is paying the price for the damage it has caused in the Gulf of Mexico –…
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Shell Must Clean Up Its Act in Nigeria
First published in The Guardian, by Chima Williams (Environmental Rights Action/FoE Nigeria) as told to Ben Amunwa. As Nigerian villagers take Shell to court over huge oil spills, it’s time for the group to take responsibility for polluting practices. A court in The Hague is considering whether Shell can be held liable for alleged pollution in Nigeria, and…
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Wiwa v Shell: The day of reckoning
First published in Reuters. By Ben Amunwa When the news broke of a settlement in the Wiwa v Shell case, a cacophony of responses soon flooded my inbox. Hailed as a victory for human rights by some, others felt disappointed that Shell could throw money in the face of justice. In such a high profile and emotive legal…
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Remember Saro-Wiwa? Shell would rather you didn’t
The Guardian, full page advert. On November 10th 1995, the writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged by the Nigerian government. He was executed, alongside eight of his colleagues from the Ogoni people, for campaigning against the environmental devastation of the Niger Delta by Shell and other oil companies. The central abuse which Ken fought…
