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 – and rightly so. Yet in Nigeria, as you report (“Anger grows across the world at the real price of ‘frontier oil’”, Business), oil companies such as Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil have been largely responsible for decades of oil spills that destroy livelihoods and violate human rights.

Villagers in Nigeria have nowhere to turn for adequate remedies. A global coalition of leading human, environmental and children’s rights groups, prominent individuals and experts is calling on oil companies in Nigeria to begin repaying their ecological debt by investing in an independent compensation body responsible for dealing with the impact of oil spills.

President Goodluck Jonathan must lead this process and toughen Nigeria’s regulatory framework to protect the people of the Niger Delta.

Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, Nigeria; Stepping Stones Nigeria; Stakeholder Democracy Network UK/Nigeria; Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation, Netherlands; Prof Scott Pegg, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, US PLATFORM / remember saro-wiwa, UK

Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR), UK

Justice in Nigeria Now (JINN), USA

Stepping Stones Nigeria Child Empowerment Foundation (SSNCEF), Nigeria

Bayelsa Union of Great Britain and Ireland

Nigeria Liberty Forum, UK

Ijaw People’s Association of Great Britain and Ireland (IPA)

Centre for Defence of Human Rights and Vocational training in Africa

(CDHRVTA), Nigeria

Sokari Ekine – blacklooks.org, USA/UK

Social Action, Nigeria

EarthRights International, USA

Centre for Social & Corporate Responsibility (CSCR), Nigeria

Gender And Development Action, Nigeria

Bayelsa Non-Governmental Organisations Forum, Nigeria

Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project (SERAP), Nigeria

Guy Hibbert, Screenwriter, UK

Professor Rick Steiner, USA

Communities for a Better Environment, USA

Michael Watts, University of Berkeley California, USA

Patrick Bond, senior professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

Centre for Civil Society Environmental Justice project, South Africa

Niger Delta Professionals For Development, Nigeria

Gordon Roddick, UK

Niger Delta Development Initiative, UK/Nigeria

Women of Africa, UK

Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), Nigeria

International Institute for Environment and Development, (IIED), UK

IKV Pax Christi, Netherlands

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Nigeria

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, UK

Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre, Nigeria

Priority Africa Network, USA

Alona Clifton, Community Advocate, USA

Global Fund for Women, USA

Frances M Beal, activist, USA

Jeremy A. Pearce, Financial Advisor, Socially Responsible Investments, USA

Pro-Natura International (Nigeria)

Scottish Education and Action for Development, (SEAD), Scotland