By Professor Claude Ake Founding Director, Centre for Advanced
Social Science (CASS)
Port Harcourt, Nigeria
November, 1995
Source and Introduction
GREENPEACE PRESS STATEMENT
LONDON, 23 November 1995
Please find attached a news release
from Professor Claude Ake outlining his resignation from the Shell Niger
Delta Environmental Survey.
Herewith the Greenpeace response:
- Paul Horsman, Greenpeace International
We have been expressing concern from the very first time we heard from
Shell about this environmental survey. Today's resignation of one
of the most eminent persons on the panel (Claude Ake was to represent the
Niger Delta Communities) is a confirmation of our concerns.
Shell know what to do now in order to protect the environment -- it's time
they got on with it instead of using delaying tactics like the "environmental
survey". It must also be noted that this survey was never a full
environmental impact assessment of the impact of the oil industry on the
Niger Delta. Shell claims to have carried out such assessments but
has never publicly released any of them, despite the many calls from Greenpeace
and other organisations to do so.
[Claude Ake is Director of a think
tank, Centre for Advanced Social Science (CASS) based in Nigeria. He is
laureate of the Nigerian National Order of Merit, Nigeria's most coveted
honour.]
Contact: Cindy Baxter Greenpeace
Communications
++44 171 833 0600
PRESS STATEMENT
From Claude Ake Centre for Advanced Social Science (CASS)
Port Harcourt, Nigeria
November 23, 1995
Resignation from the Steering Committee of the Niger Delta
Environmental Survey
It is with regret that I announce my resignation from the
Steering Committee of the Niger Delta Environmental Survey (NDES) which
took effect from November 16, 1995.
I must confess that the decision to serve on that committee had been a
difficult one to begin with, given the oil companies' past record of arrogance,
insensitivity to the humanity of host communities and to environmental
sustainability. But in the end I decided to serve, encouraged by
Ken Saro-Wiwa, who argued that the NDES could be a window of opportunity
for constructive engagement.
Having decided to serve, I suspended my doubts and tried to believe that
the Oil Industry in Nigeria might quite conceivably be willing to live
up to its social responsibilities. As the designated "representative"
of the communities in the Committee, I tried to sensitize the Committee
to community concerns and to develop a mechanism to facilitate communications
between NDES in particular and the Oil Industry in general with Communities.
This was reflected in the fact that at the stake holders meeting in Port
Harcourt on October 24, the Ijaw National Congress, Ogbakor Ikwerre, Ogba
Solidarity, Ogbakor Etche, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, Oyigbo
Forum, Bonny Indigenous Peoples Federation, Ndoni Community Association,
Uzugbani Ekpeye and O'Elobo Eleme presented a common position paper on
NDES and it was clear that the acknowledged success of the meeting was
partly due to the fact that despite their doubts they too felt that something
positive could come out of NDES.
Unfortunately, the realities intruded. It was clear that NDES did
not have the enthusiastic support of the Oil industry. Apart from
that, there was nothing in the posture and practices of the major oil companies,
Shell, NAOC, Elf and Mobil, to signal the fact that NDES could be regarded
as a forward movement. Rather as the agenda of NDES developed, it
became difficult despite the good number of competent and well-meaning
people on the Steering Committee, to expect much from NDES.
I was already seriously considering resignation before the tragic turn
of the Ogoni struggle culminating in the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and
his colleagues. I do not think that the Oil industry in Nigeria,
particularly Shell whose crude practices and insensitivity engendered the
struggle in the first place, did enough to diffuse the situation.
Their reaction to the tragedy was more unfortunate still. They have
in effect been assuring everyone who cares to listen that nothing has changed
and nothing will change. I cannot help thinking that even silence
would have been better than such unfeeling belligerence. For, given
the rising tide of resentment in the oil producing communities, this posture
is bound to be catastrophic for Nigeria and self-defeating for the oilcompanies.
These circumstances have left me no choice but to resign. For they
have, to my mind, transformed NDES into an unwelcome division and rendered
it morally unacceptable.
Claude Ake
LETTER OF RESIGNATION
From Claude Ake Centre for Advanced Social Science (CASS)
Port Harcourt, Nigeria
In the light of the demise of Ken Sarowiwa and his colleagues,
I have had to rethink NDES. For me agreeing to serve in the Steering
Committee of NDES was a leap of faith. For if past experience is
any guide, there is no reason to assume that the Petroleum industry in
Nigeria is the least concerned about the plight of the oil producing countries
including their susceptibility to environmental hazards and it was not
reasonable to fear that NDES might be a cover-up.
In the end I decided to serve and allow for the possibility that the Petroleum
industry in Nigeria might have finally recognized the need to reconcile
the profit motive with social responsibility. I have always felt
that until this reconciliation is achieved, the oil producing communities
will be increasingly alienated and hostile and all stake holders will suffer
in a rising tide of violent conflict. This is why I have been trying
to initiate dialogue between them. The distinguished representative
of the Oil companies in the NDES Steering Committee can testify to these
efforts.
Unfortunately the efforts did not succeed and conflict escalates with unfortunate
consequences. It is clear now that NDES is too late and does not
represent a change of heart. To begin with, it does not enjoy the
enthusiastic support of the oil industry at large. Clearly there
is nothing in the recent performance of the oil companies notably
Shell, NAOC, Elf and Mobil to suggest that NDES is associated with increasing
sensitivity to the plight of the oil producing communities. It is
telling that as the tragedy unfolded in Ogoniland, Shell, whose perceived
insensitivity engendered the conflict in the first place did not intervene
forcefully for conciliation. And when the disaster occurred, Shell
expressed regrets but pointedly stated, according to the British press,
that it was not considering any change in
its current practices.
Considering the tragic enormity of recent happenings, and the crisis
of conscience arising from them, NDES now seems to my mind diversionary
and morally unacceptable. By all indications, what we need now is
not an inventory of pollutants, but to look ourselves in the face, reach
down to our innermost resources and try to heal our badly damaged social
and moral fabric.