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.