Shell Oil divestment: An open letter to the Ogoni people on OML 11
The National Union of Ogoni Students’ USA wishes to thank the people of Ogoni for their steadfastness
and total commitment to the Ogoni struggle as championed by the Movement for the Survival of the
Ogoni People (MOSOP). We also congratulate our people for keeping the struggle strong and alive for
over 22 years against all odds. We pray that the Almighty God will continue to strengthen and guide us
till success is achieved.
Now, it is an open secret and common knowledge that Shell Oil Company is auctioning its infrastructure
including flow stations together with associated gas infrastructure, oil and gas pipelines, and office
facilities in the Niger Delta. Only penultimate weeks ago, the firm divested OML 29, a 600 thousand
barrel per day facility, which covers Nembe, Santa Barbara and Okoroba fields and facilities. It divested
the asset for $1.7 billion. We want to acquaint our people with the trend and ferocity with which Shell
Oil is following up with plans it developed in 2009 to auction its way out of its liabilities in the onshore
oil sector in the Niger Delta.
In 2014, we discovered plans by the oil giant to secretly divest its 30% holding in the 750 million barrels
Oil Mining Lease (OML 11). The company was put on notice which slowed the sale of the oil block. Shell
Oil is a fighter that will employ its huge oil resources to bring down an opposition. That is what we have
observed through recent crisis erupting in Ogoni villages most of which are attributable to bribes,
innuendoes, and propaganda by Shell Oil Company using a proxy Belema Oil Limited.
We have observed that, Shell Oil Company, insiders and politicians are on a covert hostage take-over
mission to acquire the 23 lucrative oil fields that constitute Ogoni Oil block at all cost. We discovered
that their point person (Mr. Jack Tein Jr.) of Belema Oil Limited, is drumming-up support in its inquisition
to obtain social license from the Ogoni community. Although we are not surprised, we are sickened by
the level of tension, Shell Oil re-entry is generating, and the innuendoes and staggering amount of
bribes tailored toward the hostage take-over plan.
As true sons and daughters of Ogoni, we owe a great duty to Ogoni to speak up and particularly
encourage our people to be patient, vigilant, steadfast, and watchful because the oil sale and tactical
maneuvers by the oil predator deals directly with the nitty-gritty of Ogoni inheritance and existence.
Ogoni demands in the Ogoni Bill of Rights are just and meet the world’s approved standard, which is
why the world continue to honor Ogoni request to keep Shell Oil Company and Nigerian government off
Ogoni-land.
Ogoni is a Christian nation; as such we want to bring a biblical analogy into the present situation that
bedevils Ogoni-land. In historical biblical parlance, Isaac fathered Esau and Jacob. Esau was by birth the
first son in the line of descendant to inherit his father’s inheritance. Esau could not wait or endure one
more hour of hunger. The hour that he would have used in preparing his food and enjoy it and still
remain the first son to inherit the blessings of his father Isaac. His lack of patience and self-control
engineered the sale of his birth-right for a plate of food that barely lasted in his stomach for 24 hours.
Ogoni people let us not mortgage our property that was paid for in blood for crumbs from Belema Oil
Limited because of lack of patience. We shouldn’t forget the thousands of lives lost including the Ogoni
9 and 4. We should remember that Ogoni lost many communities to Ndoki including Oyigbo, Lekuma,
Muumba, Boobe, Oloko, Ledor, Tumbee; and now we are again losing Ekporo and Gio Kpoogoh to
Okrika. In our petition, we are drawn to Ken Saro Wiwa’s invocation to the Ogoni people, “I urge you
therefore to keep faith, stand firm, remain strong and believe in God. Work hard, and remain united. Say
No to injustice and oppression. The oppressor is weakening. Justice shall prevail. Ogoni will win. Ogoni
must survive.”
Shell Oil Company and Belema Oil Limited had poured so much propaganda and money into Ogoni area
such that high level tensions between two opposing groups exist presently in our motherland. In
opposite divide are those in favor of Oil extraction before environmental clean-up and those opposing
the sale of OML 11 because Shell Oil no longer owns the oil block after twenty-one years of absence
from Ogoni-land. Also, the only chance Shell Oil had to return to Ogoni after paying adequate
compensation and cleaning our environment was lost on November 10, 1995 when it sanctioned the
execution of the Ogoni 9. Therefore the company has no claim to our oil or any asset in Ogoni by any
standard. If Shell Oil Company was not taking account of the later argument why does it send Belema Oil
Company on an expedition to acquire signatures from the Ogoni people?
If it had assets in Ogoni-land rather than liabilities why couldn’t it divest its purported assets in Ogoniland as it did in other Niger Delta communities without community involvement; and not even the
involvement of their state governments? If after the 1995 genocide in Ogoni, we now turn around and
hand back Ogoni resources to the same people who for 58 years considered us sub-human, the people
who enslaved us, strangled our economy, marginalized us, who killed our relatives, raped our women,
rendered thousands homeless and propelled Ogoni people to embark on an exodus into exile as
refugees, would it not amount to trading the lives of those who sacrificed and died for us to gain control
of our property? Ogoni ARISE, for we will never allow greed and impatience drive us to extinction.
The notion that some Ogoni persons are already singing Shell Oil songs by injecting divisive languages or
phrases “Oil and non-Oil producing communities” into Ogoni vocabulary is worrisome. We urge the
Ogoni people not to fall to such gimmicks. Such languages are calculated stunts and ploy aimed at
pitting one community against another. The Ogoni people should know that, if there is a seismic activity,
acid rain, public health epidemic, oil slick, blow-out, or spillage, no Ogoni community would be speared.
Ogoni biosphere, ecosystem, water, air etc. are so inter-connected and the argument building around
“Oil and non-oil producing communities’ lacks merit and exposes the perpetrators of such innuendoes
to mockery. Ogoni people know better than the bags of rotten fish Belema Oil and Shell Oil Companies
are selling. How come such innuendoes not tenable when monies from Ogoni oil sale and revenues from
electricity build on our land at Afam are used to build Abuja, and develop Jigawa, Sokoto etc. that
produce zero barrel of oil or electricity grid? Ogoni people must wave Shell Oil and her proxy Belema Oil
goodbye for HELL is gone for good forever.
Ogoni people, Mr. Jack-Rich Tein Jr. of Belema Oil Limited was on Al Jazeera America on March 15, 2015
promising Eldorado to the people of Ogoni and the Niger Delta region if his company wins the Oil block.
Any reasonable Ogoni people should ask the question, where does Mr. Jack-Rich Tein Jr. who graduated
few years back acquire the capital for such capital intensive project as the acquisition of Shell Oil assets,
obtain money to throw around in Ogoni, lobby Shell Oil Company, and reserve spots on local, national,
and international media? What major contract/s has Mr. Tein won that could be sited as a benchmark
in his operation and compliance with national and international environmental laws? Is Mr. Tein Jr. and
Belema Oil Limited only a masquerade for the multi-national Oil giants? Apart from his promises to
transform Ogoni-land to a paradise on earth, has he and his company produced any blueprint for the
clean-up and remediation of Ogoni environment? Is his argument substantive enough that what a multinational corporation like Shell Oil Company (with all its money, influence, and technical capability) could
not accomplish in 57 years, he and his three years old company could? What gave Belema such
confidence? Ogoni people, we have to ask questions because we have at one time or another agreed to
Ogoni creed that, “we shall no longer allow the world to cheat us”.
Shell Oil Company and Belema Oil Company are guilty in court of public opinion but some of our people
are culpable as well.Legbosi Pyagbara and his executives should be advised to disengage from antiMOSOP activities. Some Ogoni people are assuming the role of consultants, hoping they would become
multi-billionaires after the oil sale. Really?, The holy scripture doesn’t lie because after Judas betrayed
Jesus, His master, the thirty pieces of silver compensation from the authorities became too hot that he
returned them and committed suicide afterward. We hope no Ogoni person will betray our
forebears. Ogoni has no room for a Judas because oil exploration has turned Ogoni into a waste land.
Ogoni-Land, Rivers, and air are totally polluted and the atmosphere poisoned such that Ogoni now has
world record as the most polluted nationality on earth. Ogoni bagged this award because of poisonous
gases like benzene, hydrocarbon, methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and gas flaring emitting
24 hours a day, 365 days a year in close proximity to human habitation.
Ogoni people, this has been a long essay but we beg for your pardon because it is important to inform
you that oil companies do not, have not and will not develop any community where they explore and
exploit natural resources. What will develop Ogoni and end poverty is a fair share of our oil proceeds
that we keep which is what the Ogoni struggle is all about.
The development of Ogoni-land therefore rest squarely on the shoulders of every Ogoni sons and
daughters. Ogoni is in a big hole and as the adage goes, “if you find yourself in a hole, you have to stop
digging.” We must stop digging by unanimously saying on UNEP we stand. We must stop digging by
calling on the Nigerian government to Clean-up our swamps, creeks, and farm lands. We must stop
digging and unanimously demand the implementation of the Ogoni Bill of Rights. We must stop digging
by unanimously demanding the exoneration of Ogoni heroes brutally murdered on November 1995. We
must stop digging and unanimously demanding the payment of Reparations, rents, and royalties owed
to the Ogoni people. Now is not the time to admit an inexperience company into Ogoni-land for the
exploration of her oil resources; NOT Belema Oil Limited or Shell Oil Company. Ogoni must position
herself for the exploration of her oil resources. Ogoni oil and gas is not for sale nor transferable.
Thank you for your time. Ogoni must survive.
Signed,
Pius Barikpoa Nwinee
Sampson Baridooh Npimnee
President NUOS INTL, USA.
Secretary General
For NUOS INTERNATIONAL USA