Payout of $15.6m could backfire now that precedent of a Nigerian community suing a oil company has been set
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Shell's decision to settle out of court with a group of Ogoni people
rather than take them on in New York means a measure of justice has
come to the Niger Delta.
The sum of $15.5m (£9.6m) may be peanuts for
the company and nothing can compensate the 500,000 Ogoni people for
generations of devastating pollution, human rights abuses and
persecution. But while Shell insists that the result is no admission
of guilt, it nevertheless represents a triumph for an impoverished
community over one of the richest companies in the world.
What it suggests is that Shell wants to bury the facts about what was
happening on the Niger delta in the 1970s and 1980s when it was
extracting tens of millions of barrels of oil a year from Ogoniland
while allowing the people to slide into destitution as it was
destroying their environment. The settlement stops the world knowing
exactly what was the company's relationship with the national
government and the military, and the extent of Shell's involvement in
the human rights abuses that led to Ken Saro-Wiwa's execution. The
Ogoni had assembled a formidable case and were being represented by
some of the most best human rights lawyers in the world. It could have
been intensely embarrassing for the company if it all had come out.
Shell said it had agreed to settle out of humanitarian interests, but
everyone on the delta knows that real justice has not been done, and
that the environmental abuses continue. The company continues to
needlessly burn off vast amounts of gas. The air is still poisoned,
children are still sick, there are few jobs, the creeks are polluted
and the poverty is intense.
Moreover, the security situation on the delta is far worse than it was
12 years ago when the Ogoni case began. Then, the delta was
politically volatile but the oil companies could work there more or
less unimpeded and people felt reasonably safe. Today the whole region
is awash with guns and the delta is one of the most dangerous places
on earth.
In the last few months the Nigerian military have raided dozens of
communities they believe are threatening the state and thousands of
people have fled their villages. The kind of peaceful protest that the
Ogoni led in the 1990s now seems quaint. Anyone who stands up for
environmental justice or who challenges the oil companies, which
provide the Nigerian state with 90% of their foreign earnings, is now
in mortal danger.
But Shell's decision could backfire. The precedent of a Nigerian
community suing a multinational oil company in a western court has
been set. There are thousands more Ogoni who will now want to bring
their case to the west to see justice done, as well as other Niger
Delta tribes like the Ijaw, the Igbo, the Ibibio and the Itsekiri who
also want justice. There have been more than 500 pollution cases
against Shell in Nigeria, but few reach court and the company has been
able to use the appeal system to delay those that do for many years.
Now the lesson is that justice and reparation can be obtained abroad.
A Dutch court will soon hear a case brought against Shell by other
Niger Delta villagers following a major oil spill years ago.
Meanwhile, in Ecuador, Chevron is about to hear its fate in a massive
pollution case that has been going on for nearly 10 years. It's quite
possible the company will be fined more than $4bn.
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