Today, Nigeria flags off the historic cleanup of Ogoni land after a 26-year struggle by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), and subsequent death of Ken Saro-Wiwa. This development comes almost a year after Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari approved the cleanup exercise. This is a sign that the environmental degradation in Ogoni land, which has lingered for years, is finally close to an end and the delayed implementation of the UNEP report on environmental degradation may eventually see the light of the day.

This proposed action signifies that the struggle of the Ogoni people, caused by Shell’s exploration activities and the death of the environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and many others, was not in vain.

The struggle of the Ogoni people

The conflict between the people of Ogoni land and Shell, goes as far back as the 1970s, a decade after Dutch’s oil giant, Shell, began exploration in the oil-rich southern town. Due to the huge amount of revenue being accrued from the oil company, the Nigerian government played deaf to the plight of the people. On its part, Shell did very little to help the predicament of the Ogoni people, instead, they continued to line the governments coffers, allegedly, through bribery. Still, the people of Ogoni land fought for environmental, social and economic justice, leaving many people dead and several properties destroyed.

Despite being a home for oil installations and refineries, the level of poverty in Ogoni land is despicable. Health facilities do not function at optimum levels and school buildings collapse everyday. Instead of gaining from the production of oil in their community, they have been neglected by the government, relegated to the bottom of the priority list.

The death of Ken Saro-Wiwa

Saro-Wiwa, who was concerned about the treatment of Ogoni by the Nigerian Federation, was killed under the military president Sani Abacha’s regime in 1993. He dedicated himself to social activism in an attempt to solve the problems plaguing the oil-producing regions of the Niger Delta and ultimately, lost his life to it. With a focus on his homeland, he launched a non-violent movement for social and ecological justice known as the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). He attacked the oil companies and the Nigerian government, accusing them of waging an ecological war against Ogoni land and causing the genocide of its people.

“The Ogoni have been gradually ground to dust by the combined effort of the multi-national oil company, Shell Petroleum Development Company, the murderous ethnic majority in Nigeria and the country’s military dictatorships.” – Ken Saro-Wiwa, 1992.

The level of oil spillage in Nigeria:

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