By Denja Yaqub
He
took the battle against the severe injustices oil communities have had to
contend with since the discovery of the money spinner in Oloibiri on the 15th of
January 1956 to greater heights, drawing global attention to the parlous
condition these communities whose natural resources have been turned to natural
disaster not just by oil companies but by a country that have never been led by
anyone with concern and passion for the lives and conditions of people
paradoxically living in areas of the source of global interest and deprivations
such as the delta region of Nigeria has turned out to be. The entire country
has been dependent on the resources of this region till date.
The
perilous state of the Ogonis, the Ijaws, the Kalabaris, Ikweres, Andonis,
Ikpeyes, Ogbias, Nembes, Ibanis, Etches in the central Niger Delta states of
Bayelsa and Rivers as well as other oil producing communities of Western Niger
Delta states of Delta, Edo and Ondo states, and the eastern flank of the region
such as Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers where multinational oil firms are not only
extracting the natural gifts of these communities, selfishly expropriating
their resources in circumstances that do not only violate the health and rights
of the host communities but also international standards.
For
decades, since the discovery of oil in Oloibiri in Bayelsa State, these communities
have had to contend with drinking water mixed with crude oil while their farms,
especially fishing waters are continuously devastated by the pollutants that
oil, one of the world's most lucrative products, has turned to be, at least to
these communities.
Aside
environmental damages, the multinationals who daily expropriates billions of
dollars out of the region to develop their countries, ignored the people at
every point of necessities of quality life, leaving them in abject poverty
without any consideration for Corporate Social Responsibilities until the people
were mobilised against the injustice that the multinationals inflict on them.
A
key figure in the struggle of the Niger Delta was Oronto Nantei Douglas, a law
graduate from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology; a consistent
mobiliser of people and resources; pro-democracy and human rights activist of
undisputable global stature who was prominently involved in several protests
across the country and abroad in the years the military held our country
hostage.
His death early morning Thursday, April 9, 2015 came as a smashing
blow much more to the human rights community, though the Jonathan government
will suffer the pains of Oronto's death because he was a key staff of the
President, possibly the most powerful.
Most of the President's speeches were evidently
Oronto's words. The campaigns for President Jonathan’s election in 2011 as well
as preparations for the March 28, 2015 election clearly was not without Oronto's
landmark inputs, even while on his sick bed.
That
the struggles of the people of Niger Delta assumed some serious ideological
clarity and direction, especially during the years of military dictatorship
points to the painstaking works of people like Oronto who criss crossed the
country to assemble ideologically focused comrades to engage multinational
exploiters in serious mass actions resulting in the formation of the Chikoko
Movement and the popular Kiaiama Declaration, which he actively participated in
drafting.
Chikoko Movement mobilised people and resources strong enough to daze
those who thought the murderous collaboration of the Nigerian state with the multinational
oil firms to kill the fighting spirit of the people after the unjust murder of
Ken Saro-Wiwa and other leading activists realised the stake had just been raised.
Oronto
actively mobilised the global community against various degradations suffered
by the oil communities such that their conditions became major subjects in intellectual
and political discourse in several government and non-governmental gatherings
across the globe. He had meetings with diplomats and heads of governments,
including President Bill Clinton, to mobilise against the mass murder which environmental
pollution in the region represents.
Oronto,
a Fellow of the famous George Bell Institute in the U.K and the Forum on
Globalisation in the United States made presentations in over 200 international
conferences held across 50 countries where he had brought the conditions of his
people to global attention. He also did a comprehensive, classical study on the
role of Shell Petroleum in various rights violations in the delta region,
titled "Where Vultures Feast" and co-authored with Ike Okonta,
another consistent and very reliable activist.
Born
to a humble family in his native Okoroba in Bayelsa State, down south of
Nigeria in 1966, Oronto was co-founder of one of Africa's most consistent
environmental rights advocacy organisation, the Environmental Rights Action
which later got affiliated to Friends of the Earth International, along with
Architect Nnimmo Bassey, a reverend gentleman and foremost political activist
who have also played very prominent role in mass protests across the globe not
only on environmental rights issues but pro-democracy demands.
Despite
political differences, Oronto related very well with all those he had met as he
grew in life. He was a humanist to the core. Intellectually sound minded. Deeply
involved in the struggles for democracy and human rights in Nigeria and was a
founding member of several organisations, including the Civil Liberties
Organisation, CLO, Nigeria's premier human rights organisation.
His
relationship with civil society groups was widely explored by the Jonathan
administration during campaigns, policy formations and implementation, on very
rare occassions the administration is free from the overbearing influence of global
neo liberal institutions and interests such as the Breton Woods institutions.
Oronto
was a very courageous individual, looking back at the days of mass struggles in
the Niger Delta when he had to break military check points, security nets and
other armed state agents to move around the creeks, mobilising people for mass
protests, not the kind of commercialised militancy that the struggle eventually
metamorphosed into.
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