On the Ogoni Nine hangings, and Shell’s phony plea for clemency, Femi Oyafemi noted “For Shell to have been privy to the plea for clemency within the short period of the verdict and the eventual execution is indicative of an uncomfortably close link to the state.”

Throughout the Ogoni pacification program, a scourged earth military campaign to crush the Ogoni struggle, the shadow of Shell loomed large. In a leaked memo authored by the military commander in charge of the Ogoni genocide agenda, Col. Paul Okuntimo “wasting operations”, targeting vocal voices in the Ogoni campaigns against Shell’s operations in Ogoni land were recommended, to pave way for the oil company’s return to the area. The memo expressly stated that the “wasting operation” in Ogoni land was going to be financed by Shell. It became obvious that the Nigerian government was doing Shell’s bidding, in clearing out every iota of opposition to the reckless and indeed racist operational methods of a transnational oil corporation which the late Ken Saro Wiwa aptly described as “a satanic octopus which demand men’s souls in return for cash and profit”.

In 2011 the United Nations Environmental program (UNEP) in its report declared Ogoni land the worst polluted landscape on the planet; thanks to Shell’s reckless 35 years operations. According to the report, the Ogoni situation is so grave that it would take all of 30 years to clean up the Shell’s mess . However, even if the grim UNEP report came out in 2011, the Ogoni people were long aware of the extent of Shell’s destruction of our environment, so on January 4, 1993, led by our leader Ken Saro Wiwa, we declared that corporate criminal persona non grata. And my generation of the Ogoni has vowed to keep Shell out of our land forever.

In the wake of the Wilileaks findings which revealed that Shell International’s Vice president Ann Pickard had admitted to a former US envoy to Nigeria that Shell employees were seconded to all the relevant ministries and agencies of the Nigerian government and that thanks to the infiltration, the company was able to keep a tab on all government policies and deliberations, some environmental and human rights groups including the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, called on the Nigerian government to proceed on a criminal prosecution of executives of the oil company. Mr. Oyafemi in his piece had hoped that “ Nigeria will (would) one day be blessed with upright leaders who will say no to such daylight pillage, exploitation, rape and looting” (by Shell). This prayer was made in 1996, one year after the barbaric hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa and eight of his fellow Ogoni campaigners. However, 16 years after, no upright leader has emerged in Nigeria to call Shell’s bluff. And there is no hope anyone would be produced in the foreseeable future. Shell and the Nigerian government are both very corrupt institutions. And they depend on each other for survival. We call them slick allies. As for Nigeria, there has never been a government in that country for a long time in recent memory. From the rapacious military dictatorship of the 1990s to the quasi civilian dispensations of the 2000s , which by the way are always products of rigged elections , what has been going on in Nigeria is what the late MOSOP President Ken Saro Wiwa described as “ organized banditry that goes in the name of government”. Each successive Nigerian government has been progressively more corrupt than the one before it. The more crude oil they sell, the higher the rate of treasury looting. If any Nigerian official tells you that they are tackling corruption tell them to go to hell with their lies.

Shell continues to export corruption and violence from country to country, bribing locals and government officials to spread its death pills of environmental devastation. In 2010, one of Shell’s many corrupt deals in Nigeria’s Niger delta and indeed the rest of the Third world, was brought to justice. Shell along side former US Vice president Dick Cheney’s Halliburton and the company’s other contracting firms were made to pay $236 million in settlement in respect of their bribery racketeering in Nigeria.

However, Shell-all Shells, Shell international and in particular Shell Nigeria, has continued to remain the proverbial leopard which never changes its spot. Today, in Nigeria’s Niger delta as it was in 1995, and before then, Shell continues to award fraudulent contracts with bribery undertones, to local community leaders and sometimes criminal gangs. Shell’s goal in engaging in these fraudulent business practices is to empower pliable community leaders and turn them against their own people in desperate attempts to break up protests against its reckless operations in the region. Shell Nigeria’s official Mr. Emmanuel Etomi, once admitted to his company’s contract bribery schemes when he was quoted to have remarked in a leaked report published by the Daily Telegraph :“In 2003 we enlisted three internationally known conflict experts to better understand how our activities are affected by and contribute to the conflict. The experts highlighted how we sometimes feed conflict by the way we award contracts, gain access to land and deal with community representatives; how drastically conflict reduces the effect of our community development program”. However, it smacks of dishonesty for Mr. Etomi to make it appear as if the bad behavior of his company he cited above were some occasional mistakes whereas contracts bribery is a fundamental principle of Shell’s policies in the restive Niger delta, especially in the Ogoni area .

British environmental activist Nick Ashton Jones, in his own report buttressed the allegation of Shell’s culture of bribery and violence. He wrote: “ since my last visit (to the Niger delta) Shell has proclaimed that things have gotten better. Depressingly, my 2001 visit confirmed that the company’s culture is fixed in a negative and arrogant attitude towards its host communities. That is: a lack of cultural and ecological awareness and sensitivity; a willingness to encourage armed attacks on defenseless communities and to resort to the repression of civil rights in preference to negotiation; poor maintenance of its extraction infrastructure and low engineering standards; ignorance of environmental and social impacts; a tendency to tolerate the inefficient management of its compensation and social program processes; and to lie repeatedly when challenged until the evidence is irrefutable”.

On every January 4, the world’s indigenous peoples Day, the Ogoni people of the Niger delta region of Nigeria, takes stock of our struggle and renew our vow to banish Shell from our land. We fondly call January 4, Ogoni Day. On January 4 1993, an estimated 300,000 Ogonis marched on Shell and the Nigerian government. The late President of MOSOP ( Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People), Ken Saro Wiwa said that was the day the Ogoni people crossed the threshold of fear.

We understand the Nigerian government has decided to return Shell to Ogoni land under the guise of a different name, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, to resume oil exploitation. This is in the face of the United Nations’ Environmental Program report which says it would take 30 years to clean up the world’s worst case of environmental devastation in Ogoni. Here is our message to the idiotic Nigerian government: the Ogoni people are going to fight to the last man , with the last drop of our blood to see that no one sets foot on Ogoni soil to drill our oil until our devastated environment has been cleaned and our demands as contained in the Ogoni Bill of Rights have been met.

Leburah Ganago

Atlanta, Georgia,

United States.

Email

By Leburah Ganago | Atlanta, USA | Nov. 18, 2012 - “As of this moment, I found that the Ogoni people are going extinct . No hospitals, no schools. There is nothing. And yet, this is a very rich area. I cannot accept that paradox … I have perceived a great injustice being done to this people and as a writer, I have decided that I am going to fight. I want justice for the Ogoni people, I want self determination for the Ogoni, I want autonomy for the Ogoni people

Ken Saro Wiwa spent  all  of his adult life fighting for justice for
his Ogoni people, and indeed the  rest of the ethnic minorities of the Niger delta region of Nigeria. As a writer, Ken Saro Wiwa  exposed the dirty deals of the transnational oil corporations in the Niger delta. On this mission Ken Saro Wiwa took the battle to the dirty oils on their home turf, with a view to mobilizing public opinion against  them. This according to Ken, is because ,the crimes committed by Shell and other oil corporations in the
Niger delta are hidden from their home countries.

In course of his crusade  against  what he described as environmental
devastation, economic strangulation, political marginalization and genocide, he became a target of the slick allies, Shell and the Nigerian ruling cabal. Ken Saro Wiwa was not oblivious of the  threat to his life . And he knew where the threat to his life was coming from. In an interview with Africa Today magazine (September/October 1995) he  disclosed:
“On January 4 ( 1993 when 300,000 Ogonis marched on Shell and the Nigerian government ) the  alarm bells rang in the ears of Shell”. “I was to know no peace from then on . I became a regular guest of the security agencies. I was stopped and arrested  at airports, seized from my office and
questioned repeatedly”. But Ken Saro Wiwa was undaunted by  the dangers he faced as he said: “ When you are fighting for the right of a people you cannot begin to wonder if you are going to be killed or to be sent to
jail. Right is right and it must be fought for.”  And on November 10, 1995, Ken Saro Wiwa, John Kpuinen, Dr.Barinem Kiobel, Baribor Bera, Saturday Dorbee, Daniel Gbokoo, Paul Levura and Nordu Eawo were callously
hanged by the Nigerian government with the shadow of Shell lurking in the
background.

The barbaric murder of the Ogoni Nine provoked international outrage. The United Nations and other world bodies condemned the murders. The Ogoni Nine murders prompted a special United Nations Fact-finding visit to Nigeria in  April1996. After noting that  Ken Saro Wiwa and his fellow Ogoni compatriots were wrongly executed, the United Nations Fact-finding mission recommended among others : “ The Government of Nigeria should consider establishing a panel of eminent jurists nominated by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, to establish the modalities to determine who and to what extent financial relief could be accorded to the dependents of the families of the deceased”.

The UN report also recommended the constitution of  a committee to comprise of representatives of the Ogoni community and other minority groups in the region to be chaired by a retired judge of the High Court for the purpose of introducing improvements in the socioeconomic conditions of these communities, enhancing employment opportunities , health, education and welfare services and to act as ombudsman in any complaint/allegations of harassment at the hands of the authorities.

Sixteen years after the United Nations Fact-finding recommendations on Ogoni hangings, the Nigerian government has yet to implement the reports. There are also a plethora of other recommendations  on Ogoni from various international bodies which have not been implemented. While these acts of contempt on the part of the Nigerian government should not be shocking given the nature of what passes as government , in that part of the world, a bunch of outlaws . However, the onus rests on the leadership of MOSOP, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, to take the battle to the Nigerian government and its slick ally, Shell.

Ken Saro Wiwa paid with his life, seeking justice for the Ogoni people. Now,  MOSOP leadership must do justice to the memory of  our late great leader and all other Ogonis who were murdered during the course of our struggle for justice. MOSOP should wait no further to institute a class action law suit against the Nigerian government and Shell for the genocide they
have committed in Ogoni, and to insist that the numerous
recommendations by the United Nations with Ogoni specifics are
implemented.  What is more, MOSOP leadership must ensure that no Ogoni oil leaves the ground until all our demands have been met. And these include the environmental clean up which the UNEP estimated would take 30 years to complete. At the end of thirty years we can begin to negotiate when and who can drill for oil in Ogoni, based on very stringent environmental and revenue sharing based conditions that would be acceptable to the generality of the Ogoni people.

Ken Saro Wiwa died seeking justice for the Ogoni. Now it behooves us his survivors in the MOSOP struggle to ensure that he gets justice, which he was so brutally denied. We must explore all avenues within and outside Nigeria to see that justice is done to the memory of Ken Saro Wiwa.
Glequinoxx@Comcast.net>

By Leburah Ganago | NPP | Oct. 4 , 2012 -

The manner of Republicans response to the protests over the offensive video fits the bill of an election year conspiracy theory.   As soon as the protests began across the Arab world, Republican operatives started predicting that President Obama’s foreign policy rating would go down. And true to their prediction, the president’s rating on the foreign policy front immediately plunged. And overnight Republicans who have previously avoided foreign policy debate like a plague started challenging the president to a foreign policy duel. According to The New York Times of September 13, 2012, the offensive video  was  promoted by a network of right-wing Christians with a history of animosity towards Muslims.  Could it be that the “satanic video”  was deliberately promoted by the so-called right-wing Christian group, a bunch of bigots who have openly declared their hatred for President Obama, to incite the Muslim world to violence, in order to rubbish the president’s foreign  policy?. In the Romney’s secret video, at his fundraiser, he said he would take advantage of any mishap on the foreign front.

The thrust of the Republican argument is that what they portray as the weakness of the Obama administration has emboldened American detractors to dare the world’s sole supper power. Again, in the delusional planet of Republicans, and their Neo-con foreign  policy architects, weakness here means the refusal of the Obama administration to continue on the  George Bush administrations perilous path of   waging senseless wars around the world.  This is absolute rubbish.  Treating with respect  other nations that are less endowed than your country does not indicate weakness. It shows strength. And apologizing for America? What is wrong with that? Of course, President Obama has not been going around the world apologizing, but if need be , so be it. It is this foolish pride and arrogance on the part of those who believe that America is so special that it does no wrong  that is fueling resentment and angst in parts of the world. While it is true that there are those who hate Americans or American values, it is also true that there are Americans whose behavior inflames the hatred.  And like I have argued before, rogue states are not deterred by constant threats of military invasion or blustering. They rather ignite a sense of resentment and of course, anti American rage. Yet, it is the dumbest idea to paint a president who has waged the most aggressive campaign against terrorists, expanding the use of drones to decimate an entire Al Qaeda leadership as weak or soft on American enemies. During the 2008 presidential campaign then Senator Barack Obama promised to execute a smart and more effective war on terror, not invading a country that had nothing to do with the September 11, 2001,  attacks like Republicans did in Iraq. AS president Obama has done exactly what he said he would do.

I think one of the most irresponsible questions I  have heard from the American media  in this election circle is this one : “ could President Obama have prevented the violent protest  (in the Arab world)” . Obama said he was going to repair relations with the Muslim world, Why is it that there has been more resentment (protests  against America in the past four years?, asked Jade Tapper, standing in for George Stephanopoulos  of the ABC’s ThisWeek on Sunday September15, 2012. Let me ask Jade Tapper: has there been any American president before Obama who had been able to stop violent protests in the Arab world?. I am sure President Obama never said he was going to be able to prevent violent protests in the Arab world whenever they perceive that their  religion  or prophet Mohammed has been defamed. 

 Just as it was in the case of ,the  Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verse, burning the Koran by a deranged savage call a “Christian”  pastor in Florida, abuse of Iraqi prisoners by some misguided American soldiers in that war ravaged country, the Danish cartoon; there would always be spontaneous violent protests in the Arab world. That is the nature of those societies, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

 It is frustrating  watching a section of the so-called mainstream  American media (not to talk of Fox News) doing the bidding of the lunatic fringe of the Republican party. They are wondering why President Obama could not stop the Arab world from protesting. And like the Republican operatives, are also saying that the current uprising over the denigrating video is going to affect President Obama’s foreign policy rating . And could even cost him the election?. Well, recall Mitt Romney’s   outrageous reaction before the attacks on American embassy in Egypt and the Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, even commenced. The master liar claimed that President Obama sympathizes with the fanatics rather than condemning their acts of violence. Distortion of facts-vintage  Romney. But then in his leaked fundraiser tape he has said he would take political advantage of an attack on Americans whenever it occurs .

However, the attack on the  American Consulate in Libya, as was later confirmed, was not a case of random protest by Muslim extremists but  a preplanned and organized terrorist attack, which analysts reckon could have been avoided or at least minimized if not for intelligence lapses. This is understandably under investigation, at the appropriate quarters.

 As one condemns in the strongest term violent protests and destruction of lives  by Muslim extremists  under any guise , I feel what those of us in the other part of the world should do is to try as much as possible to avoid igniting the flame of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu called  “a tinder box of hatred”. Enter free speech in America. Could the American constitution be amended to sanction such free speech that are violent in nature such as the offensive video in question?. Yet, all we are now hearing from a section of the political spectrum and indeed a section of the American media, is how much Americans must defend free speech. Senator John McCain in a recent interview seemed dismissive of the  impact of the ill-fated video which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, aptly described as disgusting and reprehensible. The usually outspoken Senator while emphasizing the need to defend free speech failed to condemn the offensive video which sparked the violent protests in the Arab world.

This otherwise sensitive discussion is getting complicated. The other day on the CNN one analyst had an advice for our brothers in the Arab world “we now live in the internet world , just ignore anything you see”( reads free speech). But I must confess, this is a fatal advice-a call to more violence. So, why can’t the proponents of free speech ( at all cost) be simply honest about the justness of their cause?. Truth is ,it would take generations  away for most Muslims, even moderate ones, to just ignore it whenever they see images of Prophet Mohammed or the religion itself being perceived as being defamed. 

Why do free speech campaigners in the West believe that they can transform the Arab (Muslim) world overnight as they now insist that the latter must forget their religious beliefs and live with the reality of free speech, even when they see it as denigrating or insulting to their religion?.While we educate our brothers and sisters in the Arab world on the justness and inevitability of free speech, we should endeavor to show sensitivity to the religious beliefs of those who must take offense at some expression of free speech.

 Some people in the media, the CNN (not just Fox News), are now taking offense at the television commercial by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the Pakistani media market, explaining the stance of the American government on respect and tolerance of all religions. Their concern? The commercial failed to mention the right to free speech . I think we are beginning to witness not just religious fanaticism  in the Arab world but free speech fanaticism in America. Yet, the efforts of the United States President and Secretary of State here is to douse tension generated in the Arab world by the dangerous free speech videos.

All forms of fanaticism are perilous for peaceful coexistence of divergent views in any society, so must be avoided.  My take here is that there should be a delicate balancing act in expressing our right to free speech and respecting the sensibilities of others religious and cultural beliefs. This way, we can manage our survival in a world already on the edge. 

Leburah Ganago

Atlanta, Georgia

United States.

By Leburah Ganago, Atlanta, USA – Jan. 9, 2012 – Oil subsidy removal has become a recurring decimal in the economic or is it political, equation of successive Nigerian administrations; military or civilian. It is a bitter pill recklessly forced down the throat of Nigerians, every now and then, by their usually dubious rulers. In fact, every administration that comes to power removes oil ( petroleum)  subsidy, so much so that one is beginning to wonder where the so-called subsidy is coming from since it is supposed to have been removed previously.

However, former Petroleum Minister Professor Tam David-West says the whole notion of petroleum subsidy is a ruse. Said Professor David-West : “ There is no oil subsidy in Nigeria. It is a lie and fraud. After the regime of General Buhari, I challenged government after government, from General Ibrahim Babangida and Chief Ernest Shonekan to General Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to appear on national television with me to justify their subsidy” . ( SaharaReporters, November 11, 2011).

Now, one of the arguments adduced by various Nigerian regimes for the case for oil subsidy removal is that the government loses money as it imports refined petroleum products into the country and sells them to the public below their production, that is, refining cost  (abroad). This is their own definition of “subsidy ”.The other reason is smuggling of refined petroleum products-fuel and kerosene, across the border to neighboring countries. According to the government argument, refined petroleum products smuggled abroad are being sold at very high and profitable prices. This high profit margin serves as an incentive for intensive smuggling activities which creates artificial scarcity in the country. So the Nigerian government reasons that removing the so-called subsidy would increase the price of petroleum products in Nigeria , to leverage the prices in neighboring countries, thereby serving as a disincentive to smuggling. However, the government approach is a crude response to the smuggling problem.  You do not increase the price of petroleum products and aggravating the already perilous economic situation in the  country in the name of curbing smuggling . Government would do a better job of policing the nation’s borders to check smuggling without resorting to increase in prices of petroleum products.

In the first place, as argued by economic and industry experts, the Nigerian government has no business importing refined petroleum products. At various times Nigeria ranges from 8^th to 6^th petroleum producing countries in the world. There are currently four oil refineries in the country. According to Professor Tam David-West, the total production capacity of the four refineries is 445,000 barrels per day. He went on, “If the refineries are working even at 80 percent  ,(capacity) we will have more than enough product”.

So why does the Nigerian government not take advantage of utilizing the full capacity of the nation’s four refineries to refine enough petroleum products to meet up local consumption?. Both Professors Tam David-West and Sam Aluko, contend that the fraudulent disposition of the Nigerian government is the reason they continue to resort to importing refined petroleum products rather than refining them at home.

The local refineries, they contend, are deliberately sabotaged by the well-connected fuel importation cartel.  The fuel importation business in Nigeria is a particularly fraudulent and criminal enterprise which no responsible government should allow to continue. According to the former chairman of the National Economic and Intelligence Committee, Professor Sam Aluko, : “ The government , by choice exports the best crude oil in the world and imports the worst refined products”  .

As revealed by Professor Aluko, the government awards fuel importation contracts to top military brass (serving and retired) and political bigwigs , who in turn sell the contracts or importations licenses to oil companies.

Paradoxically,  in Nigeria, government actions have always ended up punishing the victims of the privileged criminals-the hapless law-abiding ordinary citizens. Is this a case of poor judgment on the part of President Goodluck Jonathan or a case of business as usual, the Nigerian way? Like Professor Aluko said  “It is not the business of government to tell Nigerians that it is removing subsidy because if it is a cartel that gains from the importation of fuel, government should find a way to deal with the cartel, instead of taking a decision that will have far reaching effect on the masses.

In this discourse, I intend to hold President Jonathan to a higher standard ( above the Nigerian record). This is because President Jonathan has positioned himself as being different from members of the old order. Or there was unreasonably high expectation about him. He was seen as a transformational figure in an envisaged new political order in Nigeria. Perhaps, this explains why he was well embraced by the international community. However, so far President Jonathan has shown that  he is no different from the old order of the Nigerian political class. Or he seemed overtly overwhelmed by the weight of the country’s myriads of problems- perennial sectarian violence which has snowballed into a full blown terror operation, now placing Nigeria in a similar universe as Iraq and Pakistan;  endemic treasury looting, dilapidated infrastructure and poverty.

For a regime that is battling insecurity to unleash an economic war on the downtrodden Nigerian masses at this time is the height of naivety. The spike in the price of petroleum products-gasoline and kerosene, in particular will have serious economic and security ramifications for the country. The price of virtually all economic items-from transportation to food items will rise astronomically. Like I have noted earlier, this translates into more hardship for the generality of Nigerians’ except the looting politicians and the petroleum products importation cartel. And Nigerians are good at resorting to whatever means, including troubling ones , that are available to survive hardship. Before the oil subsidy was removed , there was already crude “refineries” existing  in some parts of the oil producing areas which churn out adulterated products, with resultant loss of lives. These crude “refineries” are bound to escalate, with security implications, which the government will have to deal with.

The economic hardship which the removal of petroleum subsidy has caused is bound to compound the security crisis in the country.  . Those who are bent on perpetrating violence   in the country  may hijack the on-going protests and make it bloody. Already, the Nigerian police have started spilling the blood of innocent protesters.  I want to believe that this is not what President Jonathan who in spite of his missteps is generally seen as a gentleman, wants. The bloodbath being perpetrated by the Boko Haram terror group is already too much for the country to bear.   And this new president’s reputation has already been tarnished.

At a time the administration is inflicting more economic pains on Nigerians through the ill-informed removal of petroleum subsidy, news, bad news, got out that President Jonathan has allocated nearly a billion Naira for himself and his vice president, as “feeding allowance” in the 2012 budget proposal. And this is said to have outraged Nigerians. So why should President Goodluck Jonathan seek to elevate his and his vice president’s level of comfort at a time he wants Nigerians to tighten their belts for more hardship? Is this a case of confusing signals or bad reading of the tide by the president?

More bad news for Nigeria, and President Jonathan in particular: A local Nigerian news source recently quoted an Indonesia source, The Indonesia Post,  as reporting that the Nigerian government is negotiating an investment of N428.8 billion ( $2.68bn) in three refineries deal in Indonesia. According to the source, the Nigerian government plan aims to part-own three petroleum refineries . Under the proposed arrangement, the Nigerian government would export crude petroleum to Indonesian refineries, to be refined there and imported back  into the country. This would do well to consolidate the oiling of the corrupt petroleum products importation pipeline. These would create more oil import contractors and more demand for removal of “oil subsidy” by the government. This is one case of shortchanging the long-suffering Nigerians too many. And it must be resisted.

Yet, a strange explanation from the Jonathan administration on why it is  removing “oil subsidy”.  The Guardian in its December 27, 2011 reported the Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen as having claimed that the government has already earmarked N600b of the proposed funds to be saved from subsidy removal for road construction. This report presupposes that the Nigerian government needs money to execute development projects . But this is not the case. The problem with the Nigerian government is that there is too much oil money to loot. The problem is that of impunity. Looters get away with their loots without having to face consequences.  It is sheer lunacy for these PDP gangsters to think that the already shortchanged Nigerian masses must further be robbed in order to be provided with infrastructures. In fact, experience has shown that the more oil revenue is ,the greater the margin of treasury looting. In the 1990s government officials were looting in hundred of millions of Naira. These days they are looting in the hundreds of billions .

Talking of road projects, how many of the previous road construction contracts  awarded by this administration has been executed?  Again, our experience in Nigeria has shown that most of those road contracts were not meant to be executed but were meant as largesse for loyal party men who helped in one way or the order in rigging elections for the ruling party.

But why on earth should the Jonathan administration contemplate building or is it “part-owning” three oil refineries overseas instead of building same at home at a time they are talking about job creation?  Is the Jonathan’s job creation plan starting abroad?. Is it a sound economic judgment for the Jonathan administration to part-own oil refineries overseas rather than building more of them at home, to take care of increasing demand of refined petroleum products and creating jobs for the local population?

Like industry experts and other well-meaning Nigerians including Professors Tam David-West and Sam Aluko have revealed that the only reason past administrations in Nigeria resorted to importation of refined petroleum products rather than making existing refineries in the country functional and building more of them here , is their corrupt disposition . The people in government and their fraudulent business partners make big money by deliberately crippling our oil refineries  and continue  importing refined products into the country.

President Jonathan may choose to redeem himself by making the existing refineries in the country function at full capacity and go on to build more oil refineries in the country; and end the criminal and fraudulent enterprise of fuel importation. This should settle the garbage talk of oil subsidy removal . There would be  enough oil revenue to build new  refineries, if only this administration can halt the treasury looting that is going on. Regrettably, President Jonathan has been unable to do anything to stop the looting spree which he inherited from his mentor and benefactor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

It could still be that President Goodluck Jonathan is good man with honest intentions for his beloved country who is surrounded by bad advisers. The other day Ijaw and South-South Movement leader Chief Edwin-Clark alleged that President Jonathan is being surrounded by saboteurs. And Professor Sam Aluko  noted that former President Obasanjo, as a politician became prisoner of the PDP, which the renowned economist tagged “an evil party”. However, for his own personal reputation and for the sake of the vast majority of Nigerians who are going to be impacted by this misguided economic policy President Jonathan must extricate himself from his IMF World Bank advisers and his evil party and reverse  his decision to remove oil subsidy. If the issue is more revenue for the government like they would have us believe,  President Jonathan has  a better option than inflicting more pains on Nigerians. He should be able to recover the trillions of dollars of our looted funds ,from  past and current public officeholders, beginning from at least, the Babangida days.  What we need is restitution not further exploitation of the poor and the weak.

Until we produce a president who is honest and courageous enough to take on the bad guys and end the free-for-all looting of our states and national treasuries, we may never have a future or country. May be, we needed a president Buhari.

Leburah Ganago

Atlanta, Georgia

United States

Email<Glequinoxx@Comcast.net>

By Leburah Ganago, Atlanta, Georgia, USA – Nov. 10, 2011 -   

The real reason Ken Saro Wiwa was killed is because   he had the guts to expose the atrocities committed against the Ogoni people and the rest of the oil-bearing Niger delta region-political marginalization, economic strangulation, environmental devastation and, ultimately genocide by the   slick allies, Shell and the Nigerian government.And Ken Saro Wiwa made no secret concerning his mission of exposing the dirty deals of the slick allies .

In his last interview conducted in London before his arrest and eventual murder, Ken stated: “ My mission has been to inform the West   of what is going on in Nigeria”. In that interview Ken noted that if people in the West knew of the atrocities being committed by their oil prospecting companies notably Shell and Chevron, in the Niger delta they would speak up and turn opinion against their unfair practices in Nigeria. In fact, in that same interview Ken accused Shell of practicing racism in Nigeria as he noted that the transnational oil giant was applying double standards in its dealings when it comes to operating in the Third World as opposed   to when operating in its home country and other parts of the West.

The late Ken Saro Wiwa deployed his intellectual and literary talents into the fight of seeking justice for the Ogoni and the rest of the oppressed Niger delta region of Nigeria as well as exposing the reckless operational practices of Shell in the region. Ken wrote books, newspaper articles, produced television documentaries, in which he detailed the environmental degradation of the Niger delta and the criminal exploitation of its peoples. He made presentations at international fora, including the United Nations.

However, those of us who had been involved in exposing the atrocities committed by totalitarian Third world regimes against their own peoples came to understand that it is a risky business. The tyrants who rule there have been more interested in covering up their heinous crimes against humanity and going after whoever has the guts to expose them than making amends. So it is easy to understand how the late Ken Saro Wiwa whose efforts in exposing the dirty deals of the slick allies and campaign for environmental protection won him the Live Livelihood Award, an alternative Nobel prize , from the Swedish parliament, in December 1994 among others, came to be an enemy of the state. And once so identified the next task was to get him eliminated.

It is instructive to note that the reason Ken was killed was to prevent the MOSOP initiative from being replicated in other parts of the Niger Delta. In an interview with Newsweek’s Joshua Hammer, smuggled from his detention cell at the Bori Camp military barracks, Port Harcourt Ken remarked “ the government wants to disgrace and humiliate me, terrorize the Ogoni and any of the intellectuals who might want to copy me, and divert attention from the struggles and the Ogoni people and   stop other oil –rich areas from protesting the Ogoni way”. ( NewsWeek, May 29,1995).

However, the murder of Ken Saro Wiwa to the chagrin of the slick allies instead of ending the struggle ignited the flame of bottom-up anger in the Niger delta. So the Ijaws and other parts of the Niger delta picked up the gauntlet. And the Niger delta literarily went up in flames. Then, the international community and even the Nigerian ruling cabal paid attention. And even though justice has not been done to the memory of the famous Ogoni Nine, who were brutally hanged in Port Harcourt on November 10, 1995 for opposing Shell’s eco-terrorism in Ogoni land, today an Ijaw of the Niger delta region is the President of the federal Republic of Nigeria.

Yet, the Ogoni people are feeling disappointed that they are being ignored in the present scheme of things,even with an Ijaw in Aso Rock. Recently, they point to President Goodluck Jonathan’s cold feet towards the implementation of the UNEP report on the Ogoni environmental devastation. I overheard Ogoni leaders complaining behind the scene that the role of the Ogoni struggle in ushering in the quasi democratic process in the country today has not been appreciated. True, one of the conditions given to the Nigerian ruling junta in 1995   for readmission when Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations was a    quick return to democracy. So like   former Senator Pepple and others have acknowledged, the hanging of the Ogoni Nine and the global outrage that greeted that barbaric act sped up the democratic process in Nigeria.

However, if the Ogoni are today being disappointed or feel left out in the cold they should   look inwards for the source of their disappointment. I am amazed at how soon the Ogoni people, even MOSOP activists, seem to have forgotten what we went through.   The struggle   which Ken Saro Wiwa gave his all and eventually paid the supreme price   cannot be said to be alive today. The struggle is in comatose . It has been deliberately sabotaged by a privileged and unconscionable few for whom the struggle has become a gold mine,   as they mortgage the hope and aspirations of our people for personal enrichment. While the generality of the Ogoni people are still unshakably committed to the struggle, a near total absence of committed and credible leadership has left the struggle in a state of flux. And the Ogoni leadership has been dancing naked in the presence of the current Nigerian leadership. They have shown that they are contented with picking up the crumbs from the slave masters’ table.  

If the Ogoni leadership wants attention from the Nigerian government they must resurrect the MOSOP struggle. They could not have been so naïve not to know that in a struggle of this nature it is not just how well you start but how well you end it.   And the struggle could not have ended when   our demands have not been met.

The UNEP report on environmental devastation in Ogoni has vindicated the late Ken Saro Wiwa and MOSOP. Shell has always faulted the description, ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION, of the environmental damage in Ogoni. The oil giant which Ken Saro Wiwa described as : “a satanic octopus which demands men’s soul in exchange for cash and profit”   had always accused Ken and MOSOP of exaggerating the Ogoni situation. However, the UNEP report went deeper than we have ever stated. The UNEP report categorically stated that the extent of environmental devastation in Ogoni is so serious that it would take 30 years to clean-up. So this is our position. The Ogoni people are now fully armed by the UNEP report. Since it would take 30 years to clean up the Shell mess in Ogoni, it therefore follows that it would take 30 years or more , depending on when the clean up is started, for any form of oil related activity to resume in Ogoni. The Nigerian government can continue to fool around. But what is important to us in Ogoni is that the message has to be sent unequivocally, to Aso Rock, that the Ogoni has proven enough that we cannot be fooled around with.  

November 10 anniversaries should not only be marked as a yearly ritual as it now appears to be the case. It should be a day for sober reflection- on one of the worst cases of injustice –of the barbarism exhibited by the Nigerian government against its own citizens-of how far the bloodlust of the transnational oil corporations , in this case Shell, can go , in crushing perceived opposition to their inhuman operations in Third World countries.

November 10, should be a day of rededication and resolve-a resolve never to let the sacrifice of our fallen heroes be in vain.   There should be a resolve to fight relentlessly until justice is done to the memory of those who have gone and those Ogonis who are still around, feeling the pangs of marginalization, exploitation and enslavement.

The memories of November 10, 1995-memories of innocent men being hanged in the gallows, just for demanding for the rights of their oppressed people, should stir the Ogoni to seek revenge. Yes, revenge- no apologies. The Nigerian state and Shell must be made to pay for the cold-blooded murder of the Ogoni   Nine, the Ogoni 4 and unnamed thousands who were killed in the course of the struggle.

It is delusional for anyone to begin to talk of reconciliation in the midst of injustice.   There would be no closure in these issues until justice is seen to have been done. And our commitment to seek justice for the Ogoni   will not waiver   .Those who are abandoning the struggle at this time when injustice still stalks the Nigerian landscape are not doing justice to the memory of Ken Saro Wiwa who died fighting injustice, so Ogoni shall be free. So what we, the Ogoni owe Ken is to fight relentlessly until what he laid down his life for is achieved. No retreat. No surrender.

Leburah Ganago

Atlanta, Georgia,

United States.

Email<Glequinoxx@Comcast.net>

Getting electricity to light up Nigerian homes, even the big cities, has been one of the most daunting tasks facing any Nigerian president. You might have heard of the dark continent but the Nigerian electricity crisis is so bad that it would be apt to call it the dark country. Electricity supply in Nigeria has been at best erratic. And there is this story that government efforts at lightening up Nigeria have been consistently sabotaged by special interests, some of whom are reportedly inside the government. We hear of generating plants contractors who sabotage government efforts . They are further reported to have been bribing government officials, the ruling party’s bigwigs with generating plants, to ensure that they have electricity while their neighbors live in darkness. And as it is with anything Nigerian, electricity generation ventures have provided a conduit pipe through which hundreds of billions of Naira have been salted away by government officials and fraudulent contractors.   And the darkness goes on in Nigeria.  

Of course, what they call general elections in Nigeria and indeed, most of the Third world, are a comical farce. Usually, the ruling party headed by a Stone Age dictator perpetuates itself in power by staging mock elections, where the outcomes of such fraudulent exercises are predetermined in favor of the office holders. The voting populations are denied their civil right. of exercising   the freedom of choice while opposition politicians and civil society groups are cowed into submission by unleashing unspeakable violence on them.   Whether it is Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, or Obasanjo’s Nigeria or Paul Kagame’s Rwanda , the story is the same. The late Environmental and Minority rights activist, Ken Saro Wiwa , aptly described the situation as “ organized banditry that goes in the name of government”. Yes, they loot the public treasury and murder whoever has the audacity to question them.

The West and the rest of the civilized world have always lowered the bar when it comes to defining democracy in Africa. However, no matter how much the bar is lowered what is being operated today in most of Africa in the name of democracy are no more than glorified dictatorships.

  Perhaps no other place is this bastardization of the democratic process being depicted than Africa’s giant headache called Nigeria. On paper, it is a multiparty “democracy”. I understand there are some 40 registered political parties in the country. But in reality, what is being operated there is a one party dictatorship, where a behemoth ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), rigs out all other parties and forms the government at all levels.

  A sample of this election robbery is what transpired last year in the   local government election in Imo State, where the ruling PDP was said to have won the chairmanship positions in all of the 27 LGAs in the   state and, 303 out of the 305 councillorship seats. All 19 remaining political parties that participated in the election could not win even a   chairmanship seat.! Yes, this   is how the ruling party “wins” elections in Nigeria. That is Nigerian “ democracy” for you. And the governor of the state toasted his party’s election “victory” this way   :“ My impression about the election is good. At times I give Almighty God the glory. Having toured most of the local governments, I had not seen the kind of mobilization done in the communities. You can see that people, both young and old trooped out in their large numbers to vote the candidate of their choice”.   This is flat out lie !.   Look at the media report of the same election: “ Although the early morning rains affected the distribution of the electoral materials , most of the polling booths experienced voters’ apathy as most of the voters stayed indoors”. The opposition political parties even went ahead to make more startling allegations. The Vice Chairman ( South East)   of the APGA, Chief Chris Ejikeme Uche, and the state chairman of the party, Prince Cletus Nwaka, observed that their candidates were not allowed into the voting booths in various local governments where voting took place at all.   In Oguta, they reported that APGA chairmanship candidate was locked up on the instruction of the PDP stalwarts there by preventing him from presenting himself for the election”. ( ThisDay, August 09, 2010). If you are far removed from the scene, not used to how “elections” are “won” in Nigeria or you are from one of the civilized democracies , you would think that these reports are a fairly tales. But they are very real and very familiar Nigerian stories.

But if you think these are old stories then, what transpired during the PDP primaries for legislative seats-the Senate, House of Representatives, state Houses of Assembly is enough to remind you of just how nothing has changed and what is in store for you come April.   The state governors whom I have identified as the greatest threat to democracy in Nigeria , simply loaded everywhere with their boys. They even rigged out the president’s boys in the primaries. This is a bad omen for Nigeria.

  The state governors, have the wherewithal for election rigging-uncontrollable amounts of cash at their disposal, security apparatus and the instruments of violence.   

President Goodluck Jonathan looks every inch a good nurtured gentleman. However, Nigeria at this time do not   need just a gentleman president but also a leader who is ruthlessly brutal in taking on the bad guys. It is not enough for President Jonathan to be seen as a gentleman. Those around him must reflect his character.   He cannot continue to recycle those corrupt Obasanjo era state governors into his administration and expect to be seen as a reformer. President Jonathan should be able to exorcise the ghost of what Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka called “ nest of killers” in his ruling PDP. On top of the sundry criminal gangs that overrun the country in recent times-kidnappers, old-fashioned armed robbers, the PDP buccaneers, desperate to be in a vantage position to loot the national treasury, are upping the ante of politically motivated killings. They are turning the country into one giant graveyard . As you read this piece no less than three local government chairmanship candidates have been assassinated in the Ogoni area of Rivers State. The same blood game is playing out across the country.

Also, the president must not be seen as being   weak by his seemingly slow or lack of response to the vesting issue of insecurity that is spiraling out of control in the country. Foreign Policy magazine in its July /August 2010 issue listed Nigeria in the 14 th position on the failed states scale. As if that was not bad enough, NewsWeek magazine in a survey, around the same period, August 23&30 2010   listed Nigeria as the 99 th ( out of 100)   behind Pakistan ( 89) country of choice in the world. According to NewsWeek, the question that was used to determine the ranking was : If you were born today, which country would provide you the very : BEST OPPORTUNITY to live a healthy, safe, reasonable, prosperous,and upwardly mobile life?        

  Again, the towering influence of the state governors stems from the volumes of cash they control as chief executives of their states. They receive billions of Naira of monthly allocations from the Federation accounts, which they spend like personal entitlements, uncontrollably and unaccounted for. The state governors , with no one looking over their shoulders loot and loot and loot the public treasury. The former governor of my state   (Rivers)   Dr. Peter Odili was alleged by the   country’s anti-corruption body, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission ,EFCC, to have stolen over two hundred billion Naira ( some $2 billion). However, today he remains a free man, as he has not been charged more than three years out of office and after his indictment. The state governors deploy their loots into recruiting and arming militias and hit squads which they use to consolidate their stranglehold on power. During the Obasanjo regime a study revealed that almost all the state governors had hit squads. And assassination of political opponents was rampant. This trend is continuing post Obasanjo regime. With the approach of the general elections, coming up next month, the PDP killer squads have gone berserk.

The Economist, November14, 2009 vividly portrayed the bandits in government houses called state governors this way: “ Some of the governors in the oil-rich   Niger delta command budgets bigger than entire west African countries, yet traditionally, after they have spent most of the money on their own helicopters, limousines, and Glorylands, together with gangs of hired thugs at election time, there is little left over for anything fancy like schools or hospitals”.

  The biggest thieves in Nigeria today are the state governors. The EFCC is a huge joke. Of the 36 states thieving governors during the Obasanjo regime, only three of them have been prosecuted. What is even intriguing about the feebleness of the EFCC is that all the three governors who have been arrested were only arrested in Britain, (outside Nigeria) for money laundry. Their administrations also witnessed multiple cases of unresolved killings of political opponents and gross violations of human rights.   

Politicians, the world over are prone to abuse of office. However, the difference in the case with   Nigeria is impunity. In the United States, for instance, corrupt politicians are sent to jail and denied further ascent to political power. In China corrupt public office holders are executed. But in Nigeria they are recycled back into the system where they use their loots to further circumvent the democratic process. Those in position of authority are not held accountable. Any bandit that rigs his way into power ends up turning the public treasury into a private gold mine.   What is called government in Nigeria is characterized by free-for-all looting of the national treasury.

In any case, I have an utmost confidence in the ability of President Jonathan to win the forthcoming presidential election fair and square. For one, he looks genuine and innocent and both the Nigerian peoples and the international community believe in him. They are ready to give him a chance , as he has shown flashes of reforms. However, my fear is that the desperate state governors who are addicted to election rigging and treasury looting are going to ruin day. They are going to rig, needlessly, in their states, and the national election is the aggregate of what comes from the states. So in the final analysis it would appear as if the president has rigged to win. It does not matter that President Jonathan has warned that no one should rig the election for him.   It is possible that President Goodluck Jonathan is determined to conduct a credible election in Nigeria but unfortunately, he is not the one who is going to call the shots. Not even a reformed INEC headed by an activist college professor, Attahiru Jiga, would be in control of the general elections. Professor Jiga could easily be frustrated at the states level by the Resident Electoral Commissioners who are likely to be compromised by the corrupt governors. As revealed by former governor Donald Duke, it is the state governors who are actually in charge of the elections .And no matter what President Jonathan thinks or says they are determined to rig, like they have demonstrated during the primaries. So the ability of President Jonathan to keep his pledge of presiding over a credible election depends on how much he can tame the hydra-headed monsters called governors.

All said, Nigerians like me, desirous of meaningful change may have to look beyond periodic “elections”. Even as innocent and credible as President Jonathan appears, he is incapable of delivering real changes. The system within which he is operating is inherently and fundamentally flawed. The platform (the PDP) on which President Jonathan stands has been stained beyond redemption. This is a political party that in real operation looks like a criminal gang. They have , I am told, sworn to rule Nigeria for 60 years. They may also run the country into perpetuity, sometimes under another name. They would always regroup under different names- as it was from NPN to NRC, to PDP. Only a peoples revolution, something similar to what is     presently   sweeping across the Arab world   which can usher in real reforms. Maybe, it is this realization that prompted renowned legal scholar and former Education Secretary, Professor Ben Nwabueze on the eve of the forthcoming general elections, to call for a revolution in the country.

However, as we await our turn for a real change in Nigeria, President Jonathan, his platform notwithstanding, remains the most viable option in moving the country in that direction.