why Shell agreed to settle with Nigeria’s Ogoni
June 18, 2009 1 Comment
Britain’s Channel 4 News–hardly raving anti-globalizers–reports on the rationale behind multinational oil company Shell’s decision to pay a “humanitarian” settlement to Nigerian activists who sued the company for the role in the state murder in 1995 of Ogoni writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and a number of others.
The Nigerian government owns most of the oil rights, does most of the drilling, et al, but they would never give a cent to any of their citizens. Saro-Wiwa’s cynical plan to force the issue with the foreigners because he knew the government would not do a thing has proven effective, though considering that he lost his life in the process and the government will continue to screw over the Ogoni, all of this stuff is for naught.