Rights of Nature Tribunal

1. Shell’s Oil Wars In Nigeria: The Case
of Ecocide and Rights of Nature.
International Rights of Nature, Paris, Dec 4-5, 2015
Godwin Uyi Ojo, PhD, Political Ecologist, Executive
Director, ERA/FoEN

2. 1. Impact of Shell’s Oil Extraction: The ND: Crime
Scene of Ecocide
• The Niger Delta has been in perpetual state of violent
resource conflicts & oil wars since oil discovered in 1956.
• Oil boom resulted in oil doom: Manifestations of
oil-dependency; Resource curse syndrome with
over US$600 billion in oil revenue with little or
nothing to show for it (Watts, 2008).
• Frequent oil spills over 10,000 sites which equals one
Valdez per annual (about 500,000 litres per year).
• UNEP report 2011: hydrocarbons found in soil over the
depth of 5 metres and water pollution contaminated with
benzene 900 times above WHO standards.
• ND, crime scene of ecocide.

4. Gas FlaringGas Flaring
Continues UnabatedContinues Unabated
• About 24.1 billion cubic
Meter of associated gas
is flared annually in
Nigeria. In Dollars, this
means
$2.5billion/Year.
Contributing to 70
million tonnes CO2
equivalent to the global
greenhouse gas
emissions. This ranks us
the 2nd
largest gas
flarers after Russia.
• In electricity generation,
It can provide
6.3Million Nigerian,
462kWh/Person in a
year

7.
Three Propositions
2.1.Notions of Energy Security
• Differing perceptions about energy security b/w
developed and developing countries demonstrates
CONFLICT OF DEVELOPMENT, & promotes ecocide.
• Developed countries, energy security means the continuous
flow of natural resources which often means militarization of
sites of extraction so that resources get to the international
market unhindered. –Oil Corporations externalize production
costs to third parties while human rights violations and
environmental degradation are rife.
• Developing countries, energy security means dispossession,
poverty, violence, ecocide and crime against humanity that
are increasing at the sites of extraction.

8. 2.2. Peaceful Protests, Military
Might, & Corporate Nemesis
• Community Protest and State repression,
oppression, detention, killings resulted in over
2,000 deaths, others in self-exile (Okonta and
Douglas, 2001).
• Ken is arrested along with 8 others, tried by a
kangaroo tribunal and then hanged (killing of
activists who resist oil Corporations).

9. 2.3. Environmental Injustice and
Corporate Nemesis
• These pains, misery, denials, killings, and
injustices have been internalized and played
back as a form of Corporate backlash and
manifestations in Corporate Nemesis:
• Increased violence, oil theft, kidnapping of oil
workers, and blow out of oil facilities.
• The Niger Delta is a crime scene:
• Companies and CEOs who persistently take decisions
leading to the harm of Nature and death of people
consistently over a period of time is liable for ecocide
• Tribunal will now decide the sentence & remediation

10. 2.4. Legacy of KSW: LOIS
• Since 1993, Shell remained expelled from Ogoni
with over 28,000 barrels of crude oil saved.
• With the avoidance of potential carbon emissions into
the atmosphere by the non-extraction, the Ogonis
deserves fair and adequate compensation from the UN
Green Climate Fund for LOIS.
• Transition from fossil fuel to alternative sources
that are in harmony with Nature: Leave the oil in
the Soil, Coal in the Hole, & Tar sands in the sand
• Energy Democracy where communities are co-
producers and distributors of energy.