**With oil aid, Nigeria's hangmen spurn world protest**

(Reprinted from the December 16, 1995 issue of the People's 
Weekly World. Maybe reprinted or reposted with PWW credit. 
For subscription information see below)

By William Pomeroy

Outrage over the execution on Nov. 10 by the Nigerian 
military regime of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other 
environmentalist campaigners for Ogoni autonomy has 
continued to resound internationally but is being negated by 
the refusal of the US and Britain in particular to act 
decisively to end the harsh dictatorship of General Sani 
Abacha and to compel democratization in Nigeria.

Lip-service condemnation and pin-prick sanctions have been 
the only measures undertaken by Nigeria's major trading and 
investment partners, which are in a position to effect 
change in that country's methods of rule. The 52-nation 
Commonwealth suspended Nigeria from membership when it 
defiantly hung the nine Ogonis in the middle of the 
Commonwealth's summit meeting in New Zealand, but gave 
Nigeria two years to shift to democracy before before 
expulsion would be considered (Abacha had already said half 
a year before that he would restore democracy in three 
years). Steps like withdrawing ambassadors to show 
displeasure and denying visas to Nigerian officials mean 
little.

Two years ago, when a Nigerian election was nullified by the 
military which disapproved the apparent election as 
president of Chief Abiola (whom Abacha then imprisoned), the 
European Union and the U.S. adopted what came to be termed 
"sanctionettes," similar token actions which were ignored 
and faded away. One of them was a supposed ban on military 
items but Britain went on filling an order for 90 tanks to 
Nigeria "because licenses were already granted." The tanks 
were for controlling civil unrest.

On Nov. 20 European Union foreign Ministers met in Brussels 
to consider Nigerian sanctions. Once again they agreed to 
ban the sale of arms and military equipment (which are 
always easily available elsewhere), but the only really 
effective proposal, for an oil embargo, was vetoed by 
Britain and the Netherlands. Shell, the biggest oil producer 
and exporter in Nigeria, is an Anglo-Dutch company.

At the same time the U.S. government has rejected the demand 
for an oil embargo. The US takes 40 percent of Nigeria's oil 
and a cut-off would be crippling to the military regime. 
Furthermore, U.S. oil companies (Chevron, Mobil and Texaco) 
account for two-fifths of Nigeria's daily oil production of 
two million barrels and their suspension of production would 
greatly add to the impact.

Claims that the damage to the Nigerian economy would hurt 
the Nigerian people as a whole are refuted by the Nigerian 
democracy movement itself which calls for oil sanctions and 
which asserts that the income from oil has not flowed down 
to benefit the people but has been siphoned off to enrich 
those in power in vast corruption.

Behind the official vetoing of oil sanctions are the big oil 
companies. Shell especially has boldly defended its 
continued oil operations and has defiantly declared its 
intention to proceed with the building of a wholly new $4 
billion liquefied natural gas plant, located only a few 
miles from Ogoniland where the Movement for the Survival of 
the Ogoni People led by Ken Saro-Wiwa had been organized to 
fight the wholesale pollution of the region by Shell. Taking 
the offensive, Shell has run big full-page ads in the 
British press, claiming that it benefits the Nigerian 
people.

The broad movements of support for democracy in Nigeria are, 
in fact, concentrating more against Shell and the other oil 
companies than against the Abacha regime. Shell has been 
charged by the Ogonis with refusing to negotiate their 
claims for compensation for pollution of the environment and 
for share of oil income, and with calling in the Nigerian 
army instead to smash opposition, killing hundreds of people 
and destroying scores of villages. (Following the execution 
of the nine, the army has been moved in in force to saturate 
and Ogoni region and intimidate it.)

A consumer boycott of Shell stations has been initiated in 
Britain and other European Union countries. Shell shares 
have reportedly been dumped by thousands of investors, 
demanding especially withdrawal from the natural gas 
project.

A key aspect of the anti-Shell, pro-Nigerian democracy 
campaign has developed in South Africa, where Shell has a 
major investment stake. The government of Nelson Mandela is 
putting itself at the head of the international movement to 
end the military dictatorship, in the name of advancing 
democracy in Africa as a whole, and to compel Shell to adopt 
sanctions to that end.

Mandela himself has called on the U.S. and Britain to enact 
oil sanctions and has spoken to President Clinton to urge a 
ban on U.S. imports of Nigerian oil. In South Africa a South 
Africa-Nigeria Democracy Support Group has been created, 
holding demonstrations outside both Nigerian consulates and 
Shell offices. Its coordinator is ANC Deputy Secretary-
General Cheryl Carolus who said, "Our own past experience in 
this country tells us that an extra day under a dictatorship 
is too long."

The Mandela temper was raised by the fact that his 
government initially sought to use quiet diplomacy and 
persuasion to save Saro-Wiwa, with Mandela even urging such 
a policy at the Commonwealth summit, only to be humiliated 
by Abacha's callous executions. In an interview on Nov. 25 
President Mandela denounced the military regime and warned 
Abacha that he is "sitting on a volcano and I am going to 
explode it under him."

He said, "We are dealing with a barbaric and discredited 
military regime which has imposed itself on the people of 
Nigeria against their wishes." Implied is that the 
"explosion" would come from sanctions and support for the 
Nigerian democracy forces. Sharp criticism was leveled 
equally by President Mandela against the pro-democracy 
leaders within Nigeria. "It is not good enough for Nigerian 
leaders to shout from abroad and not to insure that the 
fires of resistance are burning inside Nigeria." The ANC 
leader said that "international support was merely 
subordinate to what we were doing inside the country, in the 
most difficult times."

"Our people," he said, "were arrested and detained without 
trial for many months on end; some were tortured and killed 
by the police in police custody; some were thrown into jail 
to serve life. Others were shot down, massacred, on many 
occasions, during peaceful street demonstrations. But we did 
not finch. That is what is lacking in Nigeria." He charged 
Nigerian leaders with "failure to do what all democrats do -
- ensure that there are prominent leaders inside the country 
who are prepared to face the music and to challenge Abacha."
##30##



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