Poison Fire - A Documentary On Shell's Wanton Destruction Of The Niger Delta

This video and others like it never cease to shock me - the sheer destruction, the poverty, the utter helplessness of the people. 

watch it here : http://poisonfire.org/

Something just struck me about the video - does Shell pollute the environment in other areas the way it does in Nigeria? They claim the government is corrupt, yet they do business with it!

I must say these lawyers, rights activists and community leaders are the real heroes, not the gun totting MEND or whatever they call themselves. These guys are working hard to change things within the law. Sadly they are not always successful, but their spirit and determination must be applauded.

Anyone here who works in such a company/environment has to really think about that money you're getting - at the expense of others.

There is a local connection no doubt - weak enforcement and regulation of their activities, not to talk of government corruption.

But for a company as big as Shell and as well known, their atrocities in the Delta are Unacceptable.

These environmental conditions violate Shell's own internal rules and policies - they should either clean up or get out. They cannot blame the government for continuing to pollute - like a woman said, Shell's pipeline is polluting, not the FG's.

i nova watch am yet, but i must insist that we blame ourselves first b4 anyother person. why is our environment a fertile ground for lawlessness. shell cant do this in london, or pretoria. why will they do it in nigeria, b/c we are lawless and we must invest all our energy into being a civilised country. after that we can now be able to look outside and deal with any external forces. i'm sure local corruption contribited overwhelmingly to what is going on in the niger-delta

what makes u think so??

That is a very lame excuse - if it were some small company without experience or ability to manage its operations safely, then maybe that would be acceptable. But this is SHELL - they tell their shareholders that they hold the SAME values WHEREVER they operate and will strive to maintain the same environmental standards throughout.

This is a basic thing - you DO NOT operate where you will cause such pollution, or at least without cleaning it up first. How can they continue to report profits to the HQ and claim that its the budgeting process that is hindering them? Why not bear the cost and say that the government owes them money for cleaning up the environment like they do for other aspects of the JV funding?

Shame on the government yes, we lack the ability to regulate the industry properly, but for crying out loud, a company like Shell should not be caught dead operating under these conditions. It is completely unacceptable.

actually it's not a lame excuse, shell has an history of bribing chiefs and LG heads in the niger delta.  these guys turned their backs while shell penetrated every loophole.  lack of industry and environmental standards hurt nigeria in this case.  


good point, but this is a foreign for profit company that exploited equatorial guinea too.  the nigerian government has itself to blame for not regulating the industry.

@debosky
You are absolutely right. These people deserve all support. But they are the ones who get harassed by the army while the MEND guys are having a field day posing for the press. The guy in the video who took Shell to court, Jonah Gbemreh, was among 25 people, including journalists, who were arrested by the army in Iwherekan the other day. See http://www.eraction.org

@tpia
Are you crazy? Strong-handed military men are the cause of this mess.

@kiwi
The video is on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq2TBOHWFRc

I know. I didn't say that the military officers are bad or corrupt. I met one in Bayelsa who said he didn't understand what the army was doing there. Why he was sent to fight his nigerian brothers to protect a foreign company. There is no military solution and there is no shortage of strong men. 

No Zumbe, he is not crazy. He is your awusa friend whom you trusted and helped to fight and win Biafra. He is only suggesting ways to crush you so the oil will keep flowing to his northern nigeria encalve. After all, he helped liberated your people from the Biafrans and the oil automatically belongs to him and his people. So why are you complaining?

Nothing new here. . . . gas flares are everywhere. . . . two near my grandmothers house alone. . . . there is an almighty one on Eleme express way, just 20 minutes drive from PH. . . . it looks like hellfire itself. . . . .look at all the gas Nigeria is wasting that they could use to solve PHCN problems. . . . not only Shell but the NNPC refinery flares gas openly. . . . and they pass it off as a national symbol. . . . everyday for the thief, one day for the owner, its all good. . . . firstly, regulation needs to be tightened. . . .but at the same time, foreign oil companies cannot tell us one thing in their fancy adverts about caring for the environment and totally disregard ethics and morality. . . .

kudos to the filmmakers. . . . they should keep doing the good International Relations work. . . .the rest of us will do the military work. . . . every struggle has two sides. . . . . I wonder if this video will make it to CNN sha. . . . or even common AIT or NTA, talkless of UN floor or Hague . .I doubt it. . . .even Nairaland will not put on the front page. . . .  . . .  Mr Seun, put this poo on your front page abeg. . . .if its LAWMA officials or skinny girls who hate themselves, we will see it on front page. . . . remember that you are a media mogul now and that comes with some moral responsibilities.

4Play, ONGC and SINOPEC do not claim to have internationally certified Environmental Management Systems like ISO 14001, they don't claim to have internal policies geared at continuous improvement of their environmental performance. If it were SINOPEC or ONGC polluting this way, it would be a different kettle of fish altogether - those companies have weak environmental structures and at that point, more emphasis would be placed on government to improve their own frameworks.

This is not about 'pecuniary benefits' as you so slyly try to excuse it as - SHELL is the OPERATOR, i.e the one responsible for all impacts on the environment and for running of these oil assets. The Operator always faces the brunt of criticism or praise wherever it operates, be it in Nigeria or on the North Slope in Alaska. NNPC has virtually nil production by itself, all its oil comes from projects OPERATED by these foreign companies.

Their livelihoods have been destroyed, shouldn't they protest and get their environment remediated? The people by and large are not even asking for 'compensation' as such - they want flaring stopped and the oil cleaned up. To make it out as simply a money-grab is very disingenuous, these people are protesting against real problems on the ground.

Yes there is a lax regulatory environment, but IOC's like Shell MUST bring best practices wherever they operate, that is what they pride themselves for and claim to do - if they fail at that, they must be held fully accountable for violating their own internal rules and policies.

Oga admin, well done o!

Are you kidding? Which oil major doesn't make the above claims? ONGC and SINOPEC do claim to maintain and pursue high environmental standards. For instance, read SINOPEC's claims and laugh:

There is no oil major that doesn't claim to have high environmental safety procedures. The question becomes why select Western oil majors for special treatment?

Shell is a joint venture partner,the minority partner if I'm not mistaken, and the suggestion that it should be bear the brunt of the blame is farcical. Could it be that Nigeria has no leverage over the environmental practices of its partners? That will be far from the case. The real issue is the domestic regulatory environment;it could be Shell today,Petrobras or Gazprom tomorrow.

It is about pecuniary benefits since the "activist industry" sees big Western multi-nationals as money spinners,in so far as tugging at Western heart strings. Western multi-nationals generally maintain higher standards,where ever they operate,than their domestic and foreign rivals but strangely endure the most criticism.

The idea of giving companies with virtually zero safety procedures a free pass while piling on companies that do make some effort is ludicrous.

The problem of the state of the Niger-Delta transcends Shell's inadequacies. Anybody who really wants a solution to the problem will support handing over a 100% control over the resources of the region to the locals.

This is a national political problem not a problem of internal company procedures. What is Nigeria doing with its share of the joint venture partnership? The Govt must use its share of the revenues(80% of oil revenues) to deal with the economic issues while enforcing good environmental standards.

Shell is a business not a quasi-charity. No responsible country absconds responsibility for regulating a business to the internal management structure of the business. If the US,the UK or Canada looked the other way,Shell will do the same thing in those countries.

Nigeria was quick to muscle in in the 70s;expropriating Shell's PH refinery,BP's retail business and nationalising the oil industry; to grab the oil revenues to squander in far away places like Lagos and Abuja,showing where our priorities lay. Yet,we effectively abandon the responsibility of protecting the Niger-Delta's environment to Western businesses.  


 

seconded

Does the concept "corporate responsibility" ring a bell?



My point (made earlier) exactly.

@deboski,

a doctor does not give panadol to a patient with headache and ask him to go home. a doctor tries to find out what is causing the headache. it may be malaria, or typhoid fever, or stress etc, then the doctor treats the underlying disease.

shell's activites are like a headache(a very throbbing headache) but beyond that, there is something going on. there is a lawless nation.

we'll be damned if we expect shell to love us. they are business men. period. their interest is money. if they can do it in london and get away with it they will. but they wont get away with it so they wont do it in europe. when they came to chaos-iria nigeria, they saw they can get away with it and they did just that. even after a court injunction(i finally found time to watch it all) they are still getting away with it. did you see how the niger-deltans sent to europe to help showcase the horrors of shell were overtly intimidated by the presence of shell top brat? the people have been so humiliated and dehumanised. evidence of a wasteland(nigeria) you need to see illiterates in the UK fighting for their rights. poor illiterates will confront even the prime minister. b/c they live in a country where humanity is respected and everyone is important. our children in naija have grown in a country where some people are made to believe they are inferior. Another evidence of a failed nation.

that is the underlying pathology of the shell issue. failed nation, lawless nation, shell capitalisation, dehumanised citizens who dont know how to fight for their rights,  . . . .