48 



recent events in Nigeria. I am sure that the subcommittee members, like the rest of us, 

 were shocked by the November execution of playwright and environmentahst Ken Saro- 

 Wiwa. So I am sure that most of the information I am about to discuss will not come as 

 news to you. I will tell you though that it has been a most enlightening period for the 

 members of the Sierra Club. Though we have been active on international 

 environmental issues for nearly 30 years now, mostly on development bank lending and 

 on international trade issues, never has an international environmental issue so 

 captivated our members. I suppose it is because the members of the Sierra Club across 

 America could so readily identify with the struggle of one of Nigeria's minority people, 

 the Ogoni. Their desire for freedom from pollution is something we all seek. 



The Sierra Club campaign to support the Ogoni people of Nigeria in their fight 

 for environmental justice has given rise to an entirely new perspective in the Sierra Club. 

 Our Nigeria campaign is now part of a larger agenda in which we will be looking at the 

 role of multinational companies in developing countries. We aim to inform the public as 

 to whether the influence of certain corporations in various developing countries has 

 ultimately been a good or bad thing for the local communities. We have already 

 determined that in the case of Shell's operations in Nigeria it has been a bad thing. 

 While Shell and the brutal military dictatorships have gotten rich, the Ogoni people have 

 had their lives destroyed. 



First some background on Nigeria. It is the most populous country in Africa, with 

 a population of approximately 100 million. One in every four Africans is Nigerian — and 

 the population there is set to double during the next twenty-five years, while the country 

 continues to deplete its natural resources. Nigeria is one of the world's largest exporters 

 of oil, producing some 2 million barrels of oil each day, bringing about $10 billion a year 

 to the military leaders and accounting for about 97 percent of export revenues. (Half of 

 that total is pumped by Shell, making the company by far the dominant economic force 

 in Nigeria.) Yet Nigeria remains one of the world's poorest countries, suffering from 

 frequent paralyzing gas shortages. 



Someone must be getting rich, but it isn't the Nigerian people. The average 

 Nigerian income is less than $300 a year, as Joshua Hammer reported in the June 1996 

 issue of Harper's magazine. "While the country's oil elite dwell in lavish compounds ^with 

 fleets of Mercedes, imported food and wine, and fat overseas bank accounts,"he said, 

 "agriculture which once accoimted for 90 percent of Nigeria's export income, is in ruins." 

 Nigeria's cities, says Hanmier, "swollen by the mass migration from rural areas during the 

 1970's oil boom, are smog-choked zones of anarchy." 



Nigeria also has a reputation for being one of he most corrupt and criminal 

 countries on the planet. Even before the country's latest human rights transgressions 

 occurred, direct flights between the United States and Nigeria were suspended by order 

 of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation because of ineffective security at the terminal 

 and its environs. A State Department report cited the airport for "extortion by law- 



