The company is charged by activists and Wiwa as influencing the Nigerian government to act illegally and, if we believe the allegations, monstrously in violation of human rights in order to exploit the oil resources in the Niger River Delta area (Livesey 58; Saro-Wiwa 7). In a final message to the public, just before his death by hanging at the hands of the Nigerian government, Saro-Wiwa blamed Shell for its influence leading to abuses in Nigeria (Saro-Wiwa 7). Saro-Wiwa wrote:
Shell Oil is here on trial, and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it, for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war the company has waged in the delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war will be duly punished. The crime of the company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished (Saro-Wiwa 7)."
Nigeria is the sixth largest oil producing nation today (Wiwa xv). Bronwen Manby (1999) says that Shell oil continues to be the biggest corporate exploiter of oil in Nigeria (Manby 281). The company received the bulk of its criticism during the years when Saro-Wiwa was involved in activism in the Niger River Delta region, 1994 and 1995 (Manby 281). 1995, of course, is the year thaqt Saro-Wiwa was hung to death. Manby writes:
While the Ogoni crisis is no longer in the headlines, and while the June 1998 death of General Sani Abacha ended a period of unprecedented repression in Nigeria -- allowing elections that have led to the installation of the first civilian government in 16 years -- protest and repression in Nigeria's oil-producing regions have, if anything, increased (Manby 281)."
If it was the Nigerian government's to silence the protests by making an example of Saro-Wiwa, they succeeded. Manby reports, too, that Shell denies reports that link it to Nigeria's responses using oppression and suppression to silence activist and political groups (Manby 281). Reports from various sources, including Manby, also indicate that Shell has not been a good ecological corporate partner (Manby 281; Livesey 58). In some instances, Shell has been cited as "arrogant," in its responses to discussion on its political and ecological positions and especially as concerns its damage to the Niger River Delta environment (Livesey 58).
In a remarkably candid speech to explain why Shell had "stumbled" (Herkstroter, 1996b, [paragraph]54), the Shell Group Chairman interpreted Spar and Nigeria as institutional challenges, saying that "modern demands [on companies] are... somewhat different to the traditional ones" ([paragraph]21) and that "the institutions of global society are being reinvented" by social and technological change ([paragraph]65). Accordingly, Shell had to learn to operate in "a very fluid world... In which the technological and communications revolution is redefining our perceptions of reality; of authority, and of what is appropriate and what is not" ([paragraph]46). Shell characterized the consequences of this change as a move from a "trust me" to a "show me" world (Knight, 1998, p. 2; see also Faulds, 1998). As Herkstroter (1996b) realized, where "the more traditional structures [of business and government had] failed to adapt," NGOs ("private groups organised around themes or issues") had "gained an authoritative voice" ([paragraph]45). Here, the Chairman appears to be recognizing and responding to discursive struggle and its institutional effects (Livesey 58)."
There are allegations that Shell has been complicit in manipulating the politics in Nigeria and, worse, that the company was active in creating a disparaging image of Ken Saro-Wiwa following his death (Wiwa xii-xiii).
Shell Oil, the company my father had accused of devastating the environment and abusing the human rights of our people, responded to questions about its role in the affair by launching a public relations campaign that spread doubts about his character and his reputation. The multinational distanced itself from the execution, insisting that it was being used as a scapegoat to deflect attention from the real issues in the trial. In a television interview, the head of its Nigerian operations claimed that Ken Saro-Wiwa had been executed for murder (Wiwa...
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