Farmers in Nigeria's north eastern state of Taraba are being forced off lands they have farmed for generations to make way for US company Dominion Farms to establish a 30,000 ha rice plantation.
The Dominion Farms project forms part of the G8's New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa and the Nigerian government's Agricultural Transformation Agenda, which are both intended to enhance food security and livelihoods for small farmers in Nigeria. A new report, however, finds that the Dominion Farms project is having the opposite effect. The report was produced by two Nigerian NGOs, Environmental Rights Action (ERA)/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (FoEN) and Center for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), with the support of Global Justice Now and GRAIN. It is based on field investigations and interviews conducted with local farmers, community leaders and government officials.
The report shows how the lands provided to Dominion Farms are part of a public irrigation scheme that thousands of families depend on for their food needs and livelihoods. The local people were not consulted about the Dominion Farms project and, although the company has already started to occupy the lands, they are still completely in the dark about any plans for compensation or resettlement. Dominion Farms is involved in a similar land grab for a rice farm in Kenya that has generated conflicts with local communities.
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Court documents revealed by Amnesty International today expose the fact that Shell has repeatedly made false claims about the size and impact of two major oil spills at Bodo in Nigeria in an attempt to minimize its compensation payments. The documents also show that Shell has known for years that its pipelines in the Niger Delta were old and faulty.
The potential repercussions are that hundreds of thousands of people may have been denied or underpaid compensation based on similar underestimates of other spills.
The irrefutable evidence that Shell underestimated the Bodo spills emerged in a UK legal action brought by 15,000 people whose livelihoods were devastated by oil pollution in 2008. The court action has forced Shell to finally admit the company has underplayed the true magnitude of at least two spills and the extent of damage caused. We have been vindicated that Shell hugely manipulates the Joint Investigation reports to suit their purpose, escape from responsibility and to manage liabilities says Godwin Uyi Ojo, Executive Director ERA
“Amnesty International firmly believes Shell knew the Bodo data were wrong. If it did not it was scandalously negligent – we repeatedly gave them evidence showing they had dramatically underestimated the spills,” said Audrey Gaughran, Director for Global Issues at Amnesty International.
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This year Environmental Rights Action is collaborating with Friends of the Earth France who is working together with Peuples Solidaires - Action Aid France and CRID for the 7th year organizing the “Sustainable Development Pinocchio Awards”. The awards highlight the social and environmental impacts of the activities of multinational companies, activities that are in clear contradiction with the sustainable development goals that they claim to respect, commitments that additionally are legally non-binding and have thereby proven to be ineffective.
There are three categories of nominees; the category “Greener than green” is awarded to “the company which has led the most abusive and misleading communication campaign in regard to its actual activities”. The second category “Dirty hands, full wallet” is awarded to the company “which has the most opaque policy at the financial level, in terms of lobbying or in its supply chain”. The third category “One for all, all for me!” is awarded to the company “which has the most aggressive policy in terms of appropriation, exploitation or destruction of natural resources.”The multinational gas and oil company Total is one of the nominees in the third category for the impacts of their exploitation activities in Nigeria.
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This document was submitted to UNHRC in an attempt to seek a redress to the environmental Challenges befalling the people of the Niger Delta and to seek the help of the commission to help bring to book the main culprit transnational company, Shell since international and local advocacy as well as national regulatory agencies have not been able to compel Shell to change and respect human rights in the Niger delta, the regulatory agencies, national governments and the laws of the land. This level of impunity demonstrates the dire need for an international mechanism to hold companies to account uniformly rather than allowing for voluntary company mechanisms that are not legally binding. Read the Full Statement here
 Over the weekend at the Ongoing Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany
Dr Godwin Ojo, Executive Diretor ERA/FOEN from Nigeria and together with Shenna Sanchez originally from the Philippines - spoke on behalf of social movements, youth groups, women’s organisations, trade unions, indigenous groups, citizens networks and NGOs - from every corner of the world.
The Statement presented is here below.
Thank you Chair for the opportunity to deliver this joint intervention on behalf of the ENGO constituency and the youth constituency.
Collectively we represent millions if not hundreds of millions of global citizens.
This morning's action called for an energy transformation towards people's and community energy - a transformation that delivers renewable and clean energy for those with energy, the billions without access to energy as well as generating millions of new green jobs.
We had hoped to leave a small windmill for each delegation as a gift and a visual example of our demands. Please take one from the stand outside. If you find you can’t get your hand on one - do please check our website www.volveremos.org or it's also on the small yellow windmills on your desks.
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“International Anti-Chevron Day”
May 21 has been set aside as “International Anti-Chevron Day", to be marked worldwide particularly in Nigeria, Ecuador, Argentina, Romania and the United States where Chevron’s operations have inflicted pain on locals, even as the company evades liability. In Nigeria’s Niger Delta Chevron operations has devastated farmlands, forests and water bodies and resulting in human rights violations. On the 16th of January 2012 several massive explosions occurred at the Apoi North Gas wellhead belonging to Chevron. Pollutants and other toxic chemicals from the rig which is located at about 120 nautical miles off the Atlantic ocean bordering several communities led to massive environmental degradation and dislocation of communities. It resulted in the death and destruction of fishes and other aquatic life and ruined the local livelihoods of the typical fishing communities of Koluama 1 and 2, Ekeni, Ezetu, Foropa and Ekebiri in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. Others are Fish town and around Akassa in Brass LGA and several other coastal communities. Chevron's oil extraction activities in the Niger delta communities is leading to environmental degradation and pollution of rivers and farmlands from frequent oil spills and gas flaring and resulting in the destruction of farming and fishing livelihood sources.
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Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC) and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) have announced the names of six successful journalists in the inaugural Tobacco Control Investigative Journalism Fellowship funded by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK).
The Fellowship grant is part of CTFK’s efforts to build the capacity of the Nigerian media to report tobacco control from an informed perspective and stimulate policies and actions to reduce tobacco use and its deadly toll. The Fellowship is also aimed at building and improving the public’s awareness on tobacco control and its related issues.
In a statement issued jointly in Lagos, the two groups said that entries from the successful journalists were picked after a rigorous screening process by a panel of veteran journalists.
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Stalled Bodo Compensation Talks Exposed Shell’s Insincerity, says ERA/FoEN
The mired settlement talks between the Bodo community and Shell over the latter’s pollution of their environment in 2008 has vindicated community folks and environmental groups that expressed skepticism about Shell’s genuineness from the beginning when it was announced that the talks will hold behind closed doors, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has said.
ERA/FoEN position is premised on the outright rejection of an offer of $50 million (about N7. 5 billion) compensation offered by Shell after week-long talks, which Leigh Day, the legal firm representing 15,000 affected Bodo community folks described as “delusory and an insult”. The community folks insist Shell must pay $200 million.
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July, 2013
Open Letter from the African Civil Society To The Representatives of Denmark in Africa
To The Hon. Ambassador of Denmark in Nigeria
Dear Sir,
In light of the interview given by your Minister for Development Cooperation, Christian Friis Bach, on the 9th of July, to the Danish newspaper Politiken, and taking into account that the presence of Danish co-operations on the African continent dates long before the independence of most countries where they still operate today, through various organizations that develop various projects and activities in various spheres of the political system, civil society and the business sector, we cannot refrain from expressing our deepest distaste for the disrespectful and peculiar ideological content of the above-mentioned interview.
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Wednesday, 28 January 2015 01:36 | 
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