Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today marks a dark milestone on the long road to environmental justice. Twenty years ago, Nigerian environmental and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged, along with eight fellow defendants, following an internationally denounced military tribunal. Saro-Wiwa was a well-known author and television producer in his native Nigeria before he chose to devote himself full time to the causes of the Ogoni, a minority ethnic group of about 500,000 farmers and fishermen who hail from the Niger Delta. As president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People--MOSOP--he fought against the exploitation of Ogoni lands and the Ogoni people themselves by the oil drilling operations of Royal Dutch Shell. As the oil industry grew to represent the main source of revenue for the Nigerian Government, the delta landscape was ravaged by oil spills and acid rain. Fertile farmland turned to oil-soaked wasteland. The region's fish and wildlife were wiped out--along with the livelihood of the Ogoni. Out of the entire 5,000-person workforce employed by Shell in Nigeria, less than 100 were Ogoni. Under Ken Saro-Wiwa's leadership, MOSOP organized hundreds of thousands of Ogoni to demand environmental remediation, compensation for past damages, and a share in oil revenues. The regime of dictator General Sani Abacha responded with a brutal campaign of occupation, mass arrest, rape, execution, and the burning of Ogoni villages.…”