Home | Friday 18th July 2008 | Issue 640

Back to the Full Issue

MEND OF AN ERA IN NIGERIA?

Concerned that not all of the world’s energy-rich areas are violent enough, the British government/military has decided to stick an even bigger, heavier oar into Nigeria. In a not-subtle-at-all way, Gordon Brown publicly announced that the UK military would weigh in to support Nigeria’s Shell-sponsored government in its quest to defeat the insurgency that’s been raging in the Niger Delta.

Brown promised to send equipment, trainers and ‘advisors’ to the Nigerian military to “ensure oil production can bring prosperity” (to Shell & Co), and to make sure that there’s a ‘sustainable peace’ in the area. It’s very hard to make an obscene profit when locals keep attacking your oil platforms, as the oil giants have been finding out to their cost since the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) began its campaign in 2005.

For an insurgency that’s been going on for three years, in one of the world’s top oil producers, the Niger Delta insurgency (led by the MEND) has received surprisingly little attention from the world’s press. It does get reported however in the financial pages; even if the human cost of multinationals’ drilling and poisoning of the area remains strictly off limits for mainstream journos.

But the MEND’s habit of attacking oil platforms & installations gets a mention alongside how it’s caused a further multi-dollar jump in the cost of a barrel of oil. Their insurgency has dropped Nigeria’s oil production by at least a fifth as a result of the direct targeting of the oil industry and in the knock-on effects caused by the multinationals’ reluctance to exploit such a dangerous area.

And so, it’s Gordon ‘Bulldog’ Brown to the rescue. Willingness to bend over backwards to support the oil industry is perhaps the number one trait in any British PM, and so, true to form, another conflict is duly escalated.

Pretty much as soon as Brown had made his speech at the G8, the MEND responded by saying their ceasefire with the Nigerian government was over, and that British interests would “suffer the consequences.” And they’re not known for making idle threats.

This Thursday, the 47,000 barrels-per-day Eni pipeline was blown up by attackers in what the company, in a rare candid moment, called a ‘community dispute’. The dispute in question is pretty clear; one between the community and the oil industry. Within 24 hours of this attack more than 30 militants attacked the naval boat protecting oil facilities belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company.

British advisors and mercenaries are getting drawn into fighting a dirty war for control of Nigeria’s oil, and the locals join the dots connecting the UK government, UK oil interests and the killing of their people. If the MEND really take up their threat of targeting British interests, how long can it be before we start seeing an escalation (a ‘surge’) of UK/US/NATO troops into the area, and how long before we start getting told that the War on Terror (tm) is being redirected to West Africa?

Subscribe to SchNEWS: Send 1st Class stamps (e.g. 10 for next 9 issues) or donations (payable to Justice?). Or £15 for a year's subscription, or the SchNEWS supporter's rate, £1 a week. Ask for "originals" if you plan to copy and distribute. SchNEWS is post-free to prisoners.

SchNEWS, c/o Community Base, 113 Queens Rd, Brighton, BN1 3XG, England
Phone: +44 (0)1273 685913
email: schnews@brighton.co.uk

@nti copyright - information for action - copy and distribute!