Community members and rights groups have staged a peaceful protest at the Shell headquarters in Lagos to decry the organization’s divestment plans without proper cleanup exercises in the Niger Delta region.
The protesters demanded that Shell’s divestment from Nigeria does not absolve it of responsibility, and the company must address the environmental destruction, human rights abuses, and social injustices it perpetrated.
The protest, which took place in Lagos and led by the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) and Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), coincides with the Shell Annual Shareholders Meeting which held in London, UK.
In a joint statement issued by HOMEF and CAPPA, the groups demanded that “the Nigerian government and governments worldwide prioritise human and environmental dignity over corporate profits. Nowhere is the failure of governance and corporate exploitation more apparent than in the Niger Delta.
“In this region, the connection between natural resource exploitation and abject poverty is palpable and undeniable. If entities like Shell and Chevron are not held accountable and forced to pay up for their sins, poor communities will continue to suffer the devastating consequences of their operations without succour.
“Our call today is for justice. We demand that governments stand with the people, not the profiteers. We call for the enforcement of policies that protect the common good and political will from the government to hold big polluters accountable. The time for action is now.”
Stressing that Shell and Chevron’s inhumane operations in Nigeria and beyond have caused both economic and non-economic losses, the groups called for “an independent and comprehensive assessment of the environment of the entire Niger Delta; an open and comprehensive health audit of the people living in extractive communities across the Niger Delta.
“A cleanup, remediation, and restoration of all polluted and contaminated areas linked to Shell’s extractivism; that Shell and Chevron be held accountable for the destruction of communities in the Niger Delta; that divestment and/or expansion plans follow due process of decommissioning.”
The groups also demanded that “The Nigerian Government’s environmental and climate change policies be weaned off unfounded corporate language, including false solutions such as Net Zero; and that “communities are recognised as major stakeholders that must be afforded expression on matters that concern their safety and survival.”
Stressing the need for Shell to comply with the demands of the protesters, Gideon Adeyeni, CAPPA’s Project Officer emphasized the moral imperative for Shell to own up to its legacy of destruction, adding that “a company that has wreaked havoc across a region should not be allowed to leave without being held responsible for fixing the mess it has created.”