In yet more "unimportant" news revealed by the Wikileaks State Department cables, the Guardian has published revelations that oil giant Royal Dutch Shell openly bragged about its infiltration and control of the Nigerian government.
Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.
The company's top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries". She boasted that the Nigerian government had "forgotten" about the extent of Shell's infiltration and was unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations.
The cache of secret dispatches from Washington's embassies in Africa also revealed that the Anglo-Dutch oil firm swapped intelligence with the US, in one case providing US diplomats with the names of Nigerian politicians it suspected of supporting militant activity, and requesting information from the US on whether the militants had acquired anti-aircraft missiles.
Shell, of course, has a long and controversial history in the country, which reaps billions in oil revenues but where 70% of the population lives below the poverty line. Shell Nigeria, which accounts for 40% of the Nigeria's total oil production, and a decent chunk (~10%) of Shell's oil production worldwide, was granted an exploration license in 1937, just a year after slavery was outlawed in what was then a British colony.
Shell's Nigerian operations surfaced in the international news back in the 90s, when the Ogonis, living in the region most affected by the company's massive environmental degradation, formed a resistance movement, The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). The Nigerian government, acting with funding and direction from Shell, responded brutally, according to a Greenpeace report (PDF).
Responding to claims for environmental justice, Nigerian military forces have used terrorism as a means of intimidating and stopping the environmental demands. Since the Rivers State Internal Security Task Force began working, it has been held responsible for the deaths of more than two thousand Ogonis and for the destruction of 27 villages.
Nine pacifist leaders were hanged after trials in military courts. Two witnesses that accused them later admitted that Shell and the military had bribed them with promises of money and jobs at Shell. Shell admitted having given money to the Nigerian military, who brutally tried to silence the voices which claimed justice.
In a particularly brutal twist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, the author and television producer seen as the leader of the resistance movement, was forced to watch his 8 friends and fellow protestors die before finally being murdered himself. Shell was finally taken to court a couple years ago by Saro-Wiwa's family, but ending up dodging the case and paying out a $15.5 million settlement, insisting that the result was "no admission of guilt" and even that the pay off amounted to a new focus on "humanitarian interests" in the impoverished country.
The Wikileaks cables put this lie to rest, revealing Shell's then-"VP of Africa" Anne Pickard talking openly as recently as last year of Shell's infiltration of the government and describing the tactical details of brutal campaigns against resistance movements, essentially the equivalent of a "War on Terror" conducted domestically. (Pickard, an American, was "described by Fortune Magazine as the bravest woman in oil and one of the 50 most powerful women in business," according to the glowing write up on Shell's bio page.)
"We are working with the House" to write a major piece of oil industry legislation, she is reported to have said in an October 2009 cable. And, not to worry, on this legislation reforming the Nigerian economy, there is "total alignment with the international oil companies at every level."
The diplomat notes that as head of Shell's operations there, Pickard, who, according to Fortune Magazine travels with her own police escort, "routinely meets with the oil, gas, and defense ministers as well as top military leaders and senior advisors to the President." Even more impressively, he recounts her bragging that "Shell had seconded people to all the relevant ministries and...consequently had access to everything that was being done in those ministries."
Another cable demonstrates Shell's intimate involvement in suppressing the country's militants, gathering intelligence and analyzing military tactics.
Pickard also thought she detected a troubling new development in least one of the recent attacks in Rivers State. In previous attacks in the western Niger Delta, militants had approached facilities via creeks and swamps using boats. In one of the attacks on September 14, militants crossed a significant amount of dry land to reach their target.
Pickard was unsure if this was a one-off occurrence or a new militant tactic. She expressed concern that if the militants were willing to move over long stretches of dry land, oil facilities thought to be secure would be vulnerable to attack. On the JTF's performance, she noted the JTF was taking a more proactive approach to confronting the militants and increasing the use of helicopters to attack militant formations.
The JTF refers to "Joint Task Force," a militarized police operation used to hunt down Nigerian revolutionaries which has been accused of mass bombings of civilians and other abuses.
Shell also seemed to expect intelligence from the U.S. about support for militants outside the country.
In another request for information, Pickard asked if we had any information about possible shipments of "surface to air missiles (SAMs)" to militants in the Niger Delta...She claimed Shell has "intelligence" that one to three SAMs may have been shipped to Nigerian militant groups.
Showing what a distorted picture the Western press can paint of events half a world away, the 2008 Fortune Magazine profile of Pickard reads like it arrived from some happier, more peaceful alternate dimension. In the writer's eyes, Anne is a pioneer - "the first woman to run Shell's African operation." She "knows the true meaning of oil crisis." Not to be outdone on empty quotes, Anne then adds one herself: "I like these types of environments because you make a difference."
According to the Guardian report, the leaked cables will almost certainly have serious political reverberations in Nigeria:
The WikiLeaks disclosure was today seized on by campaigners as evidence of Shell's vice-like grip on the country's oil wealth. "Shell and the government of Nigeria are two sides of the same coin," said Celestine AkpoBari, of Social Action Nigeria. "Shell is everywhere. They have an eye and an ear in every ministry of Nigeria. They have people on the payroll in every community, which is why they get away with everything. They are more powerful than the Nigerian government."
The criticism was echoed by Ben Amunwa of the London-based oil watchdog Platform. "Shell claims to have nothing to do with Nigerian politics," he said. "In reality, Shell works deep inside the system, and has long exploited political channels in Nigeria to its own advantage."
Meanwhile, the government of Nigeria "strenuously denied the claim."
Levi Ajuonoma, a spokesman for the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, said: "Shell does not control the government of Nigeria and has never controlled the government of Nigeria. This cable is the mere interpretation of one individual."