Luka Binniyat
6 September 2008
interview
A bespectacled man with a low cropped goatee walked into the Vanguard Office in Abuja, accompanied by another man, last week. In his glasses, looking pensive, with the looks of a man that had just recovered from an illness, in spite of his bulging middle, it turned out that the man had an extra-ordinary story to tell Saturday Vanguard. His story sounds real but spooky. It is a story full of intrigue, deceit and man's ability to exploit the helplessness of another. It rides on fetish beliefs, but it is supported with documents, some dating back to 1912. It was based on this belief that an understanding was made between Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and an Ogoni Landowner in 1962 on how to resettle some of his deity. SPDC, as the story unfolded, manipulated the ignorance of the Landowner, on whose land Shell now holds its Bodo West Flow Station The story, as narrated by Chief Karlex Bona Zoraddy,( as the man turned out to be), is a call for justice; a choice between peace and restiveness in Ogoni land. Bodo West in Gokana Local Government Area of River.Please read on.
What brought you to Vanguard Office?
I am here because of a very serous issue that has already claimed my father, and some of my relations. And the problem is about to claim my life and that of others too.
What kind of problem could that be?
It has got to do with an agreement that Shell signed with my father in 1962 on how to move the 10 juju (deity) of my family when it was to acquire the land on which they built their Flow Station in Bodo West, Bodo City, in Gokana Local Government Area of River State. It has been a very terrible experience for my family because Shell tricked my father to enter a faulty agreement.
Yes, but you have not said what the agreement is, and how it is affecting your family?
In 1962, Shell entered into an Agreement with my father - Late Chief Bona Babona Zorrady - that was supposed to compensate him for his land and to finance the rituals that must be made to remove the jujus that my family has keep since ancestral times and how they would be sustained afterwards. But at the end of it, they only gave him five British Pounds in 1966.
(He brings out an old, desiccated looking paper that looks its age. It is the agreement signed on 21st 1966 by Chief Babona Boradi) and witnessed by one Jerimia Dooh. The signatory for Shell is no longer legible. But in summary, Chief Boradi says in the agreement that he accepts five British Pounds as "propitiatory" rites and "full compensation" for the movement of his juju).
You can imagine, five Pounds only! Since then, it has been a continuos battle between my father, the juju and Shell. Now, it has claimed my father and some members of my family since my father is the Chief of the village, and the custodian of the juju.
And now Shell has been directed to leave Ogoni land. Who is going to take care of this responsibility?
You mean that your father was given only five pounds for his land and to take care of the gods?
Yes, at that time, he was only given five pounds. But I remember that he had fought for justice to the extent that in 1990, Shell gave us two bags of rice, one carton of milk, one carton of tin tomatoes and N16,000.
Now, Sir, what is making the jujus angry?
They have been staying in peace and we have been worshiping them and making our sacrifices to them before the coming of Shell. Once Shell came, and desperately wanted the land, we thought it would bring development to our people. So my father agreed to move the jujus on condition that Shell must pay for maintaining them in their new abode. But they did not. The jujus have been starved of their usual yearly sacrifices. Five pounds in 1966 and what Shell gave my father in 1990 is just very small fraction of what we spend yearly to maintain the juju, while Shell drained oil from our fields.
But are you people not Christians, why this talk of ...(cuts)
Please don't bring that issue now, I beg you, Sir. We did not create the juju and we did not create our ancestors. I did not bring myself into this world. I met a tradition that I was born into. I don't see why Christianity would say I should not respect my tradition. By the way is it the tradition of Christians to come to someone's land and deceive, exploit and create trouble for the owners of a land. Please, lets leave Christianity out of this, because I am in real danger, whether you believe it or not.
I know, I was just saying that if you believe in Jesus and all he can do to...
Look, I never wanted to let the Press know what I am going through, because I know it will lead to this. Ask, him (pointing at his friend), he was the one that forced me here. Because I have concluded on the action I will take, before I got killed.
(place is tense)...
Ok, I am sorry. Please lets get back to the Interview proper... so what do you spend on the gods?
I must buy them cows each year, food and expensive hot drinks for libation.
But, my father was unable to meet with that kind of demand, and they killed him.
From 1991 to 1993, the juju kept disturbing my father.
"You removed us from where we were because you want white men to take over our homes. Now we are suffering and you are not doing anything about it", they always complained to my father
My father started getting sick and sick. All means to treat him failed and he finally died in 1993. I have lost my brother and sister too all in the same circumstances. Some of our relatives have followed too. As the first born of the family, I have taken over the position of my father. Now, I am under the same threat.
How do you know that you are under threat?
I have been hearing voices of complains from the juju. I have been falling sick in and out. I can only sleep after pouring libation of very expensive drinks and drawing lines on my body with native chalk. Last two months, I had to go and kill three cows for them. And last month the same kind of crab that my father talked about appeared physically in my house in Port Harcourt. I have to run away. But for how long?
What do you want done for you?
I need the sum of N280 m as compensation for my land, and as part of the expenses we spent on these jujus and for their future upkeep too. I cannot ask for the compensation of the lives of my father and siblings. No amount of money can do that?
Who will give you that kind of money since Shell has been told to leave?
Well, Shell has a duty to compensate us. The Federal Government must force Shell or anyone coming into Bodo West Oil Fields to do so or they would never enter there.
There has been no militancy in Ogoni land, not because we cannot do so. It is because that is not our orientation. And we want to keep it so. But with what is happening to my family, I cannot keep being dormant again. I am prepared to die for the rest of my family. Government must act on this, or watch what will happen.
(Hands to Vanguard some old looking documents, some with references dating back to 1912. He also has the original C-of-O of the said abode of the gods and Shell in a document acknowledged so. Then there is very lengthy (18 page-handwritten letter of protest in a smattering of English, ostensibly written by the late Chief before his death in 1993. The Chief, in the letter written to one Pierre Snoy, or "whom so very concern" and Head of European Regional Public Affairs in the Netherlands, lambasted Shell over his plight and his 10 jujus.
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