Contending Issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria - Journal of ...

Dr. Lere Amusan
federal government in order to quell the insurrection. After almost
thirty years without any appreciable voice for the Niger delta people,
Ken Saro Wiwa, who worked for the state government in different
capacities started to wage war against the federal government and the
oil multinationals in order to curb the rate of environmental
degradation caused by the finite resources exploitation in the oil
bearing region of Nigeria. He and his MOSOP were very popular, and
Maier (2001: 81) has these to say about the movement and Ken Wiwa:
"For a while MOSOP represented the most cogent
opposition force to (the federal government and
the oil multinationals, shell in particular in
Nigeria). As Ken Saro Wiwa became the darling of
Greenpeace, International PEN, the Sierra Club,
the UN Working Group for Indigenous People,
even Western corporations with a conscience such
as the Body Shop, Foreign film crews produced
sympathetic - some said unquestioning -
documentaries with melodramatic titles such as
The Drilling Fields, Delta Force, and the Heat of the
Moment. Saro Wiwa was showered with
international tributes ranging from the Right to
Livelihood Award, honouring those who work "for
the survival of mankind," to the
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