Nigerian political activist Donny Ohia released from deportation prison

Donny Ohia, is known to the refugee and progressive community in Germany as one of those who took part in the 16-day hunger strike against the G7 meeting in Köln in June 1999.
 
 
 
 

He was arrested on the 5th June 2003 and was put in deportation prison in Rottenburg the following day. He started a hunger strike immediately on arrest.

Donny Ohia, from the oil rich Niger Delta region had to flee his beloved country in 1997 because his political activities against the trans-national oil companies had put his life in acute danger. Now, at the time when the crisis in the Delta region has reached an unprecedented crescendo - with dozens of people are loosing their lives daily – the German authorities are taking action to deport him!

Donny Ohia, being the person he is, continued his struggle against the Nigerian regime soon after he arrived in Germany. Together with other Nigerians in Germany he formed ‘Concerned Nigerians for Democracy’ which played an active role in exposing the Nigerian regime. He was not only concerned about Nigeria. Together with refugees from other countries he fought against the inhuman treatment of refugees in Germany. But his collaboration with refugees from different countries was not limited to fighting against racism and social exclusion in Germany. His determination to practically protest against the international order that is the root cause of the terror that caused us to flee from the countries of our origin drove him to participate in the refugee hunger strike in Köln.
 

Hunger for Justice

The following text has been extracted from a telephone conversation that Donny had with the International Human Rights Association Bremen in the deportation prison on the 11th June:

I don’t see my hunger strike as only a protest against my deportation.
No.
Let me explain.
When I fled Nigeria it was to escape the danger to my life – but it was not to escape the struggle!
Most people in Nigeria know that the cause of the problems in our country rooted in international Oil companies and their policies.
The brutality of the Abacha regime that I fled from cannot be separated from the interests of the Oil companies.
But where are the Oil companies based?
So, I see coming to Europe only as changing the terrain of the struggle.
It is true - it was the danger that forced me to leave Nigeria.
Our methods were peaceful. My work was to analyse the conditions of our people. I was researcher for the Agbo movement (as you know the Agbo people are about 1million in number living in the Niger Delta region). It is this research work that brought me into confrontation with the Oil companies and their followers. The oil companies employ armed hoodlums to do their dirty work.
We were not prepared for the violence that followed. This is what forced me to leave my country. But as soon as I arrived in Germany I joined with others to expose the terrible situation that the multinationals based in Europe are causing in my country. I knew that even a little pressure from progressive minded people from Germany could reduce the danger faced by the struggling people that I had to leave behind. It is in this way that I continued my struggle.
But I never expected the German authorities to treat me in an unfair and later vindictive way. I was not hoping that the German authorities will take a stand against the oil multinationals! No.  But I did not expect that in a western democracy that people like me who are armed only with the truth would be treated with such venom. I also did not expect that the asylum authorities in Germany would parrot the same arguments that the military dictators use in Nigeria.

In rejecting my asylum application the Bundesamt characterises my struggle defending the rights of the Agbo people from the multinationals is merely an ‘ethnic conflict’ and does not qualify me for political asylum. They further say that persecution by (in their words) ‘anonymous agents of the oil companies’ does not qualify as asylum grounds as it cannot be characterised as political persecution by the government in power. Both these lines of arguments are part of the vicious propaganda that the Oil companies and the Nigerian dictators have used for decades. The second argument, the attempt to decouple the Oil company interests from the interests of the regime, is to try to hide this unholy alliance, the most important dynamic which is the cause of the terrible poverty and oppression faced by the people – specially the people in the Niger Delta.  The other argument, and the attempt to manipulate one ethnic or national group against another so that the oil companies can continue its exploitation and the regime can continue to rule has been the preferred tactic of the status quo. And because of the dirty tricks that are used by the rulers, these methods, have up to an extent worked in the past and continues to do so now. But for the German authorities to use this argument like a formula – even before it has succeeded – like in the case of our struggle at the time (the Agbo in 1997) - expresses the wishful thinking of an evil mind.

For decades now the oil multinationals and different militaristic Nigerian regimes have sucked on the resources of the Niger Delta leaving the people in the area the poorest in the whole country. Over 20 Billion Euro worth of Oil is extracted each year and the multinational oil companies, the corrupt militaristic elite share the loot. The people in the Delta, all the different ethnic and national groups get nothing. Further their land and the environment is destroyed as the gas flaring, oil leakage ruins any possibility of making a livelihood from the land or from the rivers. Whenever the people in the area rise up, of whatever ethnic or national group from the Ogoni’s in the past to the Ijaws at present the rulers inside and outside Nigeria try to use the same divisive manipulations, the use of ‘agent provocateurs’, paid killers, all calculated to cause ethnic strife, to use one group against another so that the greedy and the corrupt can continue to hold on to power – whatever the cost is to the masses.

Recently a representative of Shell triumphantly proclaimed that it is not the ‘communities against the oil companies’ but it is the ‘communities against the communities’. The Bundesampt who rejected my case would enthusiastically agree – I am sure. But this evil plan must not work. The people must and will learn the lessons from the past.

How did Ken Saro Wiwe meet his death? Our people know the history. The new generations of fighters for justice will learn the lessons. The Ijaw militants must and will learn the lessons from the past. They will learn from the Ogoni struggle. They will learn the lessons of Biafra. They will learn from the political experience of the OPC and the militant Yoruba groups. All serious groups must come together to build a principled unity of the people in the spirit of the Sovereign National Conference.

My attempts to build solidarity with my people, and to show solidarity with others who struggling against oppression has landed me in this situation. Some will try to limit my struggle as a fight to stay in Germany and say that my enemy is the German asylum authorities. But to me, I am one small victim of the international powers who are conducting a massive war on the people of our countries for the sake of Oil and gas. It should not be difficult for people in Europe to understand this as only a few months ago they protested in their millions against that other war for oil – the US led war against Iraq. Ominously the US has given six warships to Nigeria to crack down on the Ijaw youths who have successfully disrupted the oil supplies by taking control of the pipelines in Warri.

I ask you to join our struggle for justice. My hunger strike brings into focus not only the injustice that asylum seekers face in Germany but even more importantly the terrible injustice in Nigeria and the silent collaboration of the people in Europe and the West. I do not know if we will be successful. If it fails let my epitaph not be ‘here lies a man who was part of an ethnic or tribal conflict in Nigeria’ as the German Bundesamt and Shell Oil might want to say.
 

Defend Donny Ohia

Practical ways to support Donny Ohia

If the German authorities still deport him despite the protests, then we will ensure that someone goes to Nigeria to try to protect Donny Ohia and to at least bear witness. We urgently need money for this as well as the lawyer’s costs, which will be due soon. Send it to:
Internationaler Menschenrechtsverein Bremen e.V.
Account Number: 99 29 207
Postbank Hamburg          Bank Branch Number: BLZ 200 100 20,
The account is registered as a charity in Germany
 

Please print out the petition sheet available in different languages and fill it and fax it to us. (if the language that you wish is not available either contact us or better try to arrange the translation yourself and email the translated version to us)

Contact us if you have any ideas.