Shell in Nigeria

Re your April 29 article on oil exploration in the Niger River Delta: Shell official Basil Efoise Omiyi’s bragging about the progressive community support the company has “gone out of its way” to give to residents of the Niger Delta is the cheapest of PR tactics. The community projects, like the flowers an abusive man brings after beating his spouse to a pulp, are inadequate compensation and irrelevant to recovery.

Omiyi concludes with the disingenuous pronouncement, “To expect us to change the government is something you shouldn’t expect from a corporate body.” Indeed, we should not expect it, but we have observed it: The brutal Abacha government proceeds unchallenged, thanks to the support of Shell and colleagues.

DEE BURTON, Amnesty International USA, Nigeria Country Representative, Hollywood