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Adieu, Oronto Douglas

By Editor
11 April 2015   |   10:35 pm
He was a leading human rights attorney in Nigeria, and served as one of the lawyers on the defence team for the late Ogoni leader, Ken Saro Wiwa, who was executed by Nigeria’s military rulers in 1995.
Oronto Douglas

Oronto Douglas

THE Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Research, Documentation and Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas died last Thursday at 49 years. Born in 1966 at Okoroba, Bayelsa State, the late Douglas was a lawyer and committed environmentalist.

He was a leading human rights attorney in Nigeria, and served as one of the lawyers on the defence team for the late Ogoni leader, Ken Saro Wiwa, who was executed by Nigeria’s military rulers in 1995. He co-founded Africa’s foremost environmental movement, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria and has served in the board of several non-profit organisations within and outside Nigeria.

Though he was arrested and tortured by successive military regimes, he continued to work for and speak out on issues of social justice in the country. He was the first Niger Delta activist to be hosted by a serving American President – he presented the Niger-Delta struggle at the White House to President Bill Clinton. Douglas, who also advised the Nigerian Vice President on strategic issues of community and the environment, was a Fellow of both the George Bell Institute (England) and the International Forum on Globalisation (USA).

Widely traveled, Douglas presented papers in over 200 international conferences and visited over 50 countries to speak and present on human rights and the environment. He authored several works including the ground breaking Where Vultures Feast: Shell and Human Rights in the Niger Delta, which he co-authored with his friend Ike Okonta.

The late Douglas was named among the 20 most influential writers, thinkers and activists in the world. He was listed in a recent book “Political Awakenings: Conversations with History” by Harry Kreiser, the Executive Director of the Institute of International Studies, University of California. Douglas was selected with 19 others, from 485 interviews of people, which the book described as “distinguished men and women who by the power of their intellect and strength of character shape the world.” May his amiable soul rest in peace. Amen.

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