Shell’s grip on Nigerian state: Wikileaks

The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians’ every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable. The company’s top executive in Nigeria told U.S. diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew “everything that was being done in those ministries”. Cables from Nigeria show how Ann Pickard, then Shell’s vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa, sought to share intelligence with the U.S. government on militant activity and business competition in the contested Niger Delta - and how, with some prescience, she seemed reluctant to open up because of a suspicion the U.S. government was “leaky”. “She claimed Shell has ‘intelligence’ that one to three SAMs may have been shipped to Nigerian militant groups, although she seemed somewhat sceptical of that information and wondered if such sensitive systems would last long in the harsh environment of the Niger Delta,” the cable said. She assumed Shell would be the GON’s prime target.” Ms. Pickard alleged that a conversation with a Nigerian government minister had been secretly recorded by the Russians.