The social license

John Morrison

Chapter Chapter 2 in The Social License, 2014, pp 12-28 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In his statement to the court in 1995, shortly before his execution, Ken Saro-Wiwa stated: I predict that the scene here will be played and replayed by generations yet unborn. Some have already cast themselves in the role of villains, some are tragic victims, some still have a chance to redeem themselves. The choice is for each individual.1 In this extract from his final words, Ken Saro-Wiwa captures something of his legacy—a community’s struggle for environmental and social justice but also one in which powerful actors have real choices. In his final statement, Ken blamed the Shell Oil Company for what was wrong with the country—the environmental degradation, the corruption, the oppression—but, fundamentally, he was blaming the unaccountable Nigerian state. The Nigerian government had betrayed the social contract that had created it, was no longer the servant of the Nigerian people but had become its oppressor. Shell was seen to be heavily complicit with that arrangement. The role played by Shell executives during 1994 and 1995 has been the subject of legal cases, out-of-court settlements, and so on, but what is clear—in my opinion at least—is that the company lost the social license for its activities in that part of the Niger Delta because it was perceived to be so close to what was then an unaccountable Nigerian state.

Keywords: Social Contract; Niger Delta; Mining Sector; Social Contract Theory; Integrative Social Contract Theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-37072-3_2

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137370723_2

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