NAWRED:123-Oronto Douglas

Oronto Douglas

Oronto Douglas, Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan and African Scholar in Residence at the International Forum on Globalisation. "Oronto Douglas 42 (Aug 2009) is a leading human rights attorney in Nigeria, and served as one of the lawyers on the defence team for the Ogoni leader Ken Saro Wiwa, who was executed by Nigeria's military rulers in 1995. Douglas 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 has been arrested and tortured by successive military regimes, he continues to work for and speak out on issues of social justice in a corporate- military state. 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 advises the Nigerian Vice President on strategic issues of community and the environment, is a fellow of both the George Bell Institute (England) and the International Forum on Globalisation (USA). Widely travelled, Douglas has presented papers in over 200 international conferences and has visited over 50 countries to speak and present on human rights and the environment. He is the author of 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. 2013 update: Oronto Douglas, born 1966 in Okoroba, Nigeria, is a leading human rights attorney and author. He was one of a team of lawyers representing Ken Saro Wiwa during his trial under the Sani Abacha regime. He has been imprisoned many times by various dictators. He is co-founder, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria. Douglas suffers from stomach cancer and has been receiving treatment at a San Francisco hospital since 2008, where he has racked up bills of almost US$300,000. When President Umaru Yar'Adua balked at paying the bills, it was considered an affront to Ijaws by members of the then vice-president, Goodluck Jonathan’s, team. Jonathan, like Douglas, is an Ijaw. His father, 'Pa' Douglas died about September 2012.  He has a brother, Gift Douglas.  Mr. Romeo Samuel Douglas is described as 'Head of the family'.

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