1. Presenter: Vincent Manzie
Applying the Rhetoric of Renewal Model in a Contemporary African Context
Lessons learned from Shell Oil Crisis in Nigeria
Presenter: Vincent Manzie
ICRC Conference 2017

2. Discourse of Renewal: A Proactive approach to Crises
(Ulmer, Seeger, & Sellnow, 2007)
Ethical communication
Prospective vs. retrospective vison
Effective organization rhetoric
Organizational learning

3. Royal Dutch Shell

4. Shell in Nigeria

5. The Niger Delta Question
UNDP Report
The region is “suffering from administrative neglect, crumbling social infrastructure and services, high unemployment, social deprivation, abject poverty, filth and squalor, and endemic conflict” (2006, p. 9)
Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)
“internal colonialism”
“political marginalization”
environmental neglect by both the oil companies and the host government (Orogun, 2010, p. 234)

6. Data and Procedure Data sources: LexisNexis
Newspaper reports, radio texts, TV news clips, company documents
351 newspaper reports (Local and International newspapers)
50 documents from Shell, NGOs, and other Civil Society Organizations
Websites (Shell, NGOs, CSO)

7. The Crisis in Nigeria
What was Shell’s crisis communication approach?

8. Oil Spills
“…fine spray of petroleum coated the bamboo and palm trees around the Sasiga rivulet until, mixed with acid rain and humid air, it gave the plants the milky brown sheen of a chocolate forest” (McGreal, 1993, p. A8)

9. Gas Flaring
“Because of the flares it is so hot, it is smoky, the air is thick and it is constantly nighttime here… Our rivers are black and the [acid] rain eats our houses. Our bodies are covered in oil. You feel that if you live to old age here, it is a miracle” (Mark, 2012, p. 7).

10. Protests and Violence Ken Saro-Wiwa
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni

11. A Complex Exigence
Oil ownership claims
Land ownership claims

12. A Complex Exigence
“The past is so manifestly a part of the present among communities of the region…Policymaking…has proved ineffective to contain the enormous problems of the Niger Delta region…in part, the result of disagreements over historical interpretation within communities, and the lack of a historical perspective or neglect of the historical factor by government and oil corporations” (Alagoa, 2004, pp )

13. Shell’s Crisis Response: 1990-2005
Reactive Response
Apologia
Key Strategies
Denial, shifting blame, attack the accuser
Scapegoating
Evasion of responsibility

14. Proactive:
Statements from texts analyzed

15. Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMOU)
Communities “take key decisions” and “drive” their own development.
Transparent and accountable processes, regular communication with the grassroots, sustainability and conflict prevention.
Shell describes its role in these agreements as a “funding” and “capacity building” body.

16. Outcomes of Shell’s Discourse of Renewal
Ancestral and communal claims over lands and oil persist
GMoUs reproduced neocolonial relations (paternalism)
“Negotiation” problematized despite GMoU framework
Uproar over community representatives

17. Lessons Learned: Amending the renewal model
Expand the parameters of “crisis”
Revisit the conception of “leadership”
Reframe a “prospective vision”
Consider a more radical conception of “renewal”

18. Expand the parameters of “crisis”
African communication philosophy
Palaver Tree

19. Revisit the conception of “leadership”
Communal modes of organizing
Communal decision-making
Authority broadly distributed

20. Reframe a “prospective vision”
Acknowledge ancestral presence and cultural traditions
A reverence for the past to determine the present and future
[Untitled by Gbenga Ogunshakin. (Total Museum of Contemporary Art)

21. Radical conception of Renewal
Participatory and Inclusive Attentive to power relations, empowering community, legitimizing marginalized groups, honoring muted voices, grassroots as architects in participatory process