Empty words are no longer enough”: Ijaw Leaders Demand UK Action After Foreign Office Admits Gulf Of Guinea’s Strategic Importance But Still Offers No New Plan For Niger Delta Communities

The Ijaw National Congress (INC) has responded to a written Parliamentary answer from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), which confirmed the Gulf of Guinea "remains an important global energy-producing region" for the UK, but stopped short of committing to any new engagement with the Niger Delta communities who live alongside the oil and gas infrastructure that supplies it.

The question was tabled by Alex Sobel MP, who asked the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs what assessment had been made of the strategic importance of Gulf of Guinea oil and gas to UK energy security, and whether the Government would increase engagement with Niger Delta producing communities.

Responding on 16 June 2026, Chris Elmore MP said the Government "continue[s] to raise with Shell, including at Ministerial level, the importance of action to address the risks of pollution from oil production in the Niger Delta," but confirmed that "regulation of companies within Nigeria and the governance framework for the oil and gas sectors are, however, matters for the Government of Nigeria."

The Ijaw National Congress says the answer confirms exactly the pattern its communities have lived with for almost seventy years: the UK and its companies benefit from the Delta's energy resources and are prepared to raise concerns privately with Shell, but stop short of any direct commitment to the people whose land, water and health carry the cost.

“For more than six decades, oil has flowed from our land, but clean water, healthy soil and justice have not," said John Opuogulaya, Chairman of the Ijaw National Congress UK & Europe. "The Foreign Office says it raises pollution with Shell at Ministerial level. We ask: to what effect? Raising a concern is not the same as demanding a remedy. Our communities are still waiting for the clean-up, the compensation and the basic dignity that should have come decades ago."

Professor Benjamin Okaba, Former President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), said the answer illustrates a wider imbalance in how the UK treats the region. "Britain is happy to describe the Gulf of Guinea as strategically important to its own energy security. That is precisely why it cannot then say engagement with the people who live on top of that resource is someone else's problem. You cannot separate the barrel of oil from the community whose farmland and fishing waters were destroyed to produce it."

He added that Nigeria itself has previously demonstrated that stronger environmental oversight is possible. "Under former President Goodluck Jonathan, alongside his Minister of Petroleum Resources, policies were introduced that set a clear precedent for higher environmental standards and accountability within the oil and gas sector. That precedent exists. It shows that governance frameworks can prioritise both production and protection. The question is why that standard is not being reinforced today, and why international partners such as the UK are not insisting on it."

The INC points to the scale of the damage documented by the United Nations Environment Programme's landmark assessment of Ogoniland, which found benzene levels in some drinking water sources up to 900 times above World Health Organization guidelines, and warned that full ecological recovery could take up to 30 years. The Congress also notes that Shell's sale of its onshore subsidiary SPDC for around $2.4 billion in March 2025, followed by fresh investment of up to $20 billion in new offshore fields including Bonga North and OML 118, has allowed the company to pivot toward deepwater production even as the legacy pollution onshore remains unresolved.

Benaebi B. Oguoko, Secretary General of the Ijaw Peoples Association, UK, said communities feel they are being asked to accept a permanent state of limbo. "We are told the clean-up is a matter for the Nigerian Government. We are told the pollution is a matter to be raised with Shell. Meanwhile the people of Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ondo and Edo States continue to live with the consequences every single day. At some point, responsibility has to land somewhere. It cannot keep being passed around while the damage remains."

Ebizimo Oweifie, Chairman of the Ijaw Youth Council, added that young people in the Delta see little connecting the UK's economic interest in the region to their own future. "We hear about UK energy security. We hear about UK support for Nigeria's energy transition. What we do not see is what that means for a young person in Bayelsa or Rivers State growing up next to a flare stack or a poisoned creek. Energy security should not be a phrase that only ever benefits people thousands of miles away from where the oil actually comes from."

The Ijaw Ethnic Nationality Leaders are calling on the UK Government to:

Set out publicly what "raising pollution with Shell at Ministerial level" has actually achieved to date, including any measurable outcomes for affected communities; Support direct, resourced engagement between the FCDO and Niger Delta community representatives, not solely Shell and the Nigerian Government, when discussing Gulf of Guinea energy strategy; Ensure that any UK support for Nigeria's energy transition includes explicit provision for remediation of legacy pollution in producing communities, rather than treating transition and clean-up as separate issues; Back continued transparency around Shell's UK-linked legal exposure, including ongoing litigation brought by Niger Delta communities in the English courts. The Ijaw Community Leaders in the United Kingdom and their counterparts in Nigeria say they welcome Alex Sobel MP's continued efforts to raise these issues in Parliament and has urged him and other MPs to press the Foreign Office for a substantive follow-up, rather than allow the matter to rest on a grouped written answer.

ENDS