He would have been 49 on August 6 this year. Until his death he was President Jonathan’s personal aide for close to a decade and was widely believed to be the most trusted aide of President Goodluck Jonathan.
As a social activist who served in government for almost eight years, Douglas, unlike some of his colleagues, was not concerned about material wealth. He lived in a three-bedroom rented apartment in Asokoro extension, Abuja. He had two small houses – one in Yenogoa and the other one in Okoroba, before he joined government, but before he passed on, he had donated both houses to his community to serve as libraries.
Oronto Douglas Profile
The Okoroba-born humanitarian had degrees in law from the University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, and De Montfort, Leicester, England. He was commissioner for information in Bayelsa state, but resigned in 2005 when DSP Alamieyeseigha, then governor, was impeached.
Douglas is a Fellow of the George Bell Institute, England, and the International Forum on Globalisation, USA. A widely travelled activist, he has presented papers in over 200 international conferences and has visited over 78 countries to speak on human rights and the environment. He co-authored a book, “Where Vultures Feast’’, the ground-breaking study on Shell and human rights violation in the Niger Delta, with his friend, Dr Ike Okonta.
Popularly called ‘OND’ by his close friends, Oronto Natei Douglas was a leading human rights attorney in Nigeria. In 1995, he served as one of the lawyers on the defence team of the celebrated Ogoni leader and environmental rights activist, the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was judicially murdered by the late Sani Abacha-led military junta on November 10, 1995.
He co-founded Africa’s foremost environmental movement, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria, and has served on the board of several non-governmental organisations within and outside the country. Until his death, he was the first and foremost Niger Delta activist to have been hosted at the White House by a serving American president, Bill Clinton.
Douglas is a Fellow of the George Bell Institute, England, and the International Forum on Globalisation, USA. A widely travelled activist, he has presented papers in over 200 international conferences and has visited over 78 countries to speak on human rights and the environment. He co-authored a book, “Where Vultures Feast’’, the ground-breaking study on Shell and human rights violation in the Niger Delta, with his friend, Dr Ike Okonta.
His involvement in the Niger Delta struggle is folklore. After Ken Saro Wiwa was killed, Douglas was profoundly involved in different major attempts at raising the consciousness of Niger Delta region through non-violence, against the revolutionary strategy of the late Isaac Boro, was a revolutionary who in 1996 took up arms with about 12 other people and declared a Niger Delta Republic.
Oronto Douglas Pictures
Oronto Douglas Illness
He was diagnosed with cancer around 2008 and had been fighting the illness since then, with hopeful signs of recovering. In 2012, after a major operation in the US, many of friends celebrated, believing he had survived the deadly scourge. But he suffered a degeneration in 2013 and his state of health reduced heavily in early 2014, and he was noticeably ill, losing a lot of weight.
Douglas’ battle between life and death became very noticeable and public knowledge few months ago when, unlike in 2011 when he was with his boss, Jonathan, in the nationwide campaign tour, he was not able to participate in the 2015 campaign. He could only manage to go to his office at House 13, Aso Villa, and spend a few hours.
When he recently traveled to California, US, for his regular medical check-up, his doctors told him that he could not survive further medication and that he had few days to live.
With that ‘devastating message’, he returned a few days to the presidential/National Assembly election. He battled his cancer-induced illness to the last day.
He left behind a wife and two young sons.
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