9th April, 2015
Oronto Douglas, a top presidential aide and the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Research, Documentation and Strategy, is dead.
A source close to the Presidency revealed that Douglas who has been sick for several years was battling cancer-related illness. He died Thursday morning at the State House Clinic.
Douglas who is survived by a wife and children rose to national and international prominence as an environmental activist on behalf of the oil-producing communities of the Niger Delta.
Oronto who served as special adviser to President Jonathan on Research, Documentation and Strategy died just before 5:00 am this morning at State House Hospital, Abuja.
It was learnt that Oronto had been suffering from cancer since 2008 and has been going for treatment at an hospital in the United States of America.
However, it was learnt that he was told during his check up trip to the hospital last month that he has few days to live and this prompted his return to Nigeria.
The late presidential adviser said to be one of the closest aides of the President has visibly sick in the past few months.
Sources said apart from his loss of weight, he find it difficult to move around sometimes without being aided, lt was believed that this was why he was not very prominent during the campaign for reelection of President Jonathan unlike the situation in 2011.
It was believed that Oronto was the brain behind some of the policies and initiatives of the Jonathan administration like the National Conference.
The 49 year old late presidential aide was a lawyer and was a commissioner for information in Bayelsa and was a delegate from the state for the 2005 National Political Reform Conference organised by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
He successfully pushed for increased revenue for the Niger Delta region working alongside other activists during the conference.
He also served as one of the lawyers on the defense 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 organizations within and outside Nigeria.
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 Globalization (USA).
Widely traveled, 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.
The late special adviseris 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.
He has been named among the 20 most influential writers, thinkers, and activists in the world. Mr Douglas was listed in a recent book “Political Awakenings: Conversations with History” by Harry Kreiser the Executive Director of the Institute of International Studies, University of California.
He was selected with 19 others, from 485 interviews of people which the book described as “distinguished men and women who by the power of their intellect and strength of character shape the world.”
Oronto made the Science, Food and The Environment: Movement for Justice category which comprised select individuals that have challenged corporate power which seeks to disproportionately reap the benefits of science and technology to the detriment of the society.