Recently, An environmental advocate reached out to development partners in the United Kingdom to provide solar-powered electricity in communities of the Niger Delta of Niger that are without\ electricity.
The Organisation that is to drive this initiative, YEAC Community Energy And Development LTD/LTE was officially launched in Port Harcourt the Rivers State Capital.
The driver of the initiative, Mr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, disclosed to NatureNews that it was his bitter experience with youths who were displaced from illegal refinery activities that gave birth to the initiative.
Excerpts:
What led to this initiative?
Fyneface: The organisation being unveiled today to further contribute to the fight against pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, and artisanal refineries in the Niger Delta came into existence as a legacy of a bitter experience that I had on Friday, October 25, 2019 in Ogoniland, my home area.
On that date, I was driving in my SUV, a Lexus RX 300 Jeep, from Bolo Community in Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area, where I went for research in partnership with the SOAS University of London and the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) with my community guide, Douglas Adenijah (also present today).
That research resulted in the publication of a report by Pallavi Roy of SOAS University of London, Alexander Sewell of SDN, and Fyneface Dumnamene of YEAC-Nigeria in April 2022 titled “Mitigation and transformation solutions to networked corruption in artisanal refining in the Niger Delta: retooling anti-corruption analysis for effective policy,” downloadable at https://ace.soas.ac.uk/publication_author/pallavi-roy/.
Somewhere on the road from Bolo to the B-Dere community in Gokana Local Government Area, we saw fire burning close to a pipeline right of way. I stopped, brought out my professional camera, a Nikon D3200, from the car, and started snapping the inferno. I also snapped some photos with my phone and tweeted them.
While I was still doing these, some boys came out of the bush and grabbed me by the trousers and my shirt on my neck, while others seized my camera and phone. They took me hostage and started dragging me towards the B-Dere community, leaving my car on the road there while others were making phone calls. Three motorcycles arrived at the scene. They bundled me into one of them and headed towards the community. All this time, I was dragging and asking them what my offence was, even using the same language they were speaking, which I understood as a fellow Ogoni man, and they said if I drag with them, they will kill me here and nothing will happen.
One of them managed to say that my offence was that I snapped a photograph in their community without getting permission from their paramount ruler. I then asked where they were taking me, but they did not say it. I started appealing to them to allow me to carry my car along with me in the middle of the bush. The one who sat behind me on the bike finally agreed and asked the bike man to return me to the car side. Others ride behind us, and on getting to the car, four of them entered the car with me and my community guide while the motorcycles and others guided the car into the community.
They took me to the youth president’s house. I later learned his name to be Gift (now deceased). He asked me who I am, what I was doing in their community, and why I was taking photographs. I introduced myself, telling him what I do as YEAC-Nigeria’s Executive Director, my advocacy on crude oil theft, artisanal refineries, and pollution, my push for alternative livelihood opportunities for artisanal refiners through modular refineries, my role as MOSOP PRO, and the work that I have been doing with his brother, the late Cassidy Mbera, from his community, and told him everything relating to the incident that day.
He repeated what the boys said on the road, that they would have killed me and nothing would happen. He further said the luck I had was that I didn’t drag or argue with them because he had already directed that they should bring me by all means.
Having known me and said he has been hearing my name on the radio but has not met me before, how he is also interested in airing his views on radio, how I should carry them along, etc., he apologised to me and asked me to forgive them and help find work for them to do since Operation Crocodile Smile 4 was stationed on the river there, stopping all forms of artisanal refineries that the youths were involved in, that they are idle, they have no jobs to dodo, and are just roaming about, hence their presence in the bush where they caught me, believing that something will come out for them to eat.
At the end, I accepted his apology and said, let me see what I can do for his request for an alternative livelihood opportunity for the youths of his community.
I went home and thought out the idea of powering the community through a solar mini-grid electricity facility and supporting the youth financially to make productive use of the electricity provided through engagement in business ventures.
That was how the idea of solar mini-grid electricity as a project of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) came about.
The shame of what happened to me on that day, in my own home area, where I am speaking the same language with them and also married their daughter, did not let me tell anybody outside except my wife and Hon. Comrade Celestine AkpoBari, my boss.
However, following a subsequent incident in the community leading to our pulling out completely in the first quarter of 2022, more people got to know what happened that day, among four other incidents leading to an irreversible decision.
Shortly after I tweeted about the fire incident, the Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, saw the tweet, did her checks, and responded in a tweet that the fire was not in the pipeline.
Lessons from the bitter experience and why both the federal and state governments must join hands with YEAC-Nigeria to take immediate steps to mitigate pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, etc, through alternative livelihood?
Fyneface: Dislodging artisanal refiners through government and private security surveillance companies, as well as bombing artisanal refinery sites without the provision of alternative livelihood opportunities, breeds insecurity, including kidnapping, pirate activities, militancy, and an unsafe environment for foreign investors and investments.
The birth of YEAC-CEAD?
While looking for partners and funders for our projects generally, I talked with Noo Saro-Wiwa, one of the daughters of Ken Saro-Wiwa, our late hero, not to forget to introduce me and the work that we do at Advocacy Centre to anyone she comes across who can be of help to us. So, in 2020, Noo introduced me to Helena Farstad, a Norwegian-Londoner who is the country director of YEAC-UK.
In 2021, I told her about the idea of moderating pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refineries, and environmental pollution while contributing to climate change mitigation mechanisms by providing alternative livelihood opportunities for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta powered with clean, renewable, and sustainable solar electricity. She bought into the idea, and we started working on it.
In July 2022, we established the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre Limited by Guarantee (YEAC-UK: www.yeac.co.uk) to play both an advisory role for YEAC-Nigeria and raise funds to fund the work of YEAC-Nigeria to implement renewable electricity in the Niger Delta region.
As a non-profit organisation, YEAC-Nigeria initially thought we could raise funds from donors to fund the renewable energy electricity project and even donate it free-of-charge to the community where we site it, but it turned out not to be working as such, and funding that supports that model was not forthcoming as expected.
Thus, we changed the model in line with YEAC-UK, which is limited by guarantee (business and human rights), and decided to raise funds through both investment (business) and donations (human rights). At this stage, it was clear that communities where the project is sited would have to pay a token amount in the purchase of an electricity unit as approved by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), among others, for the use of the energy generated to pave the way for us to service our loans and investments, pay workers, maintain the facility, support other activities, and raise funds to site the project in other communities without electricity, among others.
With the project concept now automatically transformed with events and circumstances to “business and human rights,” the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), a non-profit organisation by law, was now obsolete and unable to continue being the organisation to own and manage the solar mini-grid electricity facility that it gave birth to. Hence, the need for it to also give birth to another organisation that will correspond with what the project now stands for, to do business and human rights, which is a company limited by guarantee under CAMA 2020 Part B, where the law enshrined in 26.—(1) that “where a company is to be formed for the promotion of commerce, art, science, religion, sports, culture, education, research, charity, or other similar objects, and the income and property of the company are to be applied solely towards the promotion of its objects, and no portion thereof is to be paid or transferred directly or indirectly to the members of the company”. That is how YEAC COMMUNITY ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT LTD/GTE came into existence and is being unveiled today.
The objects for which YEAC-CEAD is established are
Fyneface: the objectives of YEAC-CEAD include: To Create Awareness On Clean, Renewable And Sustainable Energy; To Promote Clean, Renewable And Sustainable Energy; To Promote And Facilitate Solar Electricity Facilities For Communities Without Electricity; To Promote Productive Uses Of Solar, Clean And Renewable Energy; To Carry Out Research On Solar, Clean And Renewable Energy; To Educate Communities On Solar, Clean, Renewable And Sustainable Energy
Our mission is combating pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refineries, and environmental pollution by championing alternative livelihood opportunities powered by clean, renewable, and sustainable energy solutions with a focus on providing solar electricity to underserved areas, promoting productive uses of clean energy, conducting research, and educating communities to build a more sustainable future for all.