By Obiabin Onukwugha
An Environmentalist, Princess Eliza Egbe, has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to co-opt illegal refiners in the Niger Delta region into the clean energy transition process.
Egbe, who is the Executive Director, Global Care Rescue Mission, made the call in an exclusive interview with NatureNews Correspondent in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
She described as injustice, the decision of the federal government to go after those involved in artisanal refineries.
The environmentalist, who is also a peace ambassador in Bayelsa State for her advocacy, reiterated on the need for the federal government to provide proper training and allocate crude oil to the illegal refiners, to curb environmental degradation caused by the illegal business.
She said: “If we are now saying that end Fossil Fuel, then we must bring these people into clean energy. This ‘kpofire’ fuel, kerosene is being used by every tribe so it’s no longer a Niger Delta thing again
“Artisanal refineries came to bare in the Niger Delta region as a result of struggle for livelihood. Before the advent of oil exploratory activities, the people basically depended on fishing and farming.
“But from the advent of oil exploratory activities starting in Oloibiri, over time there were spillages, farmlands no longer yield crops as it used to be. The lands are polluted, the waters are polluted.
“You know about the UNEP report in Ogoni land. Ogoni is a replica of what the Niger Delta looks like. Even if there is no other report, you can say that the whole Niger Delta is like Ogoni land; as such the livelihood of the people were threatened to the point you can hardly eat, you hardly send your children to school.
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“The Niger Delta people were self-dependent people who built their houses. They were not too involved in politics and even those who went into politics, I was told, were party financiers.
“But as the land got destroyed, the waters got destroyed, the people had no form of livelihood again and you know you have to survive. When our people began to ask for better livelihood, every time they told our people that our development is in the pipeline and the youths decided to find out what was in the pipeline and they saw that it was crude oil that is in the pipeline.”
Egbe, who argued that there is a chain of collaboration in illegal refining business, also called for alternative livelihood for the youth to discourage the act.
“The artisanal refineries they are doing, I can tell you, is through collaboration because they don’t have the technology to burst into the pipeline to collect the crude as we have found out.
“But there is a lot of oil theft going on in vessels and ships daily in the Niger Delta for which none of these artisanal refiners own any of thr vessels and what these boys take is just the crumbs. With this they are able to produce diesel and other byproducts that Nigerians are yearning for.
“Because of the crude way they are doing it, it is hazardous to their health and to the environment. We have asked them can you stop, they say they need alternative livelihood.
“Personally, I opened a sand dump some time ago in Bayelsa State and tried to rehabilitate some of the young boys who got burnt while being involved in the artisanal refinery and when they tell you their story, its so pathetic and we have advocated to government and even companies.to.provide alternative livelihood.
“If these boys were able to produce these products that Nigeria cannot produce, why not train these people, allocate oil blocs to them through the modular refineries. That way, the byproducts are not thrown away. It’s a form of industrialisation which Nigeria needs dearly. All these issues of pipeline security will not be there. It’s a win-win situation.
“But the Nigerian government chose to use power to destroy them. For me, it is injustice. It is not right to kill people because they are struggling to survive,” she stated.
