By Obiabin Onukwugha
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), had called for the setting up of an environmental remediation bond that will set aside funds to tackle environmental issues in the Niger Delta.
ERA/FoEN, also expressed concern that multinational oil companies were divesting without a clear-cut policy on who will be responsible for the remediation of the devastated Niger Delta environment.
Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, Chima Williams made the call while reacting to policies by the President Bola Ahmed Tinibu, which according to him, does not address the issue of environmental restoration and remediation.
The ERA/FoEN, in a statement, yesterday, said several initiatives have been introduced by the new government with varying degrees of impact on Nigerians, without connection with the environment.
He said the International Oil Companies (ICOs) have escalated their rhetoric about divestment from the Niger Delta region without reversing the environmental harms caused by oil exploration and extraction in the region.
According to him, over six decades of oil exploration in the Niger Delta region has left the region degraded, with frequent oil spills and gas flaring with grave impacts on man and the environment. These hazards continue to shorten the lifespan of the people of the region.
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“Unfortunately, national companies have been buying off the oilfields left by the oil majors, without clear provisions about who is liable for historical contaminations and related socio-ecological issues.
“We are disappointed, that after providing incentives, conducive environment for business operations for the IOCs, the Nigerian Government does not know the quantity of what is being extracted from their communities, let alone how to quantify the supposed royalties and taxes.
“The over 30 million people who live in the oil and gas producing Niger Delta have not benefited from the huge amounts of resources pumped from beneath their lands, rivers, and creeks.”
Williams further stated that the announcement of a Ministry of Gas Resources, Marine and Blue Economy will further pollute Nigeria’s waters and impact negatively on ocean resources and on the livelihoods of coastline communities.
“While the analysis of the government is that the ministries would boost the economic development of Nigeria and create massive employment for the youths, government has remained silent on concerns that the ministry is one that will give licence to the continuous gas emissions which are a major cause of climate change and the livelihood and health challenges faced by the communities in the Niger Delta and many far from the extraction front. It is our conviction that the new ministry will commodify our waters with terrible consequences like over fishing, pollution from habitat destruction; sea mining and other activities that are ecologically harmful.
“We call for the setting up of an environmental remediation bond that will set aside funds to tackle environmental issues when such needs come up without waiting for a budgetary approval, as well as the release of the Ecology Fund earmarked for environmental remediation in communities that have suffered pollution, deprivation and other abuses caused by divesting IOCs.
“We also call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to repurpose his policies in the environment sector and start exactly from where his predecessor, former president, Muhammadu Buhari stopped in the Niger Delta, by ensuring the accelerated clean-up of Ogoniland, adding that all bureaucratic bottlenecks to the clean-up should be removed, followed by an environmental audit of the entire Niger Delta”, he added.
