By Obiabin Onukwugha
Female Journalists have been urged to amply the voices of women impacted by extractivism in Nigeria.
The call was made at a one-day training on Women and Extractive Journalism organised by the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), supported by Umverteilen! Stiftung für eine, solidarische Welt Climate Working Group, in Port Harcourt Rivers State, under the theme: “Empowering Women Journalists for Effective Reporting of Extractive Impacts in Nigeria’s Environmental Hotspots.”
The training brought together female journalists in Rivers State who report women in communities hosting extractive firms and other environmental issues, researchers, among others.
During the training, participants noted that women suffer more whenever there is environmental pollution. They also noted that despite plethora of laws and treaties signed by the Nigerian Government over the years that protect women rights, implementation has remained a challenge.
Speaking on the topic: “Trends in Oil Mining Communities – Loss of Biodiversity and Impacts On Women, Dr. Chioma Okonkwo, an environmental health researcher and consultant affiliated with the University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT, and the African Leadership University in Rwanda, stated that when an oil spill occurs, what is emphasised is the environmental damage, without to inking it to the impact on women.
“We also have to pay attention to the effect it has on the people, especially the women. Whatever happens to the environment, it affects their means of livelihood. It affects food security. And women are people that really bear a disproportionate burden when all these ecosystems are affected,” she said.
Dr. Okonkwo stated that the caretaker burdens and the nutrition burden of caring for the family, usually rest on the woman “So it’s very important that when reporting is done, the voices of women are also factored into the story,” she advised.
She said when there is an oil spill, many of the hydrocarbons that are spilled into the environment are carcinogens, which can affect the hormonal balance in some women and result in fertility issues.
“There have even been cases of high infant mortality as a result of exposure to these hydrocarbons in the environment. So how are people exposed to it? It may be through the food, the water. Taking these things over time, these hydrocarbons can bioaccumulate and affect the proper functioning of the system. It may be their reproductive system, it may be their respiratory system,” Dr. Okonkwo emphasised.
She revealed that research has come out to show a very high correlation between increases in the death of newborns and oil spills. “That is not to say that every newborn that dies is as a result of an oil spill, but the research is clear.
“Where these things are happening, there is an increased incidence or rate of deaths of newborns and even maternal mortality as well. The women are really at risk because they are exposed to this and their systems are very vulnerable alongside with the children as well,” she stated.
Dr. Okonkwo, therefore caledl for stronger regulatory and enforcement of Nigeria’s regulatory policies. “There are policies in place. One of them is the polluter-pays principle that says that the operator has to be responsible to clean up, whether it’s coming from operational failures or third-party interferences. So there should be stronger enforcement of these policies.
“We have policies. We just need this implementation and enforcement to be sure that where people are defaulting, they are brought to accountability. That is really what we need,” she added.
Connecting women’s agitation with
International Instruments, Rachel Greenwood, a Human Rights &
International Development Professional, highlighted the low participation of women in Nigeria’s extractive sector and decision making rooms.
She pointed out that when environmental degradation affect women’s health, livelihoods, family relationships, and social participation, those effects reverberate through households, communities, economies, and social institutions.
Greenwood called on female Journalists to always highlight laws and treaties on human rights that Nigeria is a signatory to, while reporting women issues.
Some of the international treaties and Nigerian laws, she said, include; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW), International Covenant on Civil andPolitical Rights (ICCPR) and International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Others are; African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (adopted 2003, entered into force in 2005), the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
Act of 1992, Nigeria’s Minerals and Mining Act, 2007, amongst others.
Also, Chief Constance Meju, Director, Centre for Environment Media and Development Communications, who spoke on Reporting Extraction, Climate Change and Women. What is missing,” stated that women suffer more from extraction and climate change impacts, but their story is not told. “They are not seen. Their needs are not addressed,” she said.
Emphasising on the importance of the training, Meju highlighted that if the needs of women are properly identified, government policies will include the women.
“So what we are saying is that in reporting on extractives, there should always be the gender lens. Looking at how women are affected, if it is flood, how is it affecting women? What are they doing? How are they coping? What did they lose? Because we do not have evidence, documented evidence, of what is lost to flood in the Niger Delta,” she said.
Meju decried that since 2012, flood has become a national event, which has increased the poverty level.among communities.
“You go to the communities, you see obituary posters. People are dying, 33, 41, 45. We need to know why these deaths are happening. We need to follow the hospitals to know the trend of deaths, their causes. We also need to know what facilities are in place.
“An area that produces oil should have strong health centres, functional health centres, do we have them? The livelihood sources of women are being depleted every day. What is the alternative? What is government doing to address this?
“The country is talking about energy transition. How are we transiting? What plans are on ground? Okay, a community like Bille is burning. What is happening to the women there? Pregnant women there, their stomachs are bloated with gas. That has implication for the child in the womb.
“Children are suffering from terrible rashes, from respiratory issues. This should be of concern. But they cannot be of concern if they are not highlighted. We need to highlight them. And being women, reporting women, we will understand the pains that the women are going through,” she stated.
Sharing experience in community impact reporting, Elvira Jordan, a media strategist, decried that often times communities, especially women, are afraid to share their experiences because of fear of victimisation from the powers that be.
Earlier, the Project Officer of Renevlyn Development Initiative, Tracey Ohovwore, informed that Rivers State was chosen as the second centre for the training of the extractive activities that take place there.
She said women journalists have a role to play in ensuring that the lived experiences of women affected by extractive activities are properly documented and reported. “This requires not only understanding the environmental impacts of extractives but also applying a gender lens to reporting,” she said.
Ohovwore highlighted that across Rivers State and many communities across the country, extractive activities continue to have significant impacts, especially on women.
“We are familiar with the mammoth pollution in Ogoniland which necessitated an assessment report released by the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, in 2011, the Bille disaster which has equally gained global attention and other oil-related incidents that make the news every day,” she said.
She notes that different communities across Nigeria now contend with environmental degradation, loss of productive lands, pollution, displacement, disruption of traditional livelihoods, mental health issues and even deaths.
Acknowledge the courageous efforts that journalists have taken to draw attention to issues of environmental pollution, she said the plight of women in the reportage of these incidents is less prominent. “It is injustice for us that the issues are reported in blanket manner without the gender dimensions.
“Women often experience these impacts differently. They carry the heaviest burdens of everything we have listed affecting host communities because as caregivers, providers and users of natural resources, they interact with land, water and unfavourable climate conditions to sustain their families.
“When these resources are polluted, or lost due to extractive activities, women are often left to deal with the consequences including looking for alternatives, searching for water and fuel wood. They also deal with the health toll of exposure to the elements and sudden change in conditions for living,” she stated.
