By Obiabin Onukwugha
In recent times, oil multinationals involved in crude oil exploration and exploitations in Nigeria, including Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron have been divesting their onshore and shallow water assets.
Onshore oil assets are found on land, while shallow water assets are found underneath bodies of water less than 150 metres deep. Therefore, extraction and production occur on land or shallow water (creeks). However, the IOCs are still keeping their deep offshore assets.
The Niger Delta region, South-South Nigeria is host to these oil assets. It started in January 15, 1956, when oil was first struck in commercial quantity at Oloibiri Community, in present-day Bayelsa State.
Before the advent of oil exploratory activities, the Niger Delta people were self-dependent, with pride and rich cultural heritage. But they woke up years after these operations to realise that their cultural heritage, estuary, flora and fona, and as well their entire ecosystem and farmlands have been destroyed and devastated.
While the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, was developed through proceeds from oil exploration in the Niger-Delta area, the oil companies fed fat and remitted billions of dollars to their home countries, all the communities in the Niger Delta region lack basic amenities such as potable water, good roads, education, healthcare, amongst others.
It is for this reason that late environmental activist, Kenule Beeson Saro Wiwa and others started agitating for self realisation and better living conditions for the people of the region.
This has also pitched the communities against these oil multinationals so that there are various litigations for environmental justice on one side of the struggle, and illegal oil bunkering on the other side.
Oil revenue account for over 70% of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product ( (GDP). In fact, Nigeria’s annual budget is always pegged on oil production output and price. But Nigeria’s actual daily crude oil output has been shredded in secrecy.
Bonny Light latest crude oil price is 85.35 Dollars per barrel and as of Thursday, February 22, the dollar to naira exchange rate at the black market stood at N1880/$.
Though states of the Niger Delta receive 13 percent derivative fund from the Federal Government monthly allocation, such monies have not impacted on the living conditions of the people, neither has it brought about visible development in the local communities.
Today, the Niger Delta region are worse hit by climate change issues such as terminal diseases, food shortages, harsh weather conditions, flooding, amongst others.
And just as the people were not consulted before the rape on their natural resources, these polluting companies are now divesting without addressing the environmental issues that have been pointed out. 68 after oil exploration and exploitation, the people are left with uncertainty for future generations.
Already, Civil Society Organisations, have kicked against the divestment, saying Shell and the other IOCs must address the myriad of environmental problems such as Ecological, Health, Economic and Social impacts arising from its operations before exiting the Niger Delta.
The CSOs in a joint statement recently, pointed out that the IOCs have persistently engaged in irresponsible and reckless hydrocarbon extraction practices resulting in severe ecological, health and economic consequences.
The CSOs made up of the Health or Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), We The People, Corporate Accountability & Public Participation Africa, Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, Policy Alert and Niger Delta Alternatives Convergence, decried the IOC’s move to sell off their onshore assets in Nigeria despite clear protestations by communities and civil society organizations.
More than ten years after the United Nations Environmental Programme, (UNEP), recommended the clean up and restoration of Ogoniland as a pilot project for the restoration of the entire Niger Delta environment, the project has yet to achieve any visible result.
Reacting to the deplorable condition of the Niger Delta environment, a Community leader who speaks with NatureNews when some environmentalists visited spill sites in Ogoni, in Gokana local government area of Rivers State, Bari-ara Kpalap, lamented the devastation suffered by people in the area as a result of oil exploratory activities by the IOCs.
His words: We are on the Trans-Niger Pipeline in Kegbara Dere. What you see here is a spill from the Trans-Niger pipeline in Kegbara Dere (K-Dere). The Trans-Niger pipeline transports crude oil from all other fields outside of Ogoni to the Export Terminal at Bonny.
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“For now, there is no oil production in Ogoni, oil from Ogoni is not part of the oil that is being transported to the Terminal at Bonny. The site we are is a spill site. The spill occurred in 2020. If we have been here earlier before the rains, we would have been able to see the fresh crude oil that has lasted since 2020.
“These are all burnt that have caked. And because of this pollution which has been left unattended to, the community has been unable to use anything around this area.
“If you look at this side you will see the rafia farm where we tapped palm wine. This other side is palm tree that we also cut and use the palm frond as we’ll as the palm fruits. We can no longer use all these because this entire area is polluted.
“I am aware that the leadership of the community had all several occasions reported this incident and the situation to the polluter, Shell. Although Shell is no longer in operation here in Ogoni since it suspended its operations in 1993, as a result of the campaign against environmental injustice by the Ogoni people, up till today, this place is like this.
“This is also part of where UNEP came and environmentally assessed and saw that it was contaminated. It is also one of the areas that HYPREP has earmarked for remediation. Unfortunately, after seven years of HYPREP’s existence, we are yet to see anything happen to this area assist the community reuse this place.
“As you know, this community and other parts of Ogoni are predominantly farmers and fisherfolks. We depend on farming for our own subsistence living.Unfortunately, oil production has removed this aspect of our own existence from us. Because we do not have sny other source of drinking water, we still drink from this one.
“If you go to the adjourning homes and see any well being dug, what comes out of it as water is oil. I can take you to several water wells that have been dug, what you find come out of it is oil. But the people still remove the water from the oil and drink because there is no alternative.
“And what we have been experiencing is high level of diseases, sicknesses that we never knew before. Today, there is prevalence of cancer from this community. People are complaining of serious respiratory illnesses.”
Kpalap, who was former President of the Movement for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), also lamented that oil exploratory activities have reduced life expectancy for people of the Niger Delta.
“Today, in this community, if you are up to sixty years of age, you clap your hands to your God. Life expectancy in this community is not more than fifty. That is the situation we find ourselves in this community. Not only here, several other Ogoni communities that host oil production, this is what they suffer. Every community in Ogoni suffer one negative impact of oil production or the other.
“If you are not breathing the air, because the air carries the odour and send it even to the community of Kpaa; at the boundary with Akwa ibom state, you see those people there complaining of respiratory problems because of oil.
“So every community in Ogoni suffer one ailment as a result of oil production or the other. You know water is not stagnant, water flows underground and goes to every where and UNEP has confirmed that every water in Ogoni is polluted. So if UNEP, a scientific organization has confirmed that the water in Ogoni is polluted, tell me why you will select some communities to provide water. That is our situation,” he stated.
While it has been argued that the divestment will give indigenous oil companies such as Seplat and Sahara Energies, amongst others, the leverage to own and operate such asset, there are concerns that these indigenous companies do not have the capacity to bear the financial liabilities of the IOCs.
Speaking at a recent event, Executive Director of We the People, Ken Henshaw, posited that the divestment is an attempt by the oil multinationals to abscond from restoring the Niger Delta environment.
The environmental activist expressed worry that the companies will be divesting their offshore assets, when there is global campaign to end fossil fuels.
He said: “These indigenous companies will not be able to bear the liabilities that goes with assets acquisition, which is restoring the Niger Delta environment.
“Moreover, these companies are retaining the deep sea assets, which implies that they can further pollute our ecosystem, but far away where the community will not know. They will only feel the impact. And divesting when the world is moving away from fossil fuel is condemnable. Shell and other oil companies must clean up their mess before leaving the Niger Delta,” he posited.
