Illegal refining and crude oil theft threaten government revenue, communities, and the lives of those involved. In this interview with NatureNews Correspondent Obiabin Onukwugha,Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene, Executive Director of Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, YEAC-Nigeria, explains why his organization is pushing for the Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative, PACORDI, and speaks on Niger Delta clean-up and oil divestment. Excerpt:
NatureNews: As Executive Director of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, YEAC-Nigeria, you have been at the forefront of campaigns against artisanal refining. What informed that focus?
Dr. Fyneface: I noticed that beyond the pollution by multinationals, there is a new generation of polluters – youths who break pipelines to steal crude. Nobody was looking in that direction to change their mindset.
I started researching oil theft in 2011 and by 2014, while working with Social Action, I released a report titled Crude Business in the Niger Delta. In 2016, we released Policy Options for Addressing Artisanal Refineries in the Niger Delta, followed by Banished for Oil: The Untold Story of Environmental Exiles of Ogoni, about communities displaced by pollution.
In 2017, the US Mission in Nigeria contacted me. They said they had followed my advocacy and wanted me to join the International Visitor Leadership Program. On May 3, 2017, I got the call just as I returned from my Master’s program at UNN. They asked me to set up an NGO platform to implement what I would learn.
By November 7, 2017, I had registered YEAC-Nigeria. In June 2018, they took me and four others from Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Delta on a three-week tour of nine US states to learn how communities engage government, legislators, companies, CSOs and the media to solve problems. We also visited the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill site to learn remediation lessons for Ogoni and HYPREP.
They gave me contacts and a promise: if there was anyone in Nigeria I needed to see to support work in the Niger Delta, the embassy would help link me. When I returned, then Consul General John Bray flew to Rivers and introduced me to leaders like Tein Jackrick of Belemaoil, Dumo Lulu-Briggs and Derek Mene of NDDC at Le Meridien Hotel.
Since then, I report periodically to the embassy. My program title was Strengthening Community-based Advocacy in the Niger Delta through Multi-stakeholder Engagement.
To the best of my knowledge, as of 2017, YEAC-Nigeria is the only NGO in Nigeria officially registered to campaign against oil theft, artisanal refining and pollution, and the only one working to transform illegal refiners into legal livelihoods.
NatureNews: What is PACORDI and how will it address illegal bunkering?
Dr. Fyneface: PACORDI is the Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative.
It started in July 2020. On July 6, the Federal Government launched the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mine Development Initiative, PAGMI. About two weeks later, WISH 99.5FM called me to react. On air on July 27, 2020, I asked: if government can create PAGMI for gold miners, why not a similar initiative for youths involved in artisanal refining in the Niger Delta?
In August 2020, I developed the idea into a full document. On September 7, Rev. Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, ED of HOMEF and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Global Greengrants Fund, USA, sent me a WhatsApp that my proposal on artisanal refiners had been approved for $3,500. He had funded me earlier in 2017. I told him about the new PACORDI idea and he asked me to add it. On October 14, 2020, the grant came and I started the campaign.
PACORDI aims to stop pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining and environmental pollution through legalization, modernization and integration of artisanal refineries into the national economy. It will create millions of sustained direct and indirect jobs, reduce importation of petroleum products and prices, save scarce foreign reserves, improve the naira, and eradicate corruption in subsidy payments.
It will also generate revenue through taxes, royalties, licensing fees, boost GDP, reduce proliferation of small arms, improve security in the oil and gas sector, and provide a pathway to energy sanitation.
We presented it to the Federal Government. The then SA to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, took it up and held national conferences on it in 2021 and 2022. I attended.
I must thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. When he came in 2023, the file on PACORDI at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources was forwarded to him and he commented that it should be reviewed properly for approval. That review is ongoing. If established, PACORDI will provide the legal framework to convert illegal refiners to modular refinery operators.
NatureNews: There is a new push for cleanup of the entire Niger Delta. What is your take?
Dr. Fyneface: That will be welcome, because that is what we have been pushing for. Cleaning Ogoniland without cleaning other connected communities is like leaving the tap running while mopping the floor.
We should start from existing reports. In Ogoni, we have the UNEP Report released August 4, 2011, which proposed $1 billion for the first five years. Ten years later, we are still on that $1 billion. That is under-funding. In Bayelsa, we have the Bayelsa Oil and Gas Commission Report recommending $12 billion over 12 years.
Those should be funded. Then other parts of the Niger Delta yet to be assessed should be commissioned for assessment, perhaps by UNEP, to understand the nature and scale of pollution.
The challenge is, if more oil wells are opened while cleanup is ongoing, we create a fresh problem. We need to decide how to leave oil under the soil while cleanup progresses.
NatureNews: You have a solar mini-grid project for hard-to-reach communities. Any success stories?
Dr. Fyneface: Yes. The idea came on November 25, 2019. I was returning from research in Bolo, Ogoni, and passing through B-Dere when youths held me hostage. While negotiating, they told me they were ex-artisanal refiners. Operation Crocodile Smile IV had blocked their access to pipelines and they had no jobs, so they turned to kidnapping.
I told them I would try to power their community with a solar mini-grid so they could do barbing, hairdressing and other electricity-based livelihoods. I didn’t know how then, but that idea stuck.
By 2021 it was a full proposal. I went back to the community for more data but was attacked four more times. For safety, I pulled out and advertised for interested communities. Many applied from Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers.
We assessed and chose Umuolu community, Ndokwa East LGA, Delta State. Today, that community has 24-hour solar electricity installed by us.
To focus it, I established YEAC Community Energy and Development Ltd/Gte (YEAC-CEAD) because YEAC-Nigeria as a non-profit cannot run a business-and-human-rights model where people pay token fees.
We plan 10 mini-grids across the Niger Delta. This is part of our anti-oil theft strategy: youths who were stealing oil now work on the project, and those who depended on illegally-refined diesel for generators no longer buy it. We are cutting the supply chain.
We have World Bank support through Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) – a performance-based grant. The grant came via our contractor but the account at GTBank has been frozen since May due to contractor partner issues. Once unfrozen, we will improve Umuolu and build the second and third grids. The more grids we build, the more grants we receive to expand.
NatureNews: You have environmental monitors. What have they achieved?
Dr. Fyneface: They are our strength. Without them, we wouldn’t be frontline defenders.
In 2019 we launched our One Million Youth Volunteers Network of Human Right Defenders and Promoters in the Niger Delta, spread across nine states. They generate information on oil theft, pollution, organized crime and development issues. We verify and issue press statements that prompt authorities like NOSDRA to act, clamp spill points, clean up and pay compensation.
We also have the Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS) for real-time spill alerts, and the Network on Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (NOCINAG) launched April 28, 2023. Late President Buhari sent tweets to that event. We also have a Citizens Journalist Network started with ICFJ in 2012, and the Modular Refinery Multipurpose Cooperative Society comprising people from Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Akwa Ibom who will benefit if government grants modular refinery licenses as promised in 2017.
Coordinating them without funding is difficult. We appreciate support from partners like Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime. Our volunteers send pictures and videos as evidence. Since 2017, we have never released a false spill report because of this verification system.
NatureNews: What is your take on IOCs divesting from the Niger Delta?
Dr. Fyneface: It is a very big problem. The divestment has made multinationals abandon their footprint, especially pollution.
When IOCs were here, you could take them to court in their home countries and get justice. Now indigenous companies have taken over. Which courts do we go to? Nigerian courts where cases like Ebubu spent over 30 years and complainants died before justice?
Indigenous operators must ensure their practices don’t create more pollution. They must remediate spills as IOCs tried to do, otherwise it becomes exploitation without redress.
No matter how they divested, multinationals must support cleanup of their legacy mess so fishermen and farmers can return to their livelihoods.
NatureNews: Closing remarks?
Dr. Fyneface: I commend NatureNews for your remarkable niche journalism on climate and sustainable environment. We’re proud of your work.
I need to reiterate that international partners should support us to address pipeline vandalism and oil theft. The recent incident in Okrika where many died after allegedly tampering with Indorama’s pipeline and inhaling Crack C5 is regrettable. We call on Niger Delta youths to keep faith with us as we engage government and authorities for alternative livelihoods.
