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By Kelechi Nwaucha
Community women from eight states of the Niger Delta have gathered in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, to discuss issues surrounding environmental justice for the region and women inclusion in Energy transition initiatives.
The gathering, which began on December 4th, marks the 2024 edition of the Niger Delta Women’s Day of Action for Environmental Justice, organised yearly by non-governmental organisation, Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre.
This year’s edition, organised with support from the Ford Foundation and Oxfam, saw community women from Edo, Abia, Imo, Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states, traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society actors, members of the academia and the media meet to mull issues of inclusion and environmental degradation impacting the region.
Executive Director of Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, Dr. Emem Okon, noted that community women in the Niger Delta have for decades borne the environmental cost of oil extraction activities. Despite the fact that huge revenues accrue to government and corporations from these activities, “People live with pollution as a consequence, while indigenous people, particularly women, live in poverty.
“Women have continued to suffer the negative consequences of oil extraction in the Niger Delta. The burden of poverty, pollution and the destruction of the ecosystem is strangling. As we speak many are struggling to recover from flooding. Farming is no longer lucrative,” she said, citing the report of the Bayelsa State Commission which described the situation as ‘Environmental Genocide’.
Dr Okon described the Niger Delta as one of the most polluted places on Earth, adding that the region has “recorded thousands of oil spills, which have poisoned people’s farms, the water we drink and the air we breathe. The human impact is devastating, findings of the research Kebetkache conducted in Otuabagi community confirms people in the Niger Delta has hydrocarbon in their blood. Women have disruptions in their monthly menstrual flow.
“According to Nnimmo Bassey, the Executive Director of HOMEF, tne NIger Delta ecological crisis is a scar on our conscience,… only a unified commitment can restore the health of the lands, rivers and the communities that depend on them’, she said.
Dr. Okon explained that the Niger Delta Women’s Day of Action for Environmental Justice, which originated from a Kebetkache intervention on the UNEP report and the clean-up in Ogoniland on 22nd November 2016, and held on December 17 every year, is a period when women deeply consider the effects of oil extraction, effects of oil and gas extraction on women and/or benefits of oil business for women.
“It is a period of promoting solidarity and sisterhood among women in the Niger Delta. The day of action has also become a coping mechanism, a day that we laugh over pollution, a day that we spite poverty, gas flares, flooding, inequality, capitalism and colonialism. The women’s day of action is a season we question our power to resist, power to make change. On this day we shout, cry and sing! t is a period to Build Women’s Power.”
This year’s edition, with the theme: ‘Extraction to Restoration: Ensuring Justice and Inclusion for Women in Energy Transition,’ which also fell within the 16 Days of activism against gender-based violence, featured include village square session, dance drama, panel discussion, environmental mock tribunal, presentation on the implementation of the Host Community Development Trust, women climate football and recognition for community eco-defenders.
National Vice President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Chief Nengi James, applauded the Niger Delta women for being at the forefront of the struggle for environmental justice for the region. A struggle, which he pointed out, had given birth to the Kaiama Declaration and the efforts for remediation in Ogoni land, christened ‘Ogoni Clean Up.’
He urged the women not to give up on the pursuit of environmental justice and social inclusion, but to be rather strident in the call for a clean up of the whole Niger Delta, and to also demand for remediation as a matter requiring utmost urgency.
Noting the levels of poverty among women in the region, Oxfam’s Program Manager, Henry Ushie, and Ford Foundation’s Program Manager (West Africa), Joy Ehinor, described the Niger Delta Women’s Day of Action for Environmental Justice as a platform for the women to highlight issues of social inclusion, environmental degradation, pollution and attendant health impact on their lives.
Citing a report by his organisation, Ushie traced the incidence of poverty to levels of equality or inequality as obtains in a given society, while Ehinor called for a just Energy transition that will ensure the inclusion of women and other groups.
Delivering judgement in a suit brought before it by Cynthia Bright of Egelegele community in Edo State, accusing the oil company operating there of harm to the environment and human health, through years of gas flares, the Rosemary Inko-Dokubo-led mock tribunal ruled in favour of the community, awarding $300 million in compensation.
