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By Godwin Chukwumaechi
Home of Mother Earth Foundation, Homef, has urged stakeholders, including governments at all levels, representatives of the people, MDAs, as well as the people of the Niger Delta themselves to join hands and insist on the remediation of the environment of the area to make it livable.
Executive Director of the foundation, Nnimmo Bassey made the call in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital during the second edition of the Niger Delta Alternatives Convergence NDAC, organised by the foundation on Tuesday.
Bassey explained that the reason for the call was because of the urgency required to correct all the harms that had been done to the Niger Delta environment in the nearly six decades of mineral extraction from the area.
He said; “the challenges of the Niger Delta are being replicated in other countries and sometimes the problems that are being generated here affect other people. Researchers have found that 90% of pollution found in the Gulf of Guinea emanate from crimes of the industries operating in the Niger Delta.
“We’ve also seen pollutions coming through the columns of other countries close to our national borders.
“And so we are concerned that we have to do all we need to do to secure our environment and to ensure that it is liveable”.
He expressed hope that the Niger Delta Alternatives Convergence, which is an assemblage of the stakeholders from the region to brainstorm and arrive at workable solutions to the challenges of the people, would be expanded into a national and even regional scope.
“We are hopeful it will not end here, that eventually, this will become a national and even a regional event”, Bassey stated, adding that the target of the convergence was not to “draw up a catalogue of woes of all that we have suffered although we will never forget the harm that we are suffering.
“We are seeing this event as an agenda setting gathering so that those who are representing us in government whether rightly or by any other means must begin to account for whatever they promised us, what the constitution requires and what we expect from them.
“This is our opportunity before 29th of May 2023, when there will be a lot of swearing-ins across the nation, to put on the table that these are what we expect and we will insist that the things that we agreed are critical to whatever plans they have for the time and their days in office”.
He added; “I said we are not going to list the catalogue of our woes because these had been recorded since 1958 Willink’s report that shows that things have not changed, nothing has been done. The things that are listed in that report which you can find online are still as valid as today as they were 65 years ago.
“Isn’t that a shame? Now we’ve also had agencies of government like that Niger Delta Development Board of 1960, the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC of 1992, the NDDC of 2000 and of course the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. You will agree with me that these agencies, they might have tried but they have not addressed our issues”.
He also made reference to the launch in 2022 of the Niger Delta Manifesto at Uyo which was endorsed by hundreds of leaders and people stressing that the demands in the manifesto were still very valid and the programme was an opportunity to re-echo them.
“Some of the demands we have made in that manifesto include the immediate audit of entire Niger Delta covering; health, livelihood, social and economic impact of crude oil and gas extraction. We are asking for remediation and restoration of impacted territories and reparations for the damage suffered.
“We also demand that our government should draw up a clear policy on divestment so that we know the expectations; what communities should expect and what those divesting must do. But in no case must they be allowed to divest from responsibilities for the crimes they have committed against mother earth and against our people.
“We believe that there also should be a comprehensive resolution of the issue of artisanal refinery by addressing the issue that led to it and by providing clear cut workable solutions to it.
“Oil theft must be stopped and not only those who use buckets to scoop the top of the creeks. Those who are stealing with ocean-going vessels and the likes to take millions of barrels of oil out of our territory, that has to stop.
“We believe that our legislators should immediately review the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA to remove all the things skewed against our communities including oil companies the authority to determine who is a host community. That’s clearly unacceptable. There are many other things including dedicating 30% of the profit of NNPC to go into searching for oil in frontier regions. That doesn’t seem like we are thinking of making progress in the sector.
We also are demanding the immediate release of the forensic audit of the NDDC publicly, and a review of the laws governing that agency.
“We expect those coming to office to address in clear terms and prepare flood response mechanisms that are workable and can address the issues that keep repeating across the Niger Delta and other parts of the country. We also ask for adequate protection for our coastal communities. Most of our coastal communities are losing lands at very rapid rate. We have seen the report from Bayelsa, from Ondo State and from elsewhere, Akwa Ibom State. This cannot be allowed to continue.
“Finally, we believe that politicians should have zero tolerance for uncompleted or abandoned projects. When people come to office it’s not right for them to abandon projects commences by previous administrations. Those abandoned projects do not do any good to our communities or the resources coming to this region. They have to learn to complete what was started and not to embark on white elephant projects or what they term legacy projects. Every project has elements that address social and economic challenges of our region.
“Nigeria government should take steps to recognize ecocide as a crime and ensure the prosecution offenders from now going forward. Ecocide in simple terms is the destruction of one’s home, destruction of mother earth in a way that is extensive and may be irreversible.
“So whoever damages our environment, the way we see it in the Niger Delta from now henceforth be held criminally liable at the International Criminal Court, as well as in Nigeria”.
