BY CHIMA NWAFO
As you read this, youths in 156 countries world-wide have, since Friday September 20, been involved in more than 5, 200 climate-change protests that will continue till September 27, inspired by 16-year-old Swedish Greta Thumberg. The strike comes ahead of the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit 2019, which begins today (September 27) in New York, United States. But, like earlier ones, Nigerian youths and students are not part of the protests which “organizers estimated the turnout to be around four million, in thousands of cities and towns worldwide.” If the adults and politicians and community leaders, most of who have been compromised, look the other way, the youths should make a difference. Though as proffered in earlier in the Orbit, with Anti-Protest Trigger-Happy Police Force/security agents, no responsible Nigerian parent or youth would want to be involved in such an act of “civil disobedience.”
But it goes beyond that, especially given the magnitude of environmental abuse going on under close watch of the Federal Government of Nigeria and its Petro-Dollar-driven agency superintending the oil and gas sector: Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The hard truth is that the Niger Delta urgently needs a Greta Thumberg. The Federal Government which has proved beyond reasonable doubt that it values the oil dollar far more than the lives, future survival and ecological security of the oil-producing states, needs to see the reaction of the younger generation whose future depends on the environmental safety of their land. The reason is simple: A spontaneous reaction from the youth/students would be appreciated by the civilized world and right-thinking Nigerians, even though the Nigerian Police and their executive paymaster will dub it as anti-government. Notwithstanding, youths need to react and present their case. Government and corporate liars may still have their way.
In October 2018, the neglected and ram-shackle pipeline from the long-abandoned NNPC’s Osisioma Depot caused an explosion that claimed about 200 lives, the Abia commander of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), one Benito Eze, told journalists in Umuahia, the state capital, that 16 persons died from the pipeline fire. And also from the comfort of his office, in Abuja, Federal Capital, The NNPC in a statement by its spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, said the pipeline fire outbreak occurred “along the Osisioma axis near Aba Depot in its System 2E pipeline network, caused by suspected oil thieves, who had hacked into the line to intercept flow of petrol from Port Harcourt to Aba.” The reading public may be fooled, but the people know that the Depot was shut for over three years and, as at the time of the incident, Enugu Depot was not functional. The villages involved are not on the Port Harcourt to Aba axis; but rather on the Aba-Umuahia-Enugu axis. As a protesting Osisioma youth asked: “Where were they pumping the oil to?”
Both Ughamadu and Eze, as true agents, were not bothered about the loss of human lives; neither were they concerned about the destruction of the farm lands in a largely agrarian locality. But unlike most Abuja and Lagos media houses that publish Press Releases without confirmation, Vanguard visited both the depot and the nearby hospital where the wounded were hospitalized. “When Vanguard visited the intensive care unit of Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), Aba, where over 40 victims were in critical condition, while their family members were seen praying. “Meanwhile, at press time, there were still signs of leakages on the abandoned pipeline, which could also ignite another round of fire. In an interview with Vanguard, president, Osisioma Ngwa Youth Congress, Mr. Emma Nduagu, said over 200 persons have died from the explosion.”
Close to a decade since the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)
recommended remediation of Ogoni land, after a damning report of large-scale
pollution, what has become of all the media hypes about the commitment of
President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to clean up Ogoni. If our own President
Goodluck Jonathan failed his people, why should anyone blame another president
from far-away Katsina. But then, Shell is still waxing stronger in its
collaborative venture with the uncaring landlord of multi-national and growing
indigenous oil companies.
That is why Igo Weli, general manager, Media, of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), enthusiastically announced to journalists at a workshop in Warri, Delta State, on September 16, their deployment of state-of-the-art high definition cameras for quick detection of and response to crude oil spills from its facilities.“The cameras are attached to specialised helicopters which carry out daily over-flight over our facilities. This measure has improved the surveillance of our Joint Venture assets.”
The excited Weli said SPDC had implemented “anti-theft protection mechanisms on key infrastructure, such as wellheads and manifolds to stem constant attacks from vandals and thereby prevent and minimise sabotage-related spills”, adding that daily loss of over 11,000 barrels of oil per day in 2018 and the threat to the integrity of assets necessitated the multi-pronged approach to protecting what he called ‘critical national assets.’
He claimed they enjoy the collaboration of community leaders, traditional rulers, civil societies and state governments in the Niger Delta to implement several initiatives and partnerships to raise awareness on the negative impact of crude oil theft and illegal oil refining.
Fortunately, a core civil society group did not hesitate to react to Weli’s braggadocio.
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) described Shell’s claim of deploying aerial cameras to track oil spills as a smokescreen aimed at distracting Nigerians from their demands that the corporation replace its old and ill-maintained oil pipelines that continue leaking and polluting communities in the Niger Delta. In a statement issued in Lagos on September 18 and made available to EnviroNews, ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo said the claim was a “mere spin” intended to “divert attention from the corporation’s unwillingness to address its old and leaking pipes and other infrastructure across the Niger Delta.
“We are petrified that at a time the people of the Niger Delta and the world are clamouring for Shell’s leaking pipelines that criss-cross communities to be replaced, the company is talking of aerial detection of what every eye can see: Daily helicopter flights cannot be a solution to corrosive pipelines leaking oil due to equipment failure.”
Mr Ojo averred that the surveillance would be more effective with real time radio frequency technologies already in use globally, even as he added that Shell knows the way to go is to ensure that its pipelines are adequately protected, encased in concrete and buried at levels where malevolent third parties cannot easily tamper with them.
“We are not deceived by this media hype. Neither do the impacted community people and the concerned global community. The Nigerian government must compel Shell to replace its pipelines, some as old as when it commenced reckless extraction in the Niger Delta in 1956. Nothing short of this is acceptable,” he insisted. But, has NNPC replaced theirs?
The principal purpose of government is security of life and property of citizens. And this is guaranteed in the constitution. Perhaps, that is why the ERA/FoEN boss’s call for the government to persuade Shell may be well-intended but in reality is superflous. The Osisioma disaster mentioned earlier was wholly caused by the irresponsibility and neglect of the NNPC. The Ogoni disaster is yet to be resolved and the two parties involved are the SPDC and its joint-venture landlord, NNPC. And as if to confirm this anti-environment stance, the report of the National Executive Council sub-committee headed by Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki on oil pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta throws more light on where government interest lies.
According to Daily Sun of Friday September 20, Obaseki was mandated by the National Executive Council to investigate the Impact of attacks on oil installations in the creeks of the Niger Delta. Nothing was said about the series of oil leakages that pollute the creeks, kill the fishes and other marine lives, endanger the environment and destroy the people’s means of livelihood, even as their health is endangered. All these are about people, not petro-dollars; they mean nothing to the Federal Government’s revenue generation drive. It’s a policy of money first, humanity second. And the Edo governor, as a true Naija politician, did a good job. He quantified the losses in dollar terms, as expected and slammed it at a staggering 2.7 Billion Dollars worth of oil stolen. Worried about illegal refining and “inadequate prosecution of oil thieves”, he recommended the setting up of a Special Court to try them. He quoted doubtful data of losses: “Nembe Creek pipeline lost 9.2 millions of barrel, Trans-Niger Pipeline 8.6 million barrels, Trans Forcados 3.9 million barrels, etc.”
Not minding the veracity of these figures or the authenticity of the source, the question is: What is the state of an environment where such volume of crude oil was discharged?
Surely, neither the NEC nor the oil-producing State governor should be bothered. That is why Niger Delta youths should join their peers in other parts of the world, and rise up in protest against the uncaring onslaught on the environment. As stated in a poster by one of the protesting youths after the Osisioma disaster noted: “Enough of these unnecessary deaths.” Our environment is our future! We need to be concerned, even if the government is not.
*Nwafo, an Environmental Analyst, can be reached on: [email protected]; +2348029334754.
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