Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Environmental activists have strongly condemned the inability of National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to monitor the clean-up Ogoni land. The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), particularly urged the Federal Government to set aside $100 billion for the clean-up of all oil polluted sites in the Niger Delta and compensate affected communities.
Executive Director, ERA, Godwin Ojo, stressed that the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) procurement process was significantly flawed. He told audience at the ninth Ogoni environmental assessment report implementation in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, that the agency’s processes lacked transparency and were not open to public scrutiny.
Represented by Mike Karikpo, ERA Programme Manager, he stated that HYPREP has failed and neglected to implement the UNEP recommended emergency measures, thereby disempowering women in Ogoni who are the caregivers in the communities:
“It has been nine years of motion without movement, nine years of unfulfilled promises, nine years of high level manipulations by the Nigerian State, as well as years of opaqueness and unacceptable operations by HYPREP. It has been nine years cluttered with a litany of failures and continuous discontent throughout Ogoni.
“There are concerns that the laboratories in Port Harcourt where soil samples from the clean up sites are taken for analysis have been compromised. We have testimonies from workers in the field that most samples do not meet regulatory or contractual requirements, but they are given the ‘all clear’ by these labs.
“There are also concerns that some of these labs are owned by contractors engaged in the clean-up process and others are owned by senior officials of agency.
“The body saddled with the responsibility for certification of clean-up and remediation work has not visited these sites to certify that the work done complies with contractual or regulatory requirements. But, HYPREP and Ministry of Environment have already cleared some of them and asked them to back fill their sites.
“The enforcement of the polluter pays principle and the removal of Shell from all oversight bodies as well as the day to day management of the clean-up process.
“There is the setting aside of $100 billion for the clean-up of the entire Niger Delta region and the compensation of communities and individuals directly affected by over 50 years of oil extraction.
“The Nigerian government’s urgent restructuring, reorganization and complete overhaul of HYPREP in its entirety is in order to remove all administrative, financial and political obstacles that are stalling the process of the clean-up process.”
Head, Environment and Conservation, Centre for Environment Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), Sam Kabari, said the body saddled with responsibility for the clean-up, is not waking up to its responsibility in the monitoring of the exercise:
“It is not waking up to its responsibilities. Local and private monitors are frustrated because they do not have access to contractors’ book, as it is only HYPREP that gives approval to such access. We need to know where the level of oil is last week and where it is at the moment that is the essence.
“HYPREP and NOSDRA are supposed to work hand in hand to undertake investigations on the clean-up sites. But, there is no evidence or statement to say HYPREP was at the remediation sites. There is no monitoring being undertaken. The local monitors said the contractors are not compacting on places that were excavated.
“The implications of not doing its job, is that contactors can claim they have done work whereas they have not done any work. Secondly, people cannot build houses in such places anymore even after the clean-up.”
Secretary of Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Bari-ara Kpalap, added his voice: “We saw conflict of interest in the exercise. These are still the same staff of the company that is the Head, Technical Operations, of HYPREP. It is the same cover up. Top people in the agency are owners of the labs that do not have any integrity. Therefore, the integrity of the clean up exercise is in doubt.”
In an earlier event, Programme Manager, ERA/FoEN, Michael Karikpor, had said Just Energy Transition of Nigeria (JETN), groups and women leaders, especially from the Niger Delta, gathered together in the meeting to fashion a way to increase awareness and advocacy for Nigeria to transit from fossil fuels as the main stay of the economy giving the reality of the current situation, where the world itself is moving away from the fossil fuel.
He added that the meeting was “to build a coalition of people, men and women advocating for Nigeria to start moving towards a more sustainable economy that incorporate everybody, economy that takes the issues of women and gender on board as the world moves away from fossil fuels.”
HYPREP coordinator, Marvin Dekii, said the agency was organising a training programme for over 1,000 women in Ogoni land in batches in farming. He said the essence of the programme was to groom the rural women to have means of livelihood as a remedial approach on the Ogoni clean up.