The recently released United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on the level of despoliation of Ogoniland, if anything, has confirmed the cries of the people of Niger Delta against the calamities that oil explorers, doing business in this oil rich area of Nigeria, has visited it with in the last five decades.
The report, a scientific assessment carried out by UNEP, was handed over to President Goodluck Jonathan recently in Abuja. It shows that the pollution of over 50 years of oil spillage operations may have caused more devastating damage than thought of. It also called for a $1 billion (N151.01 billion) initial fund injection to kick-start the clean up.
Shell, the Royal Dutch company which has been involved in oil exploration and production activities in Ogoniland since the 1950s is the culprit. Coming with its exploration activities has been a significant pollution which has impacted negatively on the economic wellbeing of the area and led to serious social dislocation and conflict.
In an effort to solve this problem, the federal government in 2005 established the Ogoni Reconciliation Committee headed by Mathew Kukah. And in 2006, it created the Presidential Implementation Committee to oversee the environmental survey and clean-up of Ogoniland.
The environmental assessment, which was carried out by both the UNEP team and the Presidential Implementation Committee over a period of 14 months, examined more than 200 locations, surveyed 122 kilometres of pipeline rights of way, reviewed more than 5,000 medical records and engaged over 23,000 people at local community meetings. It also details soil and groundwater contamination investigations conducted at 69 sites, which ranged from 1,300 square metres to 79 hectares. Altogether, more than 4,000 samples were analysed, including water taken from 142 groundwater monitoring wells drilled specifically for the study and soil extracted from 780 boreholes.
The report noted that some areas, which appear unaffected at the surface, are in reality severely contaminated underground and action to protect human health and reduce the risks to affected communities should occur without delay. It said that in at least 10 Ogoni communities, where drinking water is contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons, public health is seriously threatened. The report also stated that at Nisisioken Ogale community, in western Ogoniland, families are drinking water from wells contaminated with benzene – a known carcinogen – at levels over 900 times above World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline!
Snippets of pictorial reports on the state of the environment in Ogoniland will shock even beings who have no feelings for the predicament of the oppressed. An Ogoni woman featured in a television documentary on the quandary in the Niger Delta was bitter in her condemnation of the atrocities committed against the people of the Niger Delta and their golden land by the offending oil exploiters and their allies. For her they do not feel it, they do not know what the Niger Deltans go through because they live far away; they and the politicians are all liars and insensitive people.
The most shocking revelation is the fact that the people of this richly endowed region have been fed with poison and are still being fed with poison; what with the indisputable fact, as contained in the report, that Niger Deltans have been drinking contaminated water – one with high levels of hydrocarbons! What with the fact that at Nisisioken Ogale community, in western Ogoniland, families are drinking water from wells contaminated with benzene – a known carcinogen – at levels over 900 times above World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline! And we are told that cleaning up of the pollution and catalysing a sustainable recovery of Ogoniland could take 30 years!
The argument is being made in some quarters that some of the problem is self-imposed. Those making this argument draw attention to the proliferation of artisanal refineries and pipe blow-ups in the region which impact negatively on the environment. But what people who belong to this school of thought forget is that most of those engaged in this condemnable activity are pushed to do it because their land and water – their entire ecosystem – have been destroyed by Shell & Co. And having been so deprived of their means of livelihood, however marginal it may be, they must turn elsewhere to ensure that they are not annihilated.
It is a good thing that the report blames this problem of despoliation of Ogoniland on Shell and the Nigerian government. Shell wound up its oil drilling in Ogoniland 20 years ago, but remains a stakeholder in the company that is tasked with maintaining the region’s aging pipelines. The report shows that Shell has not kept to its own minimum standards. It has neither kept to minimum standards of the Nigerian state and has performed below international acceptable standards.
What has come out clearly is that we have a government that has failed in its responsibility to keep a rampaging oil explorer in check. The whole thing smells of neglect that was encouraged by officials with self interests to satisfy.
Meanwhile, Shell must do the cleaning-up under the strict supervision of the Nigerian government. If we do not have the expertise we can hire one.