The damning UN report on pollution in Ogoniland, nationalisation of three banks and President Goodluck Jonathan’s ‘thumbs down’ for government privatisation programme got big media play in Nigeria this week. ‘UN: Cleaning up Ogoniland Pollution Could Take 30 Years,’ according to Thisday newspaper, which said a report by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) on the contamination of Ogoniland had indicted Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) – concluding that cleaning up the mess could take as long as 30 years.
The long-awaited study said complete restoration could entail the world’s ‘most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up’ and it is estimated to cost US$1 billion.
The report said Ogoni communities faced a severe health risk, with some families drinking water with high levels of cancer-causing agents.
The UNEP report followed an independent scientific assessment of the area over a 14-month period during which the team examined over 200 places, surveyed 122 kilometres of pipeline Rights of Way, reviewed over 5,000 medical records and engaged more than 23,000 people at local community meetings.
The US$10 million investigation by a team of 100 officials, who studied environmental degradation in the oil-rich region at the instance of UNEP, was paid for in part by Shell and was to be published in December 2010.
The team also conducted detailed soil and groundwater contamination investigations at 69 locations, which ranged in size from 1,300 square metres as in Barabeedom-K.dere, Gokana Local Government Area to 79 hectares as in Ajeokpori-Akpajo in Eleme Local Government Area in Rivers State.
Over 4,000 samples were analysed, including water taken from 142 groundwater monitoring wells drilled specifically for the study and soil extracted from 780 boreholes in the area.
At the end of the exercise, which attracted international attention, the UN body 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”. The report was tagged, “UNEP’s Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland.”
The UNEP assessment presented to President Jonathan showed pollution in surface water throughout the creeks of Ogoniland and up to eight centimetres in groundwater that feed drinking wells at 41 sites including a serious case in Nisisioken Ogale in Eleme, Rivers State.
Soils were found to have been polluted with hydrocarbons up to a depth of five metres in 49 observed sites, while benzene, a known cancer-causing chemical, was found in drinking water in Nisisioken Ogale community at a level 900 times above World Health Organisation (WHO) acceptable levels.
The report also showed that fishing activities have been destroyed and that wetlands around Ogoniland are highly degraded and facing further degradation.
The report, however, provided operational recommendations for addressing the oil pollution across the entire Ogoniland and specifically recommended that urgent remedial action should be taken on the contamination in Nisisioken Ogale area.
The Sun headlined its story on Ogoniland, ‘ERA seeks US$100 billion Niger Delta restoration fund’, reporting that the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) had called for the creation of a US$100 billion Environmental Restoration Fund for the Niger Delta.
ERA/FoEN, in a statement signed by its head of media, Mr. Philip Jakpor, welcomed UNEP’s report and said the environmental assessment of Ogoniland, despite its shortcomings, had not only indicated its worst fears about the state of the environment in Ogoniland and the entire Niger Delta but also showed Shell’s atrocious breach of minimum requirements of the Environmental Guidelines and Standards for Petroleum Industries in Nigeria (EGASPIN) and its own standards.
During the week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the revocation of the licences of three banks — Afribank, Spring Bank and Bank PHB.
‘Bank PHB, Afribank, Spring Bank nationalised,’ said the Nation newspaper which quoted the Managing Director of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Ibrahim Umar, as saying the revocation became necessary because the affected banks had failed to show enough commitment to the process of recapitalisation since new management teams were named in August 2009. The revocation came ahead of the 30 September deadline given to rescued banks to recapitalise.
Announcing the revocation during a press briefing in Lagos on Friday, Umar said the assets and liabilities of the operators of the three banks had been immediately taken over by bridge banks as part of efforts to ensure that the banks continued to operate under new identities.
While MainStreet Bank Limited has been licensed to take over Afribank Nigeria Plc, Keystone Bank Limited has assumed the assets and liabilities of Bank PHB while Enterprise Bank Limited takes over Spring Bank Plc.
The three bridge banks acquired the assets and liabilities through the purchase and assumption model earlier used by the apex bank when Chukwuma Soludo was the CBN governor.
The three banks were among the 10 that failed the CBN stress test conducted in June 2009, following which Wema and Unity banks resolved their troubles.
In its second story on the banks, headlined ‘Why govt took over the banks’, the Nation said indications emerged on Friday that the Federal Government took over the ownership of the three banks because efforts at recapitalising them were being frustrated by their previous owners.
The paper, quoting competent sources in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, said the managements and names of the banks would be changed to prevent their previous owners from laying claim to them. The sources said the nationalisation of the banks means that they have been technically liquidated.
The Independent, Guardian and the Punch also ran the stories under the following headlines. Independent (CBN revokes Afribank, Bank PHB, Spring Bank licences); Guardian (CBN Revokes Licence Of Bank PHB, Afribank And Spring Bank); and the Punch (FG takes over Afribank, Spring Bank, Bank PHB).
‘Privatisation has failed Nigerians, says Jonathan’, was the Guardian headline on the story of President Jonathan’s ruling on the impact of privatisation on the country’s economy.
The paper said Jonathan on Thursday inaugurated the reconstituted board of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), regretting that privatisation in Nigeria had not lived up to its billing as the answer to ailing state enterprises.
Stating that the privatised firms had not been as “successful as Nigerians expected,” President Jonathan noted the privatised firms were not doing very well.
Jonathan charged the NCP to address “the whole concept of privatisation which started a long time ago. The Federal Government delegated some of its responsibilities to the private sector over the period. We believe the private sector will handle things better than the public sector.’
Only last month, the Senate set up a seven-man ad hoc committee to carry out an inquest into alleged lopsidedness in the privatisation of the Federal Government since its inception in 1999.
The Tribune captioned its story ‘Privatisation: Jonathan demands sanctions for buyers of govt assets’, saying that Jonathan had expressed regrets that years after government’s assets were sold to members of the private sector, many of such assets were not functional thereby defeating the aim of the privatisation programme.
Also during the week, the papers reported increased concerns in many West African countries over the spate of bombings in Nigeria by the Islamic insurgents, Boko Haram, saying that the concerns stemmed from the possibility that the group could infiltrate other West African countries.
Boko Haram (meaning Western or non-Islamic education is an abomination) is a militant Islamic group, which seeks the imposition of Sharia law in 12 northern states of Nigeria.
More than 170 people have been killed in the attacks by the group in Borno, Bauchi, Plateau and Kaduna states.