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TONY OLUTOMIWA
The challengevelopment in relation to the effects of oil exploration and exploitation in the Niger Delta has continued to generate concerns with varying perspectives on the inherent issues and how they could be solved. On the one hand, these issues had set the host communities with the International Oil Companies, IOCs, on intermittent clashes with regard to what should be done or otherwise. At other times, it had been between the oil-bearing states and the Federal Government but without any consensus.
Yet the fundamental problems caused by the activities of the oil companies remain with the people and why the agitation for a better deal won’t go away. This is the situation in Bayelsa State where the state government has, in a significant manner, repositioned environmental degradation on the front burner of socio-economic and political discourse in a fresh campaign with the theme: “Rise for Bayelsa”.
As a major impetus to unraveling the extent of damage done to the environment in the state and finding a way forward, the state governor, Seriake Dickson, has constituted a commission of enquiry to investigate the activities of the oil companies operating in the state.
While inaugurating the commission at the Government House in Yenagoa, the state capital, the governor was unsparing in condemning the impunity of the oil companies, operating in the state, noting that these companies had carried on over the decades without due regard for the environment and the people with the concomitant environmental degradation and loss of human lives.
Dickson reeled out statistics to justify his claims, as he told his audience at the event that the Niger Delta records about 40 million litres of oil spills annually compared to about four million in the United States. He quoted a survey, which suggested that about 16,000 infants might have been killed by this huge number of spills. He also quoted a 2011 United Nations Environment Report which equated life expectancy in the Niger Delta region to 10 years lower than the national average.
Dickson further expressed concern that the spills in the Niger Delta could also cause as much as 60 per cent reduction in household food security, reduce the ascorbic acid content of vegetables by as much as 36 per cent and can decrease the crude protein content by 40 per cent.
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Regrettably, the governor pointed out that about 40 per cent of the nation’s oil wealth is derived from Bayelsa State without a shared sense of humanity.
This scenario, therefore, provides the background for a refocusing on the current and future challenges posed by the incessant oil spills in the Niger Delta region and indeed in Bayelsa State where several spills were said to have occurred with severe effects on the environment and human survival.
As Dickson was making his remarks at the inauguration of the inquiry commission, what came out vividly was the reality that oil has become a curse rather than the prosperity hydrocarbon exploitation could have given to mankind. And the future is yet unpredictable, which, perhaps, explains the governor’s unequivocal stand that setting up the commission was imperative to do justice to the interrelated issues.
“The story of oil started here in Bayelsa in 1956, which launched Nigeria into international prestige, prominence, regional and international influence. The story of oil exploration and exploitation started here. But we in this state know more than other states the devastating situation that arises from oil and gas exploration. We know what oil exploration and exploitation have done to our environment. We know the story of wasted land, how our livelihood has been taken away. So, we are very serious about promoting and protecting the environment, as a collective heritage for all mankind,” he said.
The commission, known as the Bayelsa State Environmental Degradation Commission of Enquiry, has the Archbishop of York, U.K, Dr. John Sentamu, as chairman, with other accomplished members drawn from interrelated disciplines, and expertise, including Baroness Valerie Amos, Director of SOAS, United Kingdom, former Ghanaian President, John Kuffour, Professor Engobo Emeseh, Head of the School of Law, University of Bradford, UK, Professor Roland Hodler, Professor of Public Economics, University of Gallen and Dr. Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou, an independent consultant. Others are Professor Michael Watts, Professor of Geography and Director of Development Studies, University of California, Beckley, United States, Dr. Amos Zalik, Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, U.K, Professor Daniel Onifade, a Forensic Scientist and former Bayelsa State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Wodu Kemesuode, who will serve as legal counsel to the commission.
Terms of reference of the commission are: To investigate the environmental, health and socio-economic, cultural and human damage caused by the activities of multinationals and local companies operating in Bayelsa State, analyse the existing mechanism, governing the operations of the oil companies and undertake a comparative analysis and assess the sustainability and effectiveness of existing mechanism and to determine whether same conform to existing international best practice, to determine appropriate measures to hold defaulting parties responsible and accountable, to invite evidence from the international community in Nigeria and within Bayelsa in particular and take evidence in different locations as may be determined.
The commission shall also undertake and receive any scientific or empirical reports on the environment, health, socio-economic and cultural impact of the operations of these companies over the years on the people, develop a set of informed recommendations that may lead to the development of a new legal framework that ensures accountability and develop a set of action plan for the implementation of a healthy environment, appropriate clean-up plans, remediation and compensation for impacted communities, among others.
In line with these terms, the commission has since begun its work with visitations to major oil spill locations across the state. Beyond imagination, however, the commission members and the audience were shown some reflective narrative of what the environmental situation in the state looks like in a short documentary during the inauguration.
From Azuzuama to Ikarama to Ilabara and from the experience relayed by farmers in Okordia to locals in Gbarantoru and Aghoro, the extent of the scourge of oil spills and gas flaring were vividly illustrated. It was a worrying account that speaks to the realities of the issues of environmental degradation in Bayelsa State.
One of the respondents in the documentary, King Bubaraye Dakolo, recounts: “As a young boy, we walk to the Nun River. In less than ten minutes, we would have a bucket of about 10 to 15 litres filled with fish. This was like playtime snack for the children. But that was before the devastating effect of oil. As I speak now, go to River Nun with your net and you go at 7pm and stay all night and come back at 9pm. You will hardly have 3kg of fish. This is the result of oil pollution. The fishes and everything are dying.”
At Egbebiri, the Commission chairman and members as well as officials from the Ministry of Environment, who were also accompanied by journalists saw the relics of oil pollution at a wellhead owned by Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, where there is history of oil spills. Both the Chairman of the CDC in Egbebiri, Godspower Worukumo, and officials from the Ministry of Environment in the state told the commission that oil spillage at this Agip facility had been recurring, the most recent one being that of July 2018 and another a month ago.
Also at Ikarama, the commission was briefed on the perennial occurrence of oil spills in the locality, which the Youth Leader of Ikarama, Warder Benjamin, said reflected the widespread of spills across the state. Benjamin is also the Community Environmental Monitor for Amnesty International. He told the commission that the most recent oil spill at Ikarama was that of the SDPC Manifold, which occurred on the June 4, last year. The debris of the spill was seen at the point of evacuation, which Benjamin said, were abandoned due to the interruption of flooding. Unlike in the Agip wellhead at Egbebiri, the clean-up at the Shell Manifold at Ikarama was without any burning of the spilled crude.
The interaction of both Worukumo and Benjamin with the commission revealed the interrelated issues in oil spills around the state and the implications for the health of the environment.
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The issues as narrated had to do with the time lag between occurrence of spill and response by the facility owners to shut down and the time between occurrence of spill and actual clean-up. Again, there is the issue of remediation and compensation, which were said to be unpleasant to local communities affected. They also raised the issue of lack of independence of institutions like NOSDRA that are charged with the responsibility of maintaining standards but which were said to be more on the side of multinationals than being concerned with the plight of the people.
Although the facility owners will usually notice when there is a pressure drop from their equipment but before they respond to shut down the flow, a lot of crude would have been spread to the environment. For instance, the spill at the Agip wellhead in Egbebiri, which was said to be due to equipment failure last year, only had the flow shut down the next day. Yet evacuation and clean-up took several days, according to Worukumo.
He said: “When the pressure drops and the operators notice, it means that the crude had already spread. So, there is a lag when the spill action occurs and when the owners of the facility would identify that. So, the spill has actually spread. It may take days before action is taken on evacuation and the clean-up process begins.
“Several times, oil spillage happens here because we have about 12 operating oil wells in Egbebiri. You can see it there; the kind of clean-up they do and how they do it. No compensation, nothing. Last year, the oil spills lasted for 10 days before the well was shut down. This spillage moves to our creeks and from the creeks will go round our communities. Since there is no provision for water, it is the same polluted water we fetch to drink and bath inside.”
Besides the Agip wellhead at Egbebiri, the commission saw a large excavated pit with polluted water which Worukumo said is where the spilled crude are evacuated before they are burned, a situation which science claims could further compound the environmental challenges since the smoke, as was seen going up in the sky, would in due time return to earth as acid rain.
It was revealed by officials from the Ministry of Environment that the IOCS did not have any monitoring equipment that can pinpoint the exact location of leakage whenever there is oil spill unlike in the advanced countries. So, when oil spill occurs, as indicated in the pressure drop, then the facility owners will begin to trace where such spill had occurred. That is the main reason why it takes time before the shut down and, of course, the damage would have been done.
Warder Benjamin corroborated most of the positions of Worukumo, stating that the Shell Manifold spill at Ikarama occurred on June 4, last year, but the facility owners only came to site to do the recovery on June 24. The spill was not caused by equipment failure but by the acts of third party. And when spills are traced to third party, compensation is ruled out, the commission was told.
“Most of the time, when spill occurs, they don’t come on time,” Benjamin said.
Although he said there were reports that Shell was planning to return to Ikarama to begin the process of remediation, he nonetheless accused oil companies of not paying adequate compensation to victims of oil spills.
“The oil companies have a way about their activities. If this is a third party spill, there is no compensation for that community. By third party interference, they mean somebody must have tampered with their facility. In Ikarama community here, we’ve experienced series of spills and the compensation is not worth it at all.
“I can give a record of a spill that occurred around Ajibawa Ochidia flow line where expansive farmlands were destroyed. But if you look at the compensation paid to the family and the community, it is a pittance because that area is no longer yielding cassava and the land is now wasted. In all of this, they only paid about N500,000, as compensation compared to the vast land that was destroyed and up till now those who own the land can no longer make use of the land at all, which was also as a result of their equipment failure,” he stated.
These are subsisting issues, which the commission will hopefully address in its report that in the main revolve around the perception of the host communities that the IOCs are negligent by not responding to spills on time whenever they occur, the issue of not doing proper clean-up, lack of proper remediation and compensation and the overall lack of accountability.
Going by the pedigree of the members of the commission and their antecedents and the extent of mandate, it may come up with recommendations, leading to positive actions that could assuage the feelings of the people and government in the state. Of course, the stature of the commission could help to internationalise the problems, especially with the latitude to holding public hearing within Nigeria and other parts of the world.
This would hopefully fit the expectations of Governor Seriake Dickson, who, at the inauguration of the commission, had stated thus: “At the end of this work, it is hoped that the findings and recommendations will, at least, prick the conscience of the world that has for long proffered to look the other way while the despoliation of the environment and the devastation of communities and livelihood in the Niger Delta continues”.
The commission chairman has also promised not to leave any stone unturned to ensure justice and reconciliation in the affected communities. y not to look away from the impact of degradation of the land of the people of Niger Delta. You can judge how healthy a society is by how it treats the most vulnerable of the society. Reconciliation is only possible when justice, truth and reparation are put together,” he said.