What Ogoni cleanup is all about

When Vice President Yemi Osinbajo flagged off the current cleanup of Ogoni land, some commentators were busy denigrating President Buhari for cancelling his trip to Ogoni Kingdom at the last minute to perform the flag off. But that is not what Ogoni cleanup is all about.

According to Nnimmo Bassey, an environmental activist, the Ogoni clean-up is all about history. The submission of the UNEP report on the assessment of the Ogoni environment in August 2011 laid to rest any doubts anyone may have had over the degree of hydrocarbons pollution in the Ogoniland, and by implication the Niger Delta.

The current cleanup will cost N2.1 billion and it is expected to boost socio-economic activities in the Ogoniland devastated through years of oil spillage.

That scientific work by UNEP, according to Bassey, proved to the whole world that Ogoniland has suffered extreme pollution and by interpretation that the response ought to be one of environmental emergency. For years down the road, there has been nothing concrete beyond signposts to indicate that this signal was understood by government.

“In his statement before execution, Ken Saro-Wiwa declared that we all stand before history. Today, in another sense, we all stand at the brink of history. We stand at the line denoting the fact of the justness of the historic, determined and heroic calls for a cleanup of Ogoniland.

Today we salute the memory of the Ogoni 13 and all that have laid down their lives, lost their limbs and were displaced in the hard and long years of struggle for justice. Today we stand in solidarity with our peoples who still breathe air loaded with hydrocarbon fumes, drink water laced with toxic chemicals, fish and farm in polluted lands. Today we recall a fragment from one of the letters Ken Saro-Wiwa wrote during his last imprisonment and note his cry for environmental justice”, said Bassey in a syndicated article.

Bassey said that with decades of extreme hydrocarbons pollution, the environment of Ogoniland and several places in the Niger Delta has been out of control. The environment that ought to provide the backdrop for life, safety and progress, indeed turned hostile, becoming an impediment to the enjoyment of the right to life.

Between 1976 and 1991, there were reportedly 2,976 oil spills of about 2.1 million barrels of oil in Ogoniland, accounting for about 40 percent of the total oil spills of the Royal Dutch/Shell Company worldwide in one region alone.

In 1990, under the leadership of activist and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Movement of the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) planned to take action against the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the oil companies. In October 1990, MOSOP presented The Ogoni Bill of Rights to the government. The Bill hoped to gain political and economic autonomy for the Ogoni people, leaving them in control of the natural resources of Ogoniland protecting against further land degradation. The movement lost steam in 1994 after Saro-Wiwa and several other MOSOP leaders were executed for treason.

Cleanup of Ogoni land will take 30 years

In a 2011 assessment of over 200 locations in Ogoniland by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), they found that impacts of the 50 years of oil production in the region extended deeper than previously thought.

The oil spills, oil flaring, and waste discharge made the alluvial soil of the Niger Delta no longer viable for agriculture. Furthermore, in many areas that seemed to be unaffected, groundwater was found to have high levels of hydrocarbons or was contaminated with benzene, a carcinogen, at 900 levels above WHO guidelines. UNEP estimated that it could take up to 30 years to rehabilitate Ogoniland to its full potential and that the first five years of rehabilitation would require funding of about US$1 billion.

In 2012, Deizani Alison-Madueke, the then Minister of Petroleum Resources, announced the establishment of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project, which intends to follow the UNEP report suggestions of Ogoniland to prevent further degradation.

Amina Mohammed, Minister of Environment, made paramount the cleanup exercise as one of important priorities in this administration. Amina Mohammed, was Senior Adviser on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to three different Presidents of Nigeria from 2000 – 2014; served as the Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Amina Mohammed, says the clean-up of Ogoni land is just the beginning of many clean-ups that the government will embark on in the Niger Delta region.

FRANK UZUEGBUNAM