Yesterday marked exactly three years since the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) handed over the detailed report of the assessment of Ogoniland pollution by activities of oil exploitation.
The assessment which was conducted at the request of the federal government unambiguously confirmed fears and anxiety that Ogoniland is a ticking ecological time bomb.
The report made far reaching recommendations to the government on how to clean the area and make it habitable for human beings having identified high level of contamination as a result of exposure to petroleum hydrocarbons in outdoor air and drinking water.
The study concluded that the environmental restoration of Ogoniland was possible but may take 25 to 30 years. The report contained numerous recommendations that, once implemented, would have an immediate and positive impact on Ogoniland.
Further recommendations have longer timelines that will bring lasting improvements for Ogoniland and Nigeria as a whole.
The overall cost of the clean-up, according to the report, should not be an obstacle to its implementation. Therefore, an Environmental Restoration Fund for Ogoniland should be set up with an initial capital injection of USD 1 billion contributed by the oil industry and the government. This recommendation and others that would bring succour to the people of Ogoniland, according to observers, is yet to be met.
An environmental activist, Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), regrets that after three years, a situation that required the declaration of environmental emergency was yet to elicit any serious response.
Bassey said: “We are deeply shocked that we are marking three years of inaction on a report that clearly showed that our peoples are walking and living in the valley of the shadow of death. We are scandalised that we are not marking three years of concrete actions to salvage what is left of the Ogoni environment.”
“There are no tenable reasons for government and Shell to fold their arms and watch our people wallow in a chronically polluted environment all through their lives. Why should anyone have to drink water contaminated with benzene, a known carcinogen, at levels over 900 times above the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline and 1000 times above Nigerian drinking water standards?”
Oluwafunmilayo Oyatogun, media officer of HOMEF, declares in a statement that Ogoniland has become a metaphor for unconscionable ecological ruination that petroleum resource extraction has wreaked on the Niger Delta. “Despite the fact that oil extraction activities was forced to halt in Ogoniland in 1993 following the expulsion of Shell by the Ogoni people under the leadership of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, Ogoniland remains arguably one of the most polluted areas of the world,” she said.
According to Oyatogun, the peaceful but consistent cries of the Ogoni people against the destruction of their environment have gone unheard by Shell and the Nigerian government.
She adds “We recall that Ogoni people issued the Ogoni Bill of Rights in 1990 and categorically demanded for environmental, political and socio-economic justice and protection. Regrettably, despite a formal presentation of the document to the government, nothing has been said or done by the way of response or engagement.
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HURAC is a club instituted by the Movement For the Survival of the Ogoni People, which is open to all secondary schools within and outside Ogoni and also to all intending members. It`s currently operating in Riv-Poly secondary school, its division HQTRS, and also in CSS Bori, ACGS Bori, BMGS Bori and some Portharcourt schools. It has Kate, Wisdom Deebeke as its pioneer Senior Chief Co-ordinator. It was inaugurated in Riv-Poly by the INTELLECTUAL ELITE BATCH, with Tuaka Jeremiah as the appointed Chairman as at then. It aims at educating members and the public on their fundamental human rights, human rights advocacy, human rights abuses and campaign, etc. To learn more about HURAC, please go to http://huraclub.org/.
