•Disband HYPREP, MOSOP Insists
Three years after receiving the report of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) on Ogoniland, the Federal Government has finally acknowledged that it made mistakes in the implementation of the report.
This came as the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) called for the scrapping of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) set up by the Federal Government for the implementation of the UNEP report and for remediation of other Niger Delta communities impacted by oil exploitation.
The Federal Government made the confession yesterday at Bori, the traditional headquarters of the Ogonis at a one-day consultative meeting with the people of Ogoniland on the implementation of the UNEP report.
The Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr. Danladi Kifasi, said the Federal Government was serious in its concern and commitment to the implementation of the UNEP report.
She however said while HYPREP, which was established to implement the report, had handled some transitional phase objectives as recommended in the report, it had not achieved the major objective of cleaning up the area.
“Whilst HYPREP has implemented some of the transitional phase objectives as recommended in the report, Government recognises and is very mindful that the programme has not achieved its full objectives as envisioned by this administration,” she said.
She restated the commitment of the Federal Government to the restoration of the environment of Ogoniland, adding that, “It is better late than never. To err is human.”
She assured the people that the money for the implementation of environmental clean-up of Ogoniland was ready, adding, “Government is mindful that funds meant for the remediation and restoration activities of Ogoniland are used for that purpose”.
She stated: “The hope that very soon, we shall be working with the UN, Ogoni communities and relevant Nigerian agencies to pool our collective knowledge and construct a road map to deliver a comprehensive remediation programme with a focus on immediate delivery and restitution”.
The minster declared: “The time for decisive action is now and we call on all relevant parties to join us to tackle and begin to address the challenges ahead.”
At the end of the consultation, Alison-Madueke however said the Federal Government was considering setting up an implementation committee to handle the implementation of the report on the short run while considering the setting up of an Ogoni Environment Restoration Agency which would require an act of the National Assembly.
In their presentation, the Ogoni people, through MOSOP, requested for the scrapping of HYPREP as it was extraneous to the recommendations of the UNEP report.
In his address, President of MOSOP, Mr. Legborsi Pyagbara, said HYPREP “has proven to be grossly ineffective in carrying out the implementation of the UNEP report on Ogoniland.
“The only visible act of implementation of the UNEP report by HYPREP was the placing of billboards at strategic places in Port Harcourt and Ogoni land and the placing of notices around oil spill sites. Is this what is expected of the agency?”
He however said it was not late for the President Goodluck Jonathan administration to start afresh.
“Once failure has been appreciated, there is no harm in starting over again. We want to seize this opportunity to inform the Jonathan-led that it is not too late to change his response to the Ogoni environmental crisis. We therefore call on his administration to declare a state of emergency on the Ogoni environment.”
At the end of the meeting the people of Ogoniland gave the federal government their conditions for the implementation of the report.
The demands included that a steering committee be set up to draw up an implementation programme; that HYPREP be scrapped; that indigenes of Ogoni be involved in all stages of the implementation process; that the federal government should embark on confidence-building measures; and that the federal government should specify a timeframe for the implementation of the report.
Source: ThisDayLive
