Ogoni Cleanup: Environmental Activist Raises Concern Over Inappropriate Engagement Of Companies

Poor selection of executing companies and bureaucratic bottlenecks have been identified as some of the reasons why the federal government’s Ogoniland cleanup project is yet to take off.

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA), in a chat with THE WHISTLER, regretted that nine years after the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) submitted a report to the federal government on environmental assessment of Ogoniland, nothing tangible had been done to alleviate the sufferings of its inhabitants.

The UNEP report which was released in August, 2011, had detailed information on contaminated land, groundwater, surface water, sediment, vegetation, air pollution, public health, industry practice and institutional issues that collectively pose health dangers to over 832,000 inhabitants of Ogoniland.

UNEP had also recommended steps to be followed in carrying out the clean-up exercise.

The Nigerian senate committee on environment, on Tuesday, met with the Chairman of Ogoniland Board of Trustees, Olawale Edun, where it expressed disappointment over the slow pace of work on the Ogoniland cleanup project.

Edun, during a panel discussion, admitted that $360 million had been released to the BoT for the cleanup. The BoT chairman, alongside the Ogoni Cleanup Project Coordinator, Marvin Dekil, admitted that money was not the reason for the delay.

THE WHISTLER spoke to the ERA’s head of media, Philip Jakpor, who highlighted some of the reasons for the delay in the Ogoni cleanup exercise.

“What they are experiencing is a situation whereby companies that have a track record in cleanup and that we looked forward to, are not involved in this process.

“Most of the companies (selected) are companies that were hurriedly set up by some people. One of the companies, we hear, was a poultry company that suddenly transformed into a cleanup firm

Jakpor, who noted that the claim was subject to confirmation, also tasked the senate to carry out its oversight properly by finding out the true situation of things and ensure that the cleanup process is fast-tracked.

The federal government, under the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan, had set up the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) in 2012 to among other things determine the scope of the pollution in Ogoniland and remedy it.

The incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari, who promised to clean up Ogoniland during his 2015 campaign, had flagged off the cleanup exercise in 2016. But four years after the flag off, the project is yet to kick off.

Jakpor said it was unfortunate that the clean-up process was yet to commence despite promising steps earlier taken by the present administration .

“Now that we think that there is semblance of action, we are now also experiencing this back and forth development. Today HYPREP will say we’ve done this; tomorrow leaders of the Ogoni community will say nothing has been done,” he said.

Jakpor said the senate’s complaint that the cleanup process was slow had not helped matters.

“The senate is part of the government. So, how come the government cannot ensure a fast-track of the process.? That’s the big question.

“Because every single day counts now. We’ve talked about the pollution. The senate has done its work by making recommendations.

“This administration started well by putting some money aside for the clean up process. HYPREP was reinvigorated and has been in the media talking about what they are doing, but on ground not much is happening at that end.

“The process has been too bureaucratic i.e. the process of selection of the companies that would do the cleanup has been too slow and bureaucratic.

He said while these are ongoing, “the pollution continues to sink into the ground water and ravish the land and the people continue to suffer lack. The situation last year is not the situation this year and the situation next is going to be different from the situation this year.

“So, if UNEP has said it would take 30 years for the clean up to be completed, we can now see that the pollution is going to extend even beyond that.

“And every single day, lives are at risk. We even provided alternative and sustainable source of water because it is not a matter of bringing a tanker of water and supplying them for two days and that’s all after then.

“The people should also receive comprehensive health care, not the Panadol distribution thing that we hear going on there. So, these are the issues. The government is saying the process has been slow, who do we then turn to? The same government that should make the process fast is telling us that the process is slow.

He added that, “The process can only be quickened if the government removes all those standing in the way of procurement. Because that’s what we hear…that the procurement process is full of bureaucracies.”

Asked to comment on Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike’s recent claim that the federal government was playing politics with the Ogoni cleanup process, Jakpor said: “Well even if the governor of the state says the federal government is playing politics, people would also ask the state government what they are doing [to assist the people].

“These are communities in Rivers State. Is the state government providing them with water? We might say yes the federal government is politicizing it [Ogoni Cleanup] but has the state government done anything as simple as ensuring that the communities get clean and safe drinking water regularly? The state government can do that but why are they not doing it?”