By Tina Amanda
Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, an environmentalist and Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), has called for a strategic shift from merely monitoring to actively defending the Niger Delta environment.
This change is essential to protect the region from escalating pollution and environmental degradation.
Dr. Bassey made the call during the training of Eco-defenders, organized by HOMEF in Port Harcourt, themed “Wellness and Resistance Building”.
He emphasized that it is time people navigate from just reporting spills and take actions to influence what happens.
“Actually we are not saying we want to stop monitoring, monitoring is something we will continue, there is never an end to monitoring. As you monitor we want a situation where people consciously review what they have monitored and take steps to influence what happened
“We want to see actions taken as a result of the monitoring. We want to see people more committed to monitoring, we want to grow a set of people who have deep knowledge on how to analyze what they have seen, so when they talk, they are not just saying things for saying sake.
“This training is to make people learn how to criticize the foundation basis, causes of the problem of what they see. Not when there is an oil spill you report it and that ends it, ask questions why did it happen? Why is it happening? Why is it not stopped? These are the kind of shift We want to see”.
The HOMEF Boss accused the federal government and the international oil companies of benefiting from the pollution, which has made them pay less attention to the affected people and polluted environment.
He said further that the government is only interested in endorsing the document for divestment of the oil companies instead of ordering them to restore the environment they have damaged during its operation in the Niger Delta communities.
“We have always said that pollution in the Niger Delta is not accidental but political. It is a decision made by those who are benefiting from the pollution. The oil company is benefiting from the pollution because they are not doing the cleanup, that is profit for them.
“People die, there is less number of people that will complain about the pollution, so it’s gain for the oil companies and Nigerian government.
“The government doesn’t care about the people and the environment. So this training is to make people really lay out a foundational basis on how to follow up with what they see.
“The unfortunate situation in Nigeria is that the oil companies and the Nigerian State are working hand in hand. They have the same kind of benefits so regulating an active from the Nigerian government is difficult and very slow in coming.
“The oil companies have so much manipulated the government and the government stands against the people. For example, in the issue of divestment; when they say there should be no divestment without responsibility, without the company first cleaning up the mess they have caused over the 70years and paying reparations for the damage they have done, the government is more willing to just endorse the document and tell them to go, because they believe in the so call local content.”
Bassey however expressed regret that Shell Petroleum Company is giving a loan to the company buying its assets.
“They are giving them $ 1.2 billion for the sale. That means the company buying Shell doesn’t have money. Is a shameless transaction that is in the open and government is celebrating it. They should be held to account”.
The Environmentalist urged the government to stand up and defend its citizenry.
“The challenge for us is why we want to step up monitoring and defending, that government had to realize that they are in the office to defend and work for the people, they are not there to work for themselves”.
In his presentation on the theme: “From Monitoring to Resistance: Eco-Defending as a Resistance Movement”, Executive Director, of We The People, Ken Henshaw, said the pollution in the Niger Delta region has caused lots of death.
“What happened in the Niger Delta has caused death, has caused destruction, it has killed people and when people are murdered willingly that is a crime. My argument is that the Niger Delta is a crime scene and that crime we know who committed it and we know how they committed it”.
Henshaw said the government must begin to take sides with the people and demand accountability for the crimes done against the region.
He also condemned the incessant gas flaring in the region despite the world moving away from fossil fuel to cleaner energy.
“We are asking the government not to allow these oil companies divest unless they fix their mess. These oil companies have operated in Nigeria and you are leaving you don’t just get to pack your bags and brush your shoulders and walk away no. You get to sit down and examine what the impact and harm your extraction has done and fix it. That has not been done”.
“The target for ending gas flaring in this country has been shifted for a total of eight times since 1979 till now. Since 1979 we realized that gas flaring was killing the people, poisoning the people and we realized that we needed to stop it, at every point in time the government will move the gas flare end date in response to pressure by the multinationals. And that is pretty much what the government is doing now.
“What we have seen throughout the history of oil extraction in Nigeria is that the government tends to treat multinational oil companies like its primary citizens over and above the indigenous people of Nigeria and that is absolutely and totally wrong.
“Our argument is that, for once the Nigerian government needs to listen to our people and listening to our people involves necessarily taking actions to hold these companies accountable”.
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