Neither the Federal Government nor its Ministry of Environment has shown any serious attempt to implement the United Nations Environmental Project (UNEP) Report on Ogoniland. This land, located in Rivers State, was home to the late author of Soza Boy and other books, Ken Saro-Wiwa, before the despotic regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha hanged him and seven others for reasons not beyond their call for the Federal Government to give the Ogoni people their dues. The late Wiwa and his other comrades were not happy with the way oil giant Shell was polluting their area. They saw how their people were dying because their land had been deflowered by force. They said enough was enough. The junta went for their jugular and the rest is now history. Rather than go for the message, they went after the messanger. Unfortunately, the message has refused to die.
The UNEP Report shows that Shell has done incalculatable damage to Ogoni people and its land. It shows that the wrong Shell did before the people chased it out of their land will take years and millions of dollars to right. It shows that the oil giant and the government pursued money at the expense of the people. It shows the people were secondary in whatever calculation the oil giant and its joint venture partner made. It shows how not to treat a people on whose land the country gets its wealth, with which its leaders fuel their needs and greeds.
Quite significantly, when the Federal Government commissioned the UNEP Report, those who thought it was well-meaning must be gnashing their teeth in regret now. They must be cursing the day they invested their trust in a government that has redefined democracy to mean government of the few, for the few and by the few.
It must be pointed out that Ogoniland is not the only land that the oil giants have polluted. Almost all the communities where they drill for oil has one bad imprint or the other.
Just last week, Niger Delta Report led with the pathetic story of Odimodi, a sleepy town in Delta State, whose people discovered that Shell might have been clever by half by burying oil spills in the sand, instead of properly cleaning-up the spills.
For days, Niger Delta Report pursued Shell spokesperson for its explanation on what happened. It was one excuse after the other. The reaction never came.
Shell and other oil majors operate in other countries and record shows that no where but in Nigeria do they carry on with impunity. In Venezuela, the leaders made it clear to them that the oil belongs to Venezuelans and not one else and that guided the relationship between the government and the oil majors. Malaysia even took it a step further. It allowed the oil majors only five years to drill for oil under an arrangement which saw the oil majors transferring technology and other skills to Malaysians within the specified period. Through its national oil company known as Petronas, Malaysia has been able to turn around its fortune. Petronas does not only produce enough oil for the people. It has abundant to export. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is the country’s version of Petronas, has been unable to make the refineries work at installed capacity, not to talk of having excess to export. What the refineries produce is barely enough for a cosmopolitan city, such as Lagos.
Shamefacedly, the country imports fuel from other countries to meet its needs. And to further show that shame does not exist in our lexicon, we allow oil majors to foul our land and people and yet cannot get them to do proper clean-up. Ogoni must be cleaned-up. So, should other areas, such as Bonga, where spills have occurred. The Niger Delta has been peaceful for some time now. Frustration can lead the people to take the laws into their hands and, like experience has shown, mob justice is usually difficult to control. What we must do as a country is to do the right thing so that things will remain under control. The time to do the right thing is now.
either the Federal Government nor its Ministry of Environment has shown any serious attempt to implement the United Nations Environmental Project (UNEP) Report on Ogoniland. This land, located in Rivers State, was home to the late author of Soza Boy and other books, Ken Saro-Wiwa, before the despotic regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha hanged him and seven others for reasons not beyond their call for the Federal Government to give the Ogoni people their dues. The late Wiwa and his other comrades were not happy with the way oil giant Shell was polluting their area. They saw how their people were dying because their land had been deflowered by force. They said enough was enough. The junta went for their jugular and the rest is now history. Rather than go for the message, they went after the messanger. Unfortunately, the message has refused to die.
The UNEP Report shows that Shell has done incalculatable damage to Ogoni people and its land. It shows that the wrong Shell did before the people chased it out of their land will take years and millions of dollars to right. It shows that the oil giant and the government pursued money at the expense of the people. It shows the people were secondary in whatever calculation the oil giant and its joint venture partner made. It shows how not to treat a people on whose land the country gets its wealth, with which its leaders fuel their needs and greeds.
Quite significantly, when the Federal Government commissioned the UNEP Report, those who thought it was well-meaning must be gnashing their teeth in regret now. They must be cursing the day they invested their trust in a government that has redefined democracy to mean government of the few, for the few and by the few.
It must be pointed out that Ogoniland is not the only land that the oil giants have polluted. Almost all the communities where they drill for oil has one bad imprint or the other.
Just last week, Niger Delta Report led with the pathetic story of Odimodi, a sleepy town in Delta State, whose people discovered that Shell might have been clever by half by burying oil spills in the sand, instead of properly cleaning-up the spills.
For days, Niger Delta Report pursued Shell spokesperson for its explanation on what happened. It was one excuse after the other. The reaction never came.
Shell and other oil majors operate in other countries and record shows that no where but in Nigeria do they carry on with impunity. In Venezuela, the leaders made it clear to them that the oil belongs to Venezuelans and not one else and that guided the relationship between the government and the oil majors. Malaysia even took it a step further. It allowed the oil majors only five years to drill for oil under an arrangement which saw the oil majors transferring technology and other skills to Malaysians within the specified period. Through its national oil company known as Petronas, Malaysia has been able to turn around its fortune. Petronas does not only produce enough oil for the people. It has abundant to export. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is the country’s version of Petronas, has been unable to make the refineries work at installed capacity, not to talk of having excess to export. What the refineries produce is barely enough for a cosmopolitan city, such as Lagos.
Shamefacedly, the country imports fuel from other countries to meet its needs. And to further show that shame does not exist in our lexicon, we allow oil majors to foul our land and people and yet cannot get them to do proper clean-up. Ogoni must be cleaned-up. So, should other areas, such as Bonga, where spills have occurred. The Niger Delta has been peaceful for some time now. Frustration can lead the people to take the laws into their hands and, like experience has shown, mob justice is usually difficult to control. What we must do as a country is to do the right thing so that things will remain under control. The time to do the right thing is now.
