Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State
The Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission, has recommended the investment, of at least, $12 billion over a 12-year period, to remedy the disastrous effects of oil and gas exploration on the environment and on the health of the people of the state.
In its report released recently, the Commission disclosed that for over 60 years, international oil companies and the Federal Government have hurriedly extracted billions of barrels of crude oil from the Niger Delta with scant regard for the consequences and with catastrophic outcome.
As a result of the exploratory activities of the oil companies, the commission noted that thousands of oil spills, unrestricted gas flaring, and frequent releases of toxic contaminants have poisoned the air, water and farmlands.
The commission identified the roots of the problem to include a failed regulatory regime; flawed legal framework and weak access to justice; insufficient role played by state governments; lack of international scrutiny.
To this end, the commission made a series of recommendations, including a comprehensive Bayelsa clean up and recovery plan; a Bayelsa recovery fund; a Bayelsa recovery agency; new compensation scheme for those affected; fundamental reform of the regulatory regime and the introduction of a new legal framework and new dispute resolution procedures.
Other recommendations are enshrining an enhanced role for state governments; strengthening the scrutiny of IOC behaviour both internationally and in their home jurisdictions; overhaul IOC approaches to community engagement to ensure transparency, accountability and voice; and establishing a legally binding, effective legacy and decommissioning regime.
It said: “The Commission recommends concerted international action to generate and invest at least US$12 billion over the course of 12 years to repair, remediate and restore the environmental and public health damage caused by oil and gas and to lay the foundations for Bayelsa’s just transition towards renewable energy and opportunities for alternative livelihoods.”
The commission, chaired by The Rt Revd and the Rt Hon Lord John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu, added that the historic and continued activities of the oil industry have fuelled an environmental emergency, a silent health crisis, and deep economic hardship in the Niger Delta and in Bayelsa state in particular.
Specifically, it noted that the exploration activities have driven large-scale environmental degradation and contributed to climate change; led to silent health crisis; destroyed countless livelihoods and left many struggling to survive; and has destabilised local communities and stoked conflicts.
It said: “This Commission’s findings shine light on the pollution catastrophe engulfing the state and its underlying causes. Chief among them are the systemic failings of international oil company operators with the complicity of Nigeria’s political classes and a dysfunctional Nigerian regulatory state.
“While the state accounts for only slightly over one percent of Nigeria’s total population, it is estimated to have suffered over a quarter of total recorded instances of oil pollution. The environmental, ecological and health consequences on the Niger Delta as a whole and on the people of Bayelsa have been catastrophic. They have suffered in silence for too long.”
It lamented that this neglect and despoliation was irrespective of the fact that majority of the oil firms operating in Nigeria have reported higher profit as against the profit from other areas of their operations.
It said: “In a Shell Group annual report, the company states that it makes a higher profit per barrel and incurs lower production costs in the country than in virtually any other region of the world in which it operates.
“However, this oil bonanza has brought limited benefits to Bayelsa and has come at a terrible cost to the state and its people. The oil contamination has been so heavy that according to estimates, as much as one and a half barrels of oil has been spilled in Bayelsa for every man, woman and child living in the state today.
“The figures are even higher for some parts of Bayelsa, with, for instance, as many as six barrels of oil spilled for every person in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.”
The commission disclosed that despite evidence that some of the oil spills recorded in the state and in the Niger Delta region was as a result of third-party interference, majority of the blame for the ongoing oil pollution catastrophe engulfing the region must rest in the first instance at the doorsteps of the international oil companies, due to failures of strategy, prevention, response and remediation.
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