Environmentalist Urges IOCs to Conclude Niger Delta Cleanup before Divestment ...Accuses IOCs of dogging responsibilities

A renowned environmentalist and Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Rev Nnimmo Bassey, has urged International Oil Companies (IOCs) looking forward to divest from onshore to offshore in Nigeria, to as a matter of significance, conclude the cleanup of the Niger Delta environment before leaving. The environmentalist insisted that the oil multinationals are not divesting from Nigeria but deceptively running away from their responsibility over the spills and the pollution that they have caused in the region for decades. Bassey made the allegation on Thursday at a community environmental training organised by HOMEF for coastal communities in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State. The HOMEF boss who regretted that the Niger Delta environment has been bastardised by the activities of oil corporations, both international and local, said after placing a huge burden on local communities, the IOCs are moving to offshore where they would be less monitored, unless there is serious spills. He noted that around the world, public institutions are pulling their money out of fossil fuel industries because the world has to move to new forms of energy that are not damaging to the environment and to the lives and health of the people. According to him, "But in Nigeria, we are seeing something different. Nigeria has just set up the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Company Limited, and oil companies are making moves to divest. They are not divesting from Nigeria, they are divesting from onshore fields-from fields that are inside the communities. "Now they want to move into deeper waters and move offshore. So this is very important for Nigerians to know, oil companies are not divesting from Nigeria. They want to divest from onshore fields where they can be held account for their misbehaviour. "They want to move into deeper waters. And by Nigerian law, the deeper the water the less royalty they pay to the Nigerian Government. So if they move to water that are deep enough they may end up paying the zero royalties. There will be some payment they will make according to a joint venture ratio, but in terms of royalties, the deeper the water, the less they pay. "So these people are looking for ways to avoid responsibility for the pollution that they afflicted on the land and the people for more than 60 years. They are looking for how they will leave so that they won't clean up the environment, they won't decommission or remove their rotten equipment. The equipment will still be polluting the area because the Nigeria companies buying these are almost as reckless as international companies. "They are going to leave, place the burden on local communities and moved away to deep sea where nobody will see what they are doing, except when oil spills occur and where they will be paying less money to the Nigerian Government." Bassey urged the "government to wake up to its responsibility to protect the people, and demand that unless they cleanup their mess all across the Niger Delta, they should not think of leaving, and if they want to leave they should put money on the ground. They should make a deposit that will be sufficient to carry out an environment audit of the internal Niger Delta in the same way as the Ogoniland was assessed by UNEP, and then also keep money for remediation efforts and restoration to take place." On the coastal environmental monitoring reporting and advocacy training, Bassey said the training was meant to equip the community people, not just to see things and walk away, but take notes when they see things. "They are to become citizen journalists to report what is going on in their communities. "And we are hoping that the community with people, monitoring the environmental reporting on what is going on and making the world aware of their plight, we are going to have the Ogoni environment better protected. And we are going to have to stimulate the rebuilding of their livelihoods in addition to what other agencies are doing already," he added.