‘Oil exploration cannot resume in Ogoni except…’

Mr Celestine Akpobari, an environmental rights activist and former member of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) Governing Council, in this interview speaks on the pollution in Ogoni land, the Ken Saro Wiwa struggle and the ongoing cleanup exercise.   What’s your view on the ongoing cleanup exercise being carried out by HYPREP? Every job […]

Mr Celestine Akpobari, an environmental rights activist and former member of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) Governing Council, in this interview speaks on the pollution in Ogoni land, the Ken Saro Wiwa struggle and the ongoing cleanup exercise.

 

What’s your view on the ongoing cleanup exercise being carried out by HYPREP?

Every job that has been done under this current project coordinator, I don’t think would have issues. You may have issues on jobs done before him. He is a human rights activist and was in the trenches campaigning for the implementation of UNEP report on Ogoni. I know the efforts he has put in selflessly to ensure that this project goes forward. No contractor will do any shabby job under his watch. If there are complaints, HYPREP will be compelled  to do something, either to call back the contractor or re-award the contract to ensure the place is properly cleaned for people to go back to their fishing and farming business.

 

Having served as a member of the governing council of HYPREP,  how much has so far been released from the Trust Fund for the clean up project? 

I was at the governing council and we don’t deal with financial matters. It’st he Board of Trustees (BOT) that keeps and releases the money.  It’s the board of trustees or the office of the project coordinator, the management of HYPREP that can tell the actual amount that has been released to them. The BOT doesn’t report to us, they report to the Minister of Environment. However, that information should be on their website, because we are in the information age where things should be transparent and open, because it’s public funds. You shouldn’t have to ask, it’s something you can get on their websiteeasily, unless they are trying to hide something.

 

I check and it’s not available on their website…

If it’s not there, there is something wrong, it should be made open because this is a public project.

 

As an environmentalist with experience on the subject matter, do you think that the funds  for the project have been properly utilised?

Well, like I said, under this present Project Coordinator and the former Minister, Amina Muhammed, before she left for the UN and the man that took over from her, Alhaji Jibril Ibrahim, the current Emir of Nassarawa, I can vouch for those two and the present Minister but the other ones, I cannot vouch for them. I can say that whatever money Amina,Jibril Ibrahim spent and what this current minister is spending, I can say we will get value for it, because they are not jokers and they are not after their stomach or the money.

 

What is the percentage of work done so far in the Ogoni clean up project?

They have done the simple risk sites, medium risk sites, what they’re yet to award is the complex sites. Tthe complex sites, I’m told some companies from Australia were in Ogoni to carry out ‘characterization’ which they need to do to be able to know the level of pollution before they award the contract. That kind of contract won’t be for any local contractor, it will be a major international leanup company.  They have awarded the shorelines, they are planting mangroves,and they said they’ll give about sixty communities water. The plan is that every community in Ogoni should have portable water.  For the Ogoni power project, they don’t manufacture the parts and keep, you go to the companies in China, ndia and Turkey and they manufacture and they bring them. Some containers, over 20 have come. The centre of excellence in Bori is over 90 per cent complete, the hospital is over 90 per cent, so all that are ongoing. We await the award of the contract for the complex sites now, after they get results from the characterization they did.

 

What’s the time frame  for the cleanup project?

UNEP said I’ll take 25 to 30 years. The cleanup is in its 11th year now.

 

How many communities are they cleaning up?

That I wouldn’t know offhand, but they aren’t cleaning up every community. They’re only cleaning up polluted sites, and not every polluted site was captured byUNEP; also there are new polluted sites that are happening daily in Ogoni. Oil spills are everywhere, so new polluted sites are coming up, and the areas that weren’t captured by UNEP, HYPREP will take care of.

 

There are talks about resumption of oil exploration in Ogoni, what’s your take?

There’ll be no oil resumption in Ogoni and that is the truth, if they like, let them bring the whole army in this world.

Infact, I’m told the president has asked the National Security Adviser to be in charge, and the last time I checked, the National Security Adviser was not a Petroleum Minister, so why is the National Security Adviser taking charge, do they want to occupy Ogoni again, do the want to kill us again, we are waiting. The right thing must be done, what happened in Ogoni wasn’t a suicide mission but an ongoing struggle, those that died were not chicken or goats, they were human beings, there is blood in the oil in Ogoni, that blood must be removed properly, before you talk about oil resumption.

 

The fight against illegal refineries and oil theft seems to be  worsening pollution in the Niger Delta?

I agree, they contribute to the mess that our environment has received. They dispose waste in a terrible manner, I mean, all those crude oil has fingerprints, why not get experts to run a test on all the crude that you recovered, and return it to their companies, if it’s coming from Agip,Total or Shell you send it  back to them, I mean, why do they do all these nonsense to cover up all the crude they  steal. They just burnt a little to cover up everything. They think we don’t know what they’re doing? But it’s not the proper thing to do, people are suffering, health hazards, women are giving birth to disabled children, young girls at the age of 20 are experiencing early menopause, men in their prime have issues with their system because of heavy hydrocarbons in the air. UNEP’s report on Ogoni said the water we drink was 1000 time worse than the level recommended by the World Health Organisation, I’m sure if they were to conduct a new audit on Ogoni, it will be five times worse, that is happening because of the waysthe military men dispose oil waste.

 

What’s your advice to the people of Ogoni, the government and the oil companies?

Ogoni people should remember that our struggle is a nonviolent struggle, at no point should we be angry to take up arms, because when we do that we would be playing into the hands of the enemies. We should make sure that nothing takes our lives in Ogoni, we must remain peaceful at all times, but continue to agitate peacefully, government on their part should not take our peaceful disposition for granted, they shouldn’t take us for fools, it’s been 33 years since this struggle began and 30 years after the killing of our leaders, the time has come for government to resolve this matter and put a closure to it, by acceding to the legitimate demands of Ogoni people as enshrined in Ogoni bill of right. The demands that Ogoni people are asking for in that bill, I think other Nigerians are already enjoying in abundance, even without having oil. Recently, they gave a Federal University of Environment to Ogoni people, and they were shouting all over the place as if they had done something important.  All other states and communities that have universities, how many oil wells do they have to give out to get the University, so the government must be sincere to our people, and the oil companies shouldn’t do in Ogoni and the Niger Delta what they can’t do in other parts of the world. They  are adopting double standards, they don’t do routine checks, the pipelines that were laid seven decades ago, are still underground, even if these pipelines were manufactured by God, they should go back by now, and the government in collaboration with oil companies that polluted and destroyed, devastated our environment are running away in the name of divestment. I beg them in the name of God that they should reverse every decision they have taken on divestment, these companies must come back to remediate and restore our environment to the level they met it, when they first came.