What happened to the UNEP report on Ogoniland?

The assessment which was conducted at the request of the federal government unambiguously confirmed fears and anxiety that Ogoniland is a ticking ecological time bomb.The report made far reaching recommendations to the government on how to clean the area and make it habitable for human beings having identified high level of contamination as a result […]

The assessment which was conducted at the request of the federal government unambiguously confirmed fears and anxiety that Ogoniland is a ticking ecological time bomb.
The report made far reaching recommendations to the government on how to clean the area and make it habitable for human beings having identified high level of contamination as a result of exposure to petroleum hydrocarbons in outdoor air and drinking water.
The study concluded that the environmental restoration of Ogoniland was possible but may take 25 to 30 years. The report contained numerous recommendations that, once implemented, would have an immediate and positive impact on Ogoniland.
Further recommendations have longer timelines that will bring lasting improvements for Ogoniland and Nigeria as a whole.
The overall cost of the clean-up, according to the report, should not be an obstacle to its implementation. Therefore, an Environmental Restoration Fund for Ogoniland should be set up with an initial capital injection of USD 1 billion contributed by the oil industry and the government. This recommendation and others that would bring succour to the people of Ogoniland, according to observers, is yet to be met.
An environmental activist, Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), regrets that after three years, a situation that required the declaration of environmental emergency was yet to elicit any serious response.
Bassey said: “We are deeply shocked that we are marking three years of inaction on a report that clearly showed that our peoples are walking and living in the valley of the shadow of death. We are scandalised that we are not marking three years of concrete actions to salvage what is left of the Ogoni environment.”
 “There are no tenable reasons for government and Shell to fold their arms and watch our people wallow in a chronically polluted environment all through their lives. Why should anyone have to drink water contaminated with benzene, a known carcinogen, at levels over 900 times above the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline and 1000 times above Nigerian drinking water standards?”
Oluwafunmilayo Oyatogun, media officer of HOMEF, declares in a statement that Ogoniland has become a metaphor for unconscionable ecological ruination that petroleum resource extraction has wreaked on the Niger Delta. “Despite the fact that oil extraction activities was forced to halt in Ogoniland in 1993 following the expulsion of Shell by the Ogoni people under the leadership of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, Ogoniland remains arguably one of the most polluted areas of the world,” she said.
According to Oyatogun, the peaceful but consistent cries of the Ogoni people against the destruction of their environment have gone unheard by Shell and the Nigerian government.
She adds “We recall that Ogoni people issued the Ogoni Bill of Rights in 1990 and categorically demanded for environmental, political and socio-economic justice and protection. Regrettably, despite a formal presentation of the document to the government, nothing has been said or done by the way of response or engagement.
“It is unacceptable that three years after the UNEP report was released, no structure has been set up that would indicate any serious process for transparently tackling the ecocide that has been visited on the Ogoni environment.”
Also speaking, Professor Richard Steiner, a conservation biologist with the Oasis Earth in Anchorage Alaska says: “The Niger Delta is tragically the most severely petroleum-impacted ecosystem I have seen anywhere in the world – and I have seen many. The extraordinary environmental and social damage has continued for over 50 years now, and continues to this day. As has been said by many, Nigeria is an iconic example of the oil curse.”
“It is regrettable that rather than setting up a process of remediation with full popular participation in setting goals and targets, the best we have are politics of pollution sign posts from the government and arguments by Shell over who should warehouse $1 billion they are allegedly ready to place on the table for the clean-up,” notes Celestine Akpobari of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum.
The demands made by HOMEF at the second anniversary of the UNEP report remains appropriate one year after. They include the call for declaration of Ogoni land as an ecological disaster zone and invest resources to tackle the deep environmental disaster there, need for provision of potable drinking water to the people across Ogoniland, assessment of the entire Niger Delta environment, and assessment or audit of the environment of the entire nation, as recommended by the UNEP report, establishment of a Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration in Ogoniland for learning on pollution and clean up actions across the Niger Delta.
Others are to ensure that those who have committed crimes against the people and the environment are brought to book and made to pay for their misdeeds, blame for oil thefts must go beyond the diversionary focus on the miniscule volumes taken up by bush refiners, major crude oil thieves must be uncovered, crude oil and gas volumes must also be metered as a basic requirement for transparency and accountability.
Engage in dialogue with the Ogoni people as to the time-scale and scope of actions to be taken to restore the environment. Issues highlighted in the Ogoni Bills of Rights and the UNEP report provides good bases for dialogue. This should be extended to the whole of Niger Delta.
Ensure that the actions to tackle the ecological disaster in the Niger Delta is not used as a job patronage for cronies or the boys, rather, the UNEP should play a principal oversight role in area of finance, ensure quality, build confidence in the process and most importantly tackle corruption.
Scrap HYPREP and set up an Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Agency to be domiciled in the Ministry of Environment and should not, by any means, be under the polluting Petroleum Resources Ministry. Equally, set up an Environmental Restoration Fund for Ogoniland, as recommended by the UNEP report.
Order Shell to urgently dismantle whatever remains of their facilities in Ogoniland along with toxic wastes dump in the territory. Order Shell to replace the Trans Niger Delta pipeline that carries crude oil from other parts of the region across Ogoni territory and ensure Shell fully implements the UNEP report.
But as we wait for this to happen, oil spill is still occurring daily with oil companies and communities trading blames on who is responsible.