FG yet to set up mechanism for Ogoni cleanup
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (left); Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike; and Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha during the launch of the clean-up of Ogoni land by the Vice President…yesterday at Bodo. PHOTO: GOVERNMENT HOUSE
Ten days after President Muhammad Buhari flagged off the cleanup of Ogoniland, the Federal Government is yet to put in place the requisite structures to commence the actual implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme report on Ogoniland.
The delay is already causing anxiety in Ogoni, as groups like the Ogoni Solidarity Forum and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) have called on government to, without further delay inaugurate the governance mechanisms for the implementation of the UNEP report.
Vice President Yemi Osibanjo had on behalf of President Buhari flagged off the cleanup of Ogoni at Bodo, in Ogoniland, on Thursday, but didn’t announce the requisite governance structures for the implementation of the cleanup.
The Federal Government is yet to establish two critical governance mechanisms, namely: the governing council and the board of trustees. Besides these two bodies, the government is also yet to advertise for the position of a project coordinator, who will oversee the day to day implementation of the cleanup.
MOSOP had called on the Federal Government to take concrete post-launch steps relating to the implementation of the UNEP environmental assessment report on Ogoniland, by inaugurating the governance mechanisms (the Governing Council, Board of Trustees and the Trust Fund) of the reformed Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Programme (HYPREP), to underline its publicly declared commitment to remediating and restoring the hydrocarbon degraded Ogoni environment.
The structures are supposed to be responsible for the co-ordination of activities and management of funds, hence the rejuvenation exercise cannot commence without these organs.
The coordinator of Ogoni Solidarity Forum, Mr. Celestine Akpobari, who has been actively involved in the negotiations leading to the cleanup flag off, told The Guardian that a lot of Ogoni people had waited in anticipation of the next stage.
“I was expecting they would have announced the governing council and board of trustee. It took long to ratify the list. The President and the Minister of Environment are committed to implementation of the Ogoni cleanup. The minister is a woman of integrity. She used to be a staff of the United Nations, and chairs lots of environmental groups in Africa. Her presence in government gives us hope of government’s commitment” he said.
Akpobari explained that the clean up will be predominately funded by Shell Petroleum Development Company, as the policy of polluter pay principle will be applied. According to him, the Shell might pay as much as ninety percent of the fund required for the clean up, while the government and donor agencies will each contribute five percent of the funds required for the clean up.
He revealed that save for the minister’s insistence, some vested groups opposed to the Ogoni clean up had mounted pressure on the government to commence the cleanup in other parts of the Niger Delta instead of Ogoni.
The Guardian gathered that the committee on the centre of excellence to determine where the centre will be set up has already submitted its report to the government.
The report recommended establishing three new institutions in Nigeria to support a comprehensive environmental restoration exercise.
UNEP proposed Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority to oversee implementation of the study’s recommendations and should be set up during a Transition Phase, which UNEP suggests should begin as soon as possible. The Authority’s activities, UNEP recommended should be funded by an Environmental Restoration Fund for Ogoniland, to be set up with an initial capital injection of US$1b contributed by the oil industry and the government, to cover the first five years of the cleanup project.
Government was asked to set up an Integrated Contaminated Soil Management Centre, to be built in Ogoniland and supported by potentially hundreds of mini treatment centres, to treat contaminated soil and provide hundreds of job opportunities. And finally, the report also recommends creating a Centre of Excellence in Environmental Restoration in Ogoniland to promote learning and benefit other communities impacted by oil contamination in the Niger Delta and elsewhere in the world.
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12 Comments
Propaganda govt launching a project without mechanism Looolz…I de laugh oo. When will this rogues stop this drama and be serious for ones
The dishonest buffoon thinks that everybody is as mentally weak as himself. Who will believe the commissioning of a project that is not in the National budget when the same government has told the world that it will be impossible to fully implement the 2016 budget? Nigerians will soon see that Buhari will not send even a shovel to Ogoni this year.
And if you are shamed? Your types carried rumor of Shell’s pull out which they have come out with a statement to debunk. What did you have to say to your ineffectual buffoon that could not touch a report concerning the clean up of his own backyard for 5yrs. You are very pathetic really.
What is not true remains a lie. Dr Goodluck’s didn’t touch the report neither did he lie about it. He probably thought that a restructured Nigeria will give a better opportunity to deal with the situation. He set up and financed the conference as a stepping stone but illiteracy and indolence has made it impossible for your likes and the Daura moronic element to realise that Nigeria will not continue to wobble for ever. We have chosen to take our resources, it isn’t a rumour. Last night blowup has left no one in doubt of our resolve. Never again shall we feed you and your parasitic states.
Shut up Osanebi, I am from Delta state like you and make it bold to tell you you are not recognized by the Ijaws as a bona fide Niger Deltan. Goodluck Jonathan was the worse leader to come out of the Niger Delta and his real brothers except the ones who individually benefited from his cluelessness know this fact.
Am who I am and not what someone else tells me or defines. Niger Delta is a geographic expression well defined in Wilkinson report before 1960. We were in Western Region then while Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa were in East, that report notwithstanding. However, the real issues remains the dependence of 36 states on the revenue derived from one zone and not about Ijaw, Itsekiri or Isoko. Many have claimed to be from Delta in responses to my views but their understanding of the realities on ground reveals either their dishonesty or ignorance or sadly both. You may chose to shut up but am knowledgeable enough not to.
I am well informed enough to know when politicians want to use me sheepishly to further oil their personal interests in the name of an agitation that has never represented me. As at July 2014 Delta state has received 13% derivation ONLY totaling N792.5b. We have FAAC allocations and internally generated revenues. Pray, Mr Osanebi, tell me if you such monies cannot turn the oil producing communities to mini Dubai if politicians didn’t ferry them into private accounts in the same Dubai and BV Islands. What were these monies meant for if not to give developments to the same communities you accuse the federal government of not developing today? Not everyone will be as naive as you to be used senselessly.
Compare your state to states in the north that didn’t receive a dime from derivation funds in terms of development and direct your anger appropriately. For your information, before you accuse me of being an impostor, I am a bona fide Deltan from Isoko and I also know from your name you are from Ukwuani. Receive sense as I have done and quit being used by selfish elements. The governors of the region must first show us what they have been doing with our monies before cajoling me into buying into any freedom fight.
What many of you do today can be described as someone who has a cat in his home that eats all his fish and still go bring more fish home without first dealing with the cat. Count me out.
Am gutted by the theory of showing what has been done with 13% derivation. On record, only the people of Delta took their former governor Ibori to court. When there was an attempt to stop Ibiori and Alams from 2nd term, it was OBJ who foisted them and later helped in sending them to jail. Some of you without history fail to know that you don’t give to someone what belongs to him. Nigeria approached Midwest to relinquish their 50% revenue to help finance the war of keeping Nigeria one. Ambrose Alli went to Supreme Court and got a judgement in an attempt to get back our revenue resources in 1981. Am on repentant that we must have the 50% back, thereafter look inward for thieves among us. There are thieves everywhere particularly in Nigeria, the more they have the opportunity, the more they steal hence non has stolen more than Tinubu. Today, he is a leader. Clean the thin film in your eyes to know when some is ought to give you and when you stretch out your hands to rightly claim what belongs to you if indeed you are from Isoko. Enough said!
I do not give a damn about Tinubu and whatever you posit about him here like many of you are wont to do. Smacks of politics to me. Today you can’t tell anyone Lagos is not better governed than Delta state. If it’s possible to extract the 13% we have from the political criminals we have in Delta state I will prefer it to giving them more to squander. You stay celebrating the thieves we have in government house whilst they loot everything yet you wanna jostle more for them? That’s gross insanity.
Lagos isn’t better governed than anywhere but that remains to your measuring ruler. It was Fashiola that admitted himself to have used N78M public fund to renew a $100 website. His reason was because, he isn’t a scientist. Call it politics, the world call stealing. However, be informed that the 13% allocation was through struggle and the struggle continues until the desire of the people of Niger Delta is achieved. No where in the World that resources are plundered in a country for others to share without doing any other thing. Not a single country in the world. Your existence won’t make a difference any way, the ideology for resource control has no parallel in Niger Delta.
Ideology of resource control mooted by thieves who siphon all to stash abroad, preposterous brother. You talk about Fashola who himself uploaded information of a 75m website online for you to see, the activities of Delta state government are only seen online maybe via Ogboni website. A state where the finance are in the control of a convicted criminal in jail abroad, current deputy governor was foisted on the people by a militant while the state assembly committee chairman on finance is still the daughter of same man in jail abroad. Same story goes for other ND states. God knows the enemies of the ND lie there in the ND and must be dismantled before any meaningful development can come to the masses.
He DID touch it… You just need to be in other places besides rear ends to see it.. But you can use any of the search engines available to find that out yourself…
What is being said now, and which you are shamelessly avoiding, is that this is looking like another RUSE where these charlatan rush to implement programs that they believe will increase their political capital while doing a VERY POOR JOB of ensuring that it it feasible or can be actualised.
Pathetic is what you see in the mirror whenever you look.
We will review and take appropriate action.