The story of Nigeria’s oil wealth started from present-day Bayelsa State in 1958, more than 60 years ago, at Oloibiri in Ogbia Local Government Area. That was before the attainment of Nigeria’s independence. Oloibiri was where Nigeria first struck crude oil in commercial quantity and opened the floodgates for the petrodollars being harnessed from the resource.
Nearly 70 years later, how to remediate the impact of devastation caused by the oil exploration is still a moot point for many. The oil companies engaged in the exploration, in most cases, glossed over internationally acceptable best practices in their operations, thus leaving in their trail conditions that have turned against the locals where the resource is found and mined.
Today, the federal government is almost on its knees begging the people of Ogoni to acquiesce to the recommencement of oil exploration in their area because of the previous unpalatable experience of the Ogonis while oil was being mined in their environment.
It would be trite to replay the experience of the Ogonis, but the injustice meted out to them amidst oil exploration in their area and the outcry it provoked was what attracted the investigation by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which produced a damning report on oil activities in Ogoni and its grave socio-economic and health impact on the people.
But while efforts are being made to clean up Ogoniland and remediate the devastated environment as prescribed by UNEP, the authorities may have yet prepared a fertile ground for another Ogoni experience in Bayelsa State.
For nearly 70 years, communities in Bayelsa have lived with the vicissitudes of oil exploration and exploitation. They have cried without anyone to avail them succor. Civil society organizations and the media have also helped to amplify their cry for justice to no avail.
The international oil companies and the federal government, which are beneficiaries of the revenue accruing from the oil activities, rather than being responsive, wrapped themselves up in insensitivity, while the devastation continued.
Apparently sensing the looming danger if nothing was done, the immediate past Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, on March 26, 2019, inaugurated the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission (BSOEC). The commission, chaired by the former Archbishop of York in the United Kingdom, Lord John Sentamu, was tasked to assess oil pollution in the state, document its environmental and human impact, and propose a framework for remediation and future prevention.
The commission was basically set up to generate further tangible evidence in case of any attempt by the IOCs and government to hide under the subterfuge of no verified report or data to prove the Bayelsa experience. After four years of intensive investigation and research, the commission, on October 28, 2024, submitted its report to the Bayelsa State government.
The report titled: “An environmental genocide” detailed the severe human and environmental devastation caused by decades of oil extraction in the state. It provided overwhelming evidence of pollution, highlighting the chronic failure of oil companies to prevent spills and properly respond to them.
“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 the 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,” the report noted in part.
Read also:
- Senate passes Bill for Federal Oil and Gas Hospital in Delta State, sponsored by Senator Joel-Onowakpo
- Imo: Oil communities task gas company on completion of abandoned rural roads
- ‘TotalElf’s East Africa, Trans-Saharan oil and gas pipelines will worsen climate crisis’
Among the key recommendations of the commission is a concerted international action to generate and invest at least $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 lay the foundation for the state’s just transition towards renewable energy and alternative livelihoods.
In November 2024, Governor Douye Diri took the report of the commission to President Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, calling for the federal government’s action on the report. Governor Diri solicited the intervention of the country’s leader in addressing the environmental hazards plaguing the state, saying they were affecting its economy and causing serious health challenges for the people.
Interestingly, President Tinubu received the report without making any commitment to federal action on the report. The international oil companies, on their part, devised a means of avoiding responsibility by systematic divestment into offshore operations, leaving their onshore environment in ruins.
Apparently peeved by the inaction by both the federal government and the IOCs on the life threatening situation posed by the unattended polluted environment, the king of Ekpetiama Kingdom in Bayelsa, Bubaraye Dakolo took the initiative and dragged both the federal government, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and its successor, Renaissance Africa Energy Company to court claiming damages to the tune of $1 billion and insisting that SPDC should be made to pay reparations for degrading the environment before divestment.
The king, in his statement of claim in his petition, averred that “this case is grounded in the extensive findings of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission (BSOEC) composed of experts from Europe, North America, and Africa. The commission revealed that Bayelsa State suffers from some of the worst oil pollution levels in the world, resulting from the operations of Shell and other international oil companies/ Over 1.5 million people in Bayelsa are impacted by hydrocarbon pollution.”
Sadly, the Tinubu-led federal government, instead of taking decisive action to circumvent a repeat of the Ogoni experience in Bayelsa, is headlong into how to renew his mandate for another four years, even when Nigerians are reeling under the pains already inflicted by the administration.
Perhaps, the government is waiting for the rise of another Ken Saro-Wiwa in Bayelsa and the cataclysmic situations that could erupt before taking action. King Dakolo may just be the one.
