SEEKING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

SEEKING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOR THE PEOPLE OF NIGER DELTA…

…ten years after the death of Mr. Ken Saro Wiwa.

My name is Mr. Sunny Ofehe, a Nigerian from the Niger Delta region. I am an Environmental and Human Rights Activist based here in The Netherlands. I want to use this medium to draw the attention of the government and the good citizens of this country to the plight of the people of Niger Delta ten years after the death of my mentor, playwright and environmentalist Mr. Ken Saro-Wiwa who was killed by the regime of the satanic late General Sanni Abacha in 1995.

As President and Founder of the Hope for Niger Delta Campaign, (HNDC) in The Netherlands, it is my civic responsibility to see that I steer a ship that will usher peaceful campaign for resource control, true federalism, political and environmental justice to the people of this region. While the States in the Niger Delta region are happy and proud to bear the crude oil that is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, we call on the Federal Government, oil and gas companies and indeed the entire nation to go beyond the legalistic realm in addressing the mirage of problems which oil bearing communities are daily subjected.

The restive situation in the Niger Delta can be blamed on heinous environmental crimes and breach of good environmental management by multinational oil companies. Over the past decades, the Niger Delta terrain has been overrun through deliberate over-exploitation carried out in total disregard of the basic principles of sustainable environmental management. On the extent of damage caused by the oil firms, from available information, close to 4,000 oil wells have so far been drilled in the Niger Delta and offshore areas since 1957. The 4,000 sites constitute potentially polluted sites at which drilling wastes, drill cuttings, oil sludge’s and various toxic hazardous chemicals have been disposed.

The region is exposed to a large proportion of the environmental degradation and health hazards, which normally accompany exploration and exploitation of crude oil. The frequency of oil spill in the region is no longer news as its negative impact on the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem is well known. This is one of the reasons behind the articulated struggle for resource control by the oil producing States, which is expected to enable the people of the region to take their destiny in their own hands. Various forms of ecological degradation exist throughout the region.

Decades of dictatorship, a breakdown of civil society, and a near complete lack of attention to environmental concerns have turned the Niger delta into one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems; an epicenter of human rights abuses and environmental injustice. However, since electing a civilian President in 1999 — its first in nearly two decades — Nigerians in the Niger Delta have embarked on a new campaign to seek environmental justice. Also, tackle the Herculean environmental disaster left in the wake of oil exploitation and the dislocated economic needs of the people of the region. Denied benefit of their wealth and exposed to devastating environmental pollution and degradation as exemplified in the prodigious flaring of associated gas per day with attendant environmental consequences on the health of the people.

Since inception of this organization, not many problems have been as intractable as those of the crippling environmental problems resulting from oil exploration and exploitation activities. This organization has watched with dismay the relative insensitivity and lack of transparency with which major stakeholders in the oil and gas industry attend to environmental issues. It is distressing to observe that over the years, mere lip service has often been paid to the problems of environmental pollution, degradation, river siltation, coastal erosion as well as extermination of wildlife, fauna and fiora which have become the fate of oil bearing communities in the Niger Delta sub-region

Recent survey declared by the Environmental Rights Action has urged the Federal Government to declare the Niger Delta region a disaster zone. An emergency water supply network was also asked to be deployed immediately, to cater for its population. They also urged the government to order oil corporations to halt discharge of toxic wastes into Niger Delta waters. ERA also wants government to direct the corporations to commence detoxification of the whole Niger delta waters, while compensation is worked out for the years of pains that the pollutants have inflicted on the local communities.

The patience of the people has been tried to the limit. Their mild protests and agitations for compensation and better environmental management/accounting were rebuffed. Opinion leaders were jailed. A few were murdered, with the implicit support of the major operators who should have shown understanding of their plight.

We of the HNDC in The Netherlands are appealing to the government and heart warming people of this country to help us in resolving the teething issues of underdevelopment, disenchantment, disempowerment and absolute neglect of the Niger Delta. We have wallowed too much in poverty and neglect. We have concluded plans to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa in Rotterdam come November this year. This will include lectures and awards to Nigerians and Non Nigerians who have worked hard for the development of peace and justice in the region.

The ceremony will also include roles to be played by the Dutch, Moroccans, Turkish and other African communities. If there is anyway you can support us as an individual or group, please do not hesitate to join us in the emancipation of the people of this region. You can send an e-mail to sunnyofehe@yahoo.com and for more details you can log on to www.nigerdeltacampaign.com .

Comrade Sunny Ofehe (sunnyofehe@gmail.com)

President & Founder

Hope for Niger Delta Campaign, (HNDC)

www.nigerdeltacampaign.com