CAMPAIGN AGAINST OCEANIFICATION AND ECOLOGICAL HAZARDS IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA

CAMPAIGN AGAINST OCEANIFICATION AND ECOLOGICAL HAZARDS IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA

The Niger Delta Region is the host of Multinational oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria. It supplies about 90 percent of crude oil and gas resources, which form the flank of the Nigeria’s mono cultural economy. The region is riddled with paradoxes, for in spite of its colossal contributions to the economic viability of Nigeria; the region lacks the necessities of life while the ecological problems precipitated by oil and gas exploration activities.The Niger delta is the third largest wetland in the world covering about 700,000 square kilometers. The region spread over a number of delicate ecological zones, which include sandy coastal ridge barriers, saline mangroves, fresh water swamp and low land rain forests.

The mainstay of the people is subsistence fishing, farming and petty trading. The ecosystem is susceptible to seasonal changes and tidal influences hence natural phenomenon such as devastating flood, organic pollution, water hyacinth and oceanification, defined as the encroachment of the Atlantic Ocean are common occurrences. But what has added a dangerous dimension to all these hazards is gas flaring and frequent oil spillages resulting activities of Multinational oil Companies (MNC). More than ever, the oil belt conjures a magnified picture of instability occasioned by pervasive poverty, stagnation, environmental degradation and criminal neglect.

The complaints of the people are no doubt germane that there is a grand conspiracy between the structurally truncated and fiscally skewed federalism to deliberately frog leap the concept of sustainable development, vicious propaganda of "Youth Restiveness", Sabotage pipeline One major instrument in the hands of the MNCs is the vicious propaganda that the youths in the oil rich region engage in "Sabotage", "piracy". Pipeline vandalization and restiveness. And sadly too, the oil bloc and metropolitan Government in Europe and America have accepted the dummy without reservation. The propaganda of the Federal government has provided welcome excuses for pillaging and wanton militarization of the region. Thus, while the people are subjected to the most crude form of exploitation by the MNCs’ Shell Petroleum Development Company, Agip, Chevron Texaco and Mobil .The Federal Government in collaboration with metropolitan Europe and America administer measured doses of d! eath by installment through environmental degradation, deliberate impoverishment and militarization

The Niger Delta Question

It was Nengi James (2001) who aptly and graphically lamented the plight of the Niger Delta people. He said :

"For forty five (45) years the Nigerian State in collaboration with

Foreign Multinational Companies have been criminally carrying

out crude oil exploration and exploitation activities in the Niger

Delta region, leaving in their trail a tale of woe, exacerbated by

Environmental and ecological disaster, abject poverty, disease,

Illiteracy, hunger, unemployment and stagnation."

The above statement clearly shows that the mining of Crude oil, which started in Oloibriri in 1956 by shell, marked the genesis of the catastrophe in the Niger Delta people have had to go through. Since the intensification of oil exploratory and exploitation, in the Niger Delta Region, several oil-producing communities have been visited with grave consequences. Among these communities in the core Niger delta Region include Nembe,Etiema, Okoroba, Agrisaba, Oporoma, Olugbobiri,kalabilema, Ekowe, Imiringi, Biseni to mention just a few. Ecological disaster which has become common place include earth tremor resulting from seismic activities, dredging and oil spillages emanating from equipment failure, maintenance error, pipeline corrosion or engineering error and gas flaring which possesses great health hazard to the people living in the oil bearing communities.

The threat of Oceanification

Oceanificatiion is a term used to designate the encroachment of the Atlantic Ocean. Oceanification is a natural phenomenon but intensified by the MNC’s. Many communities in the coastal areas of Bayeslsa State have been washed away by the Atlantic Ocean such that towns and villages are threatened by imminent extinction. Twon -Brass an important historic town is at the verge of annihilation. Even the graveyard where scores of British victims of the Anglo -Nembe war (Akassa Raid) of the 1895 were buried not saved the scourge of Oceanification .Koluama, Sangana,Odioma, Fish-town, Okpoama, Famgbe, Swali, Agbere, Igbabelue, Anyama, Ayakoro etc are all being encroached upon by the Atlantic Ocean.

Oceanification is akin to desertification in the northern Nigeria and equity demands that both environmental problems be accorded urgent attention and equal government priority. The impact of Oceanification on the Niger Delta Region is grave. Whole communities are being washed away by the ocean thereby rendering millions of inhabitants homeless. Many people have been displaced as a result of the scourge. The situation has been aggravated by the invasion of the rubrics of oil blocs, operating off- shores. The devastation of the economic livelihood of the inhabitants has precipitated what may be referred to as the "survival dilemma in the region".

Mr. Nengi James - President of Bayelsa Youths Federation (BAYOF) championed the policy advocacy and campaign against the oceanificatiion and the need by the MNC’s. To make conscious efforts to curb the scourge, which constitutes a major threat to the survival of the Niger delta People the BAYOF president organized a workshop in 2002 to create awareness on the need to stem the tide of ocean encroachment.

The workshop was attended by Non - Governmental Organization (NGO’s), Community Based Organization (CBO’s), students market women, labour, leaders, representatives of traditional rulers. At the workshop, Nengi James buttressed the fact that there is an unholy alliance between the Federal Government and the MCN’s exploit the oil gas resources without sustaining the fragile ecology of the Niger Delta. This is evidenced in the lack of coastal road networks, coastal and marine management, electricity, potable water, shore protection and needed socio- economic and educational infrastructure. There are grandiose and fundamental breaches of the social and economic rights of the Niger Delta people , as provided in the United Nations Charter, the African union and the Africans to these charters .

Nengi James further remarked , the Niger Delta people Rights and Resources are abused and stolen the MNC’s repariate huge profits to the same countries that claim to be crusading for the Rights of the developing that claim to be crusading for the Rights of the developing countries in donating foreign aids in one breadth, and in another promoting inequity, exploitation, militarization and peddling negative propaganda. At the same time, the Western Capitalist Countries surreptitiously claim to be promoting human rights and entrenching democratic institutions around the world.

NENGI JAMES

President BAYOF

(Activist and Environmentalist)

November 2003