For two hours, I entered into a high-level deliberation with a high-profile official of the National Emergency Management Agency. (NEMA). Understandably, our focus was on the growing emergency situations in the terror-ravaged North-east of Nigeria. We also delved into the reported malnutrition of hundreds-of-thousands of internally-displaced Nigerians, especially children, which at the last count has led to over a few dozen deaths. A story even circulated that some desperately hungry internally-displaced persons resorted to “eating raw grasses to survive.”

He showed me evidence that his office has so far spent virtually 85 per cent of their resources just to feed the internally-displaced persons in Maiduguri alone.

He shockingly admitted that NEMA only drops off the relief materials with the state administration, but that thieving officials steal those vital foodstuffs. He, nevertheless, expressed shock at the expanding emergencies in other sections of the North-east.

I then asked him if his office is getting ready to provide relief materials, incase emergency situation emerges in the soon-to-be-launched military exercise, ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’.

He smiled like a crocodile, and stated emphatically that he has no answer.

The above enriching encounter brings me to the environmental impacts and destruction that have happened in the Niger Delta as a result of the bombing of pipelines by a range of militant groups who claimed that they are seeking to draw President Muhammadu Buhari’s attention to the pathetic human and environmental rights’ violations of the people of Niger Delta. I asked this question because the statutory agency for clean-up of the polluted Niger Delta environment known as the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), established by Act of the National Assembly in 2006, has become moribund and non-existent due to lack of creative enterprise and efficient organisational and managerial skills of the hierarchy charged with the responsibilities of running the institution. Again, the quantum of crude oil spill in that region that has for 53 years consistently given Nigeria her entire or, at least, largest percentage of externally generated revenue is mind-boggling. Below are time-lines of attacks on oil facilities as captured by the media in recent times

*On February 10, 2016: At about 1:30 am, the group claimed to have attacked the Bonny Soku Gas Export Line. The line conveys natural gas to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas plant and an independent power plant at Gbaran in the Niger Delta.

*February 14: It claimed attack on SPDC’s giant underwater Forcados 48-inch Export Pipeline at the Forcados Export Terminal.

*February 19: At about 3:30 am, blew up the Clough Creek Tebidaba Agip Pipeline Manifold in Bayelsa State.

*May 4: Attacked the Chevron Valve Platform located at Abiteye. This platform is reportedly the most significant platform for Chevron Nigeria, as it serves as the main connecting point where all other platforms link up and it is a fulcrum to Chevron BOP and the Chevron Tank Farm.

*May 5: Launched a coordinated attack on the Chevorn Well D25 in Abiteye and blew up major pipelines.

*May 13: Bombed a Chevron pipeline at two separate spots near a military location

*May 20: It attacked the Escravos Gas Pipeline, a facility of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in Delta State.

*May 25: Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) struk Chevron main electricity feed-pipeline to the Escravos Tank Farm at Ciera creek in Warri South-west Local Government Area of Delta State.

*May 27: Destroyed the Nembe 1, 2 and 3 Brass-to-Bonny trunk lines belonging to Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Bayelsa State, at about 2.15am.

*May 27: Blew up NNPC Gas and Crude trunk lines in Warri at 11.45 pm

*May 31: Blew up Chevron Oil Well RMP 23 and RMP 24 believed to be the company’s highest swamp-producing oil wells, at about 3:44 am.

*June 1: It carried out twin-attacks on wells RMP 23 and RMP 24 owned by Chevron Nigeria Limited. Both wells are located at Dibi in Warri South-west Local Government Area of Delta State.

*June 2: About 2.00 am, it bombed the Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba Crude oil pipelines in Bayelsa State.

*June 3: At about 3:00 am, it blew up the SPDC Forcados 48″ Export line in Delta State, because the company went ahead with repair works against its warning.

*June 3: At about 3:30am, blew up Brass to Tebidaba Crude oil line in Bayelsa State.

The above cases are only but a fraction of all the cases of bombing of pipelines. Put these statistics together with the activities of oil bunkering gangs, and other evil persons stealing crude oil from the Niger Delta, what will emerge is that it may take significant resource and expertise to clean up the mess. With the dwindling fortunes of the country under the current administration, it is mystifying to say exactly where the resources will come from, especially since the bombing campaign of the militants in the Niger Delta is said to have crippled over 60 per cent of crude oil exploration activities in the region.

Long before the coming of Niger Delta Avengers, there were attempts by the National Assembly to amend the relevant sections of the Act setting up NOSDRA to make it much more effective, but the inefficient managers who still govern that sleeping agency did nothing to ensure successful passage. Crude oil spills and gas flares by multinational companies actually precipitated the earlier agitation by Niger Delta environmental rights campaigners, which over the past few years attracted considerable global attention, with Shell and Chevron coming under intense scrutiny in some recent European courts' decided cases.

But with these series of attacks, it is now left to imagination how messy the Niger Delta is right now, coupled with the existence of a Federal Government-funded agency that is inefficient.

We had submitted a position paper to the National Assembly Committee on Environment, as follows: “Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), a registered civil society group with well over 1,000 members drawn from all parts of the country, hereby endorse the move by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and by extension the National Assembly, to amend the enabling Act setting up the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (Establishment Act) of 2006, to reflect the realities of our time and to empower the body to protect our environment.”

Crude oil spill has consistently occupied the front-burner as the most disturbing environmental problem in the oil-rich, but heavily neglected Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Once we were informed of this proposed amendment, we spent the better part of last week asking some senior high school students if they are conversant with the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, and majority of our respondents said they have heard about the activities of this agency charged with the duty of policing oil spill in Nigeria, but they also wondered why oil pollution has continued making it necessary for some fishermen from the crude oil-producing communities in Niger Delta to proceed to a Dutch Court room to challenge Shell Petroleum for damaging their environment and livelihood through oil spills. The crude oil spill agency (NOSDRA), that is only interested in paying its management huge salaries but do nothing to effectively carry out its mandate, has done more harm than good.

On December 18, 2012, the platform I head submitted a position paper on how to reorganise and re-energise NOSDRA. I think taking a peep into that submission will help to call the attention of the National Assembly and the Federal Government of Nigerian on the need to restructure NOSDRA. This government agency, according to respondents, needs to more actively carry out advocacy activities on their key mandates, because of the indisputable fact that crude oil spill is a major environmental issue afflicting most oil bearing communities. The respondents supported the decision to amend the enabling Act to give more powers and functions to the agency.

Only recently, the Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka and the former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, lamented the lack of response by the Federal Government to effectively compel indicted multinational oil companies to commence clean-up exercise around Ogoniland in River State gravely affected by oil-spill, which even attracted the attention of the United Nations.

Remarkably, President Muhammadu Buhari has commenced the process of cleaning up Ogoniland.

But on a much more worrying scale, this writer recall that Mrs Pauline Tallen, former minister of state for environment was of the view that government cannot afford not to carry out the statutory obligation of ensuring that whenever there is a spill, the environment must be promptly cleaned up to save the inhabitants from the environmental hazards.

Her words: “Environmental issues have perhaps attracted more lively discussions than any scientific topics these recent years. This is because man suddenly realised that his dirty habits are wreaking a terrible havoc on his ecosystem: acid rain, ozone layer depletion, deforestation and desertification, oil spills, erosion, global warming, solid waste and toxic chemicals. These contaminants, pollutions and toxicants in forms of solid, liquids and gasses that are spewed daily by anthropogenic activities, are threatening the very fragile fabric, and have exposed our very tenuous existence and this hitherto beautiful world.”

The Federal Government, in line with global best practices, has established the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency under the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (establishment) Act of 2006, to handle the critical environmental consequences of oil spill and to enforce relevant laws guarding against oil spillage in the oil-producing communities. Government must therefore reform the leadership of that agency now. This writer is of the considered position that the current administration is, therefore, expected to be in the vanguard of the advocacy for adequate funding and comprehensive legal empowerment of NOSDRA, so that these disturbing cases of oil spills in the oil-producing communities are effectively tackled. First, the right caliber of management team must be put in place to drive the process. We have prior to the coming of the current inefficient managers now at the helms of affairs in NOSDRA, independently verified, from different documented sources, that since its establishment the body has claimed to have discharged the fundamental mandates embodied in the enabling Act, which are to:

Establish a viable national operational organisation that ensures a safe, timely, effective and appropriate response to major or disastrous oil pollution;

Identify high-risk areas, as well as priority areas for protection and clean up;

Establish the mechanism to monitor and assist or, where expedient, direct the response, including the capacity to mobilise the necessary resources to save lives, protect threatened environment, and clean up to the best practical extent of the impacted site;

Maximise the effective use of available facilities and resources of corporate bodies, their international connections and oil spill co-operatives: that is, Clean Nigeria Associates (CAN),in implementing appropriate spill response;

Ensure funding and appropriate and sufficient pre-positioned pollution combating equipment and materials, as well as functional communication network system required for effective response to major oil pollution;

Provide a programme of activation, training and drill exercise to ensure readiness to oil pollution preparedness and response, and the management and operational personnel; and

Co-operate and provide advisory services, technical support and equipment for purposes of responding to major oil pollution incident in the West African sub-region, upon request by any neighbouring country, particularly where a part of the Nigerian territory may be threatened.

Government is statutorily obliged by Section 20 of the Constitution to protect the environment from oil spill. Section 20 of the Constitution provides: “The State SHALL protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air, and land, forest and wildlife of Nigeria.” Conversely, the international convention on civil liability for oil pollution Damage (1992) and the international oil pollution compensation funds convention (IOPC), [1992] are major global legal framework that specifically prescribes measures on how to ensure environment that is relatively free of oil spill.

Article 1 of the general provisions of the International Convention on Oil Pollution, Preparedness, Response and Co-operation of 1990, states: “Parties undertake, individually or jointly, to take all appropriate measures in accordance with the provision of this convention and the annex thereto, to prepare for and respond to an oil pollution incident.”

Writing under the general theme of Oil Spill Management in Developing Nations, Moller and Santer stated that there is a widespread preoccupation with specialised equipment. It is often forgotten that successful oil spill response is primarily dependent on a realistic attitude and basic organisation.

•RIGHTSVIEW appears on Wednesdays, in addition to special appearances. The Columnist, a popular activist, is a former Federal Commissioner of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission and presently National Coordinator of Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA). He can be reached via 08033327672 (sms only) or via doziebiko@yahoo.com

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