Clean Your Mess before Divesting – ERA/FoEN Tells IOCs in Niger Delta
By Ekemini Simon
The Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has called on international oil companies (IOCs) in the Niger Delta region to restore the environment, health and livelihoods their extraction has caused before divesting.
The call was made by the Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, Barr Chima Williams during a webinar on ‘International Oil Companies’ Divestment Campaign in Africa’ organized by ERA/FoEN and Africa Climate Justice Collectives (ACJC), as part of the event to mark the African Peoples Counter COP (APCC).
According to the Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, against the global concept of divestment, what the IOCs are actually doing under the cover of divestment is sell their land and shallow water assets to move into deep water operations where it will be difficult to monitor their activities.
He explained that the skewed divestment of the IOCs began when they noticed that victims of oil company abuses have begun exploring the option of seeking justice in the home countries of the companies and justice given through courts in their country.
Williams insisted that IOCs divestment is simply a strategy for them to dodge accountability and ecological justice for the several years of ecocide in the Niger Delta.
The Executive Director added ” For you to divest, don’t put others in harm’s way. They cause harm through the canals they have created in the sea, oil and gas pollution which has destroyed the environment and livelihood.
“Divestment in the real concept is good. But the way it is done in Africa is turning the concept upside down. It is deceitful and a fallacy.
“You cannot leave when there are legacy problems created. You must correct what you have destroyed. Clean your mess before you divest. You cannot divest and leave the people worse than you met them before you invested.”
He decried the gaps discovered in the divestment waves especially as indigenous companies which these IOCs sell their assets to lack the capacity to handle those assets in line with international best practices.
Earlier, Maimoni Mariere Ubrei-Joe, Coordinator of the Climate Justice, and Energy Program, Friends of the Earth Africa, said there is urgent need for relevant authorities to interrogate the divestment of the IOCs.
He noted that all divestment must come with a decommissioning and abandonment plan and also a clear roadmap on restoration.
Ubrei-Joe who recalled that ERA/FoEN were among the first organisations that started global divestment campaigns said their call was for extractive companies to divest into renewable energy and not try to move away from the scrutiny of communities into the deep waters.