Divestment: Why Oil Communities will be stranded in Niger Delta – HOMEF Warns
… Charges Communities, Stakeholders on Way Forward in Energy Transition
By Emmanuel Sampson
A Non Governmental Organisation, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has predicted a possibility of Niger Delta communities being left stranded with pollution and a degraded environment due to the new wave of divestment driven by oil and gas companies.
Divestment driven by oil and gas companies in the Niger Delta is manifesting in the companies selling off their onshore assets and moving deeper offshore. In Akwa Ibom State, ExxonMobil is pushing through the controversial sales of four of its assets to Seplat Energy.
Speaking in Uyo on Monday, September 26, 2022 during an interactive session with stakeholders tagged “Blue Economy, Divestment and the end of fossil age”, the Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey said the current wave of divestment is evoking serious concerns in the Niger Delta especially as the oil and gas companies divesting are leaving behind burden of environmental degradation.
He explained that when the multinational oil companies move further into the deep offshore, there will be little or no accountability on their pollution hence worsening the environmental degradation already experienced in oil communities.
Bassey stated “This move will pose a problem because already polluted communities will be left with the burden of pollution, health issues, and environmental degradation all caused by the activities of these divesting companies.
” If this move happens without the cleaning and restoration of impacted communities, these communities will be left stranded with pollution and a degraded environment. This move as well as the Blue Economy concept – if enforced – will impact mostly on community people who are predominantly fishers and farmers.”
The Environmental Activist who called for adequate environmental auditing of the Niger Delta insisted on restoration before divestment.
The HOMEF Director, called on oil and gas multinationals operating in the Niger Delta region to come up with adequate transition measures that would provide a better and a healthy lifestyle for the host communities after their exit.
Bassey explained that pressure is built to redirect the energy system away from the one dominated by hydrocarbons toward one in which low-carbon sources play the lead role.
He noted that a good number of oil and gas companies in the developed societies have already set net-zero-emissions targets to de-carbonize their operations and value chains away from oil and gas to other renewable sources of energy, which according to him African leaders should follow suit.
He stressed that the Niger Delta region where oil and gas resources of the nation is domiciled has become the epicentre of climate change issues due to heavy gas flaring.
He decried the fact that oil multinationals have not provided the host communities with adequate compensation or provide them with basic amenities to improve their standard of living despite destroying their lives through oil and gas exploration.
The Environmental activist further pointed out that many oil and gas companies are currently reevaluating their strategic responses to the energy transition, hoping to go beyond de-carbonizing their own operations to reduce their emissions in the nearest future.
He offered insight to the fact that HOMEF as an ecological think tank and an advocacy organisation promoting environment/climate justice and food sovereignty in Nigeria and Africa, believe in the rights of Mother Earth, and the need to equip communities to push back oppression for justice in the environment at all levels of policy engagement.
In their separate presentations, Mr. Tijah Bolton-Akpan of Policy Alert and Mr. Ken Henshaw explained that Africa has suffered more of the climate change than the Europeans due to poor assessment by the International Oil Companies (IOCs). They disclosed that corruption is what is keeping Niger Delta region in darkness for over six decades without any meaningful development.
The duo noted that gas flaring and exploration has caused various diseases among local dwellers as the result of continuous extraction of oil by the IOCs without proper Environmental Impact Assessment of the host communities.
Giving insight on divestment moves, a way forward for impacting communities, Mr. Isaac Osuoka outlined the Niger Delta Manifesto for Socio-ecological Justice and urged host communities to constantly remain supportive of HOMEF’s move to change the narrative.
Osuoka said it was the key way to go if people affected must witness the much desired development and stressed that with God and unity of purpose, no hurdle would be insurmountable.