The Converge for Healing of Niger Delta Communities from Impact of Land grabbing, Extractivism, and Climate Change
Photo: Members of Okoroutip and Eteo community in a group photo.
By Ekemini Simon
Okoroutip community, a coastal area located in Ibeno local government area of Akwa Ibom State on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 played host to their kindreds from Eteo community in Eleme, Rivers State.
Although they are not kindred through blood relations, the travails they have faced for decades intricately connect them in their struggles and hopes.
Both communities, oil-rich, have been occupied by the transnational oil companies for their businesses for over six decades. However, this has come with heavy price for the communities.
It was on that backdrop that Health of Mother Earth Foundation held Farmers Community Town Hall meeting on “Land Right and Fight Against Land Grabbing”.
Communities Narrate Heart-wrenching Experiences
Although these communities were blessed with mangrove forest areas which hosted several unique plants, animals and served as haven to breed fishes, clean and large water bodies for fishing, their invaluable wealth has over the years been jeopardized by oil exploration and extraction.
The Secretary of Okoroutip community, Stephen Wilson said the community is frequently plagued by oil spills which kill fishes and also their eggs in the mangrove. ” These days, we rarely find fish to catch because of frequent oil spills. Fishing is our main source of livelihood. This has made us go hungry while the oil companies enjoy massive profits”, he noted.
He added that even the air they breathe is no longer safe due to incessant gas flares, thus calling for environmental justice.
“All we want is environmental justice. The companies and the government who get money from the companies should repair and restore our land to its original state. We want these oil companies to stop the gas flares. Our people are dying, and they don’t care about us”, Wilson added.
For Rhoda Peter, she is disturbed that oil extraction has further exacerbated their suffering. She said the Okoroutip community and the entire Ibeno local government area no longer drink from their streams since their water has become polluted by oil spills. Peter noted that the community’s sole source of clean water is the sachet water which is brought in from a nearby local government area and sold at N450 per bag.
On the part of Eteo community which had the highest level of oil spill in recent times on June 13, 2023 narrated how the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) evaded responsibility after the spill and how the government has not taken action for clean up or accountability.
Gabriel Olomi an indigene of the community said after the spill, NPDC only came in the night with armed men to seal their facility which caused the spill not minding that all the water bodies and fish were destroyed.
Relating the effort for justice by the community, he noted “We have written letters to the House of Assembly, to the Senate, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, and nothing has been done. We want them to bring our land to the original status so that we have back our source of livelihood. My place is like a dead zone now, no fishing activities, and no water to drink. We want a total removal of the dilapidated pipes so that such things will not occur again.”
Olomi also called for environmental restoration and financial compensation for people who have lost their means of livelihood to pollution.
Expert takes a Prognosis on the issues
Environmental Activist and Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Nnimmo Bassey said the real problem facing the Niger Delta communities are land grabbing, extractivism, and climate change which he said are interconnected.
Photo: Nnimmo Bassey speaking to the participants at the town hall.
On the issue of land grabbing, Bassey who holds a national honour of Member of Order of Federal Republic for Environmental Activism said one of the ways this is done is by how the Nigerian government claims ownership of minerals and petroleum resources in the subsoil.
He explained that lands can be grabbed for mining or for oil and gas extraction, ostensibly for the common good yet often without free prior informed consent.
The Environmental Expert said when the people are called stakeholders what it means in fact is that while the company and government share the profits, the communities own the pollution. Which is also why such pollution is hardly ever cleaned up.
He said land can also be directly grabbed through pollution. Offering examples, he said “A polluted stream by oil spill becomes the waste dump of the polluter and usage for fishing or potable water is lost. Secondly, dumping of wastes on a parcel of land takes that land out of the control of communities. Often pollution is not an accidental exercise. It is used to dispose of communities of their land and creeks and for the exploiter to assume ownership without accountability, responsibility or sense of respect of the owners.”
Bassey pointed out that the quest for development without questions also permits lands to be grabbed for infrastructural development adding that often such lands are taken without prior informed consent.
“Our culture and language are tied to our land and our liberation is connected to both. Our culture nourishes and empowers us to stand against commodification of Nature and of life. It helps us to defend what belongs to us. It draws boundaries that no one must cross. Our culture is our power!”, he added.
On extractivism, HOMEF’s Director explained that it is a concept that covers a complex of self-reinforcing practices, mentalities, and power differentials that promote and excuse socio-ecologically destructive modes of organizing life through colonialism, militarisation, depletion, and dispossession pointing out that it is a mode of capitalist exploitation.
The Environmental Expert added “Although extractivism is used mostly in terms of mining and oil extraction, it is also present in farming, forestry, fishing and in the provision of care. According to an entry in Wikipedia, “Extractivism is the removal of natural resources particularly for export with minimal processing. This economic model is common throughout the Global South and the Arctic region, but also happens in some sacrifice zones in the Global North in European extractivism.”
Bassey offered insight into the fact that extractivism destroys lands, pollutes the ocean and destroys water bodies and wetlands. He said it results and feeds on land grabs, sea grabs and is aiming at sky grabs with a rise in space enterprises.
Commenting on the last challenge- climate change, the Environmental Activist said the main challenge is that the world keeps a blind eye to what communities suffer in the oil fields and focus mostly on chasing carbon molecules in the atmosphere.
He said this lack of focus on both ends of the pipeline has left communities destitute by damaging their lands and water bodies and thereby destroying their food systems, economies and cultures.
Bassey noted that the gradual agreement to terminate the petroleum civilization, and the necessity of conserving nature and the means of community life implies that the time to remediate and restore lands damaged by oil and gas extraction has come. He insisted that this remediation and restoration must be accompanied by reparation.
He added “Our communities have suffered multiple impacts from climate change, extractivism and land grabbing. Persistent pollution has been the lot of our communities. Studies such as the UNEP assessment of Ogoni Environment and the recently published Bayelsa Environment and Oil Commission’s report titled Environmental Genocide all show the dire situations.
“Some communities have their soils contaminated with hydrocarbons to depths exceeding 10 meters. Waters are polluted with benzene and other carcinogens. The air is grossly polluted with a cocktail of noxious gases through gas flaring. These pollution do not readily disappear on their own. They must be consciously tackled and cleaned up. And the time for that is now.”
The HOMEF’s Executive Director listed Other impacts of climate change to include sea level rise, coastal erosion and salinization of the ocean which he said affect local livelihoods and equally provoke conflicts or displacement of communities.
Cultural Resistance identified as Pathway to Healing
Bassey offered insight to the fact that lands are healed when extraction and land grabbing are challenged and overcome.
He said a major tool for successful resistance is community happiness explaining that it is the source of their power since a happy community cannot easily be defeated.
But that is not the only tool. The environmental expert identified another key tool as community love.
He said “Our love for one another and our love for our land and culture. Love reinforces solidarity. Beyond love, we must build stubborn hope as an antidote to despondency. Hope empowers action. It emboldens.
“Boldness empowers telling of truth, including the reportage of destructive extraction and land grabbing. The oppressed must remain emboldened by the knowledge that while the rich worry about the end of the world, workers and exploited communities worry about the end of the day and have deep stakes on what happens tomorrow.”
What is more, Bassey said to resolutely stand against land grabbing and extractivism and also build resilience against climate change, communities need Care and Repair Teams (CARTs) as key agents for overcoming trauma, stressors and illnesses.
He said these teams can also be agents to press for remediation, restoration, repairing and reparation hence the demands and their attainment require the use of every tool of cultural resistance.