Niger Delta: How Activities of Oil Firms Cause Impotence In Men- Protesting Natives

• Our Grouse With Shell, Agip-Activist

There have been protests on the streets of Port Harcourt, Rivers State and Yenaoga, Bayelsa State by youths and environmental rights activists who feel pained by what they call the destructive activities of International Oil Companies, IOCs, in the Niger Delta.

The protesters are more worried about moves by the companies to divest from their onshore operations to move offshore, without remediating the destructions they allegedly caused the people of the region, during the period of their operations.

On Tuesday, the activists were on the streets of Port Harcourt, and on Wednesday, their counterparts in Yenagoa took their turn, lambasting the IOCs for causing the men who live in the oil communities to become impotent.

One of the protesters, Mr Alagoa Morris, the deputy executive director of Environmental Defenders Network, EDEN, told TNN in an interview that “nobody is saying they shouldn’t leave our environment for us, after all Nigeria was better off with agriculture before they arrived with exploration of the resources God kept far in the belle of the ground and eventually started exploitation and furthering their capitalist drive.

“What those of us, individual and organisational levels are saying is that the divestment process is flawed; not applying internationally accepted best practices. Host communities were not directly informed or involved and they want to stealthily run away; leaving liabilities. Who will take care of the liabilities? That is the crux of the matter.”

Morris said even the companies that are buying over the divesting oil firms are also following the footsteps of the companies that have been in the region for decades. For example, Morris said Oando that bought over the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, is already going the way of Agip, ignoring the impacted communities in times of oil spill.

He said: It is unfortunate that Shell’s divestment of OML 29 to Aiteo around 2015 or so is still raising dust, as both companies are in court in connection with issues pertaining to the sales agreement. Apart from that, we witnessed the Aiteo Santa Barbara OML 29 Well 1 spill incident of 2021 which continued spewing crude oil into the mangrove environment for about a month.

“In that particular incident too, some are of the view that Aiteo lacked the technology in dealing with the situation; that was why it took that long to stop the spill. So, there are concerns about the capacity of those angling to buy over these ageing assets from those trying to sell and run to offshore.

“Also, we have seen from Oando that the indigenous companies might be toeing the unacceptable path of those divesting. NAOC had a track record of not responding positively to oil spill incidents by delayed response and setting spill impacted sites ablaze.

“The four oil spills that have occurred within Ogboinbiri environment along the Ogboinbiri/Tebidaba pipeline- three were as a result of equipment failure-indicating the fact that the oil pipelines have aged and due for replacement.

“And so, since Oando took over from Agip there has been oil spill on 5th September, 4th October and 15th November, 2024, from Oando pipeline. Up till now, only recovery of spilt crude oil has been done; no cleanup and no remediation. Rather, the spill impacted site went up in flames in the early hours of 9th December, 2024, copying a bad and negative environmental practice from Agip.

“All of these need to be addressed. Those intending to buy off the oil companies should tell Niger Deltans that they will do better than Agip and Shell on environmental issues. This is one aspect. Then, specifically, issues relating to environmental justice are behind our resistance and actions. The Niger Delta environment has suffered so much degradation owing to oil industry induced pollution and politics; at the expense of our communities and peoples.

“The UNEP report on Ogoni was just an entry point to clean up the entire Niger Delta. From the UNEP report, we have a feeling of how damaged our environment that have suffered oil spills are in term of denial of livelihood owing to loss of fecundity and health related challenges.

“This feeling was recently reinforced by the report of Bayelsa Oil and Environment Commission which pointed to a very bad prognosis; unless something is done and done quickly. The report confirmed that oil spill sites have not been cleaned up by oil companies, especially Agip and Shell. These uncleaned oil spill and gas leak impacted environment pose grave danger to the health of Bayelsans and their means of livelihood.

“And, don’t forget, experts indicated that life expectancy in the Niger Delta is lower than any other region in Nigeria. While it is 41/42 in the Niger Delta, it is 52/53 in other parts of the country. These is attributable to oil industry induced pollution, including gas flaring, oil spills and gas leaks.”

Morris said part of the reasons for the ongoing protests in parts of the Niger Delta was to compel the IOCs to undertake proper clean-up and pay adequate compensation to impacted communities before they can leave the region.

“We are demanding proper cleanup, remediation of all oil spill sites and adequate compensation. Pending cases in court need to be addressed too. These are a liabilities which should be contained first by the polluters who are trying to divest onshore and go offshore.

“A lot of actions have been taken by communities and the civil society, including petitions and media advocacy. And, if protests by marching on the streets as it was in Port Harcourt yesterday and today in Yenagoa is what we think should also be done to drive home the message  and for the entire nation and world to hear us; why not?

“At least, if this snowballs into litigation in the near future, buyers shouldn’t claim they never knew or heard about our demands or complaints.  It is better to go out and do something in the common interest than doing nothing.

“Our protest is directed to the authorities, especially The Presidency; not oil companies. We know there is regulatory capture in the oil industry here, but we are at this point directing the demands to the NUPRC and The Presidency because we know NUPRC had earlier said that the divestment process be put on hold owing to earlier actions by stakeholders.

“Sadly and unfortunately,  it appears Shell is trying to put pressure on The Presidency to allow it divest and run away from liability. We are saying Shell shouldn’t escape clearing the mess it created onshore. It should properly cleanup, remediate and pay compensation before leaving.”