Unlike President Donald Trump of the United States and Ibrahim Traore of Africa’s Burkina Faso, who are pursuing people-centred policies and using their resources to improve the living standards of their citizens, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu seems bent on only giving Nigerians platitudes. But in this exclusive interview with EDU ABADE, Executive Director of Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN), Barrister Chima Williams in Benin City Edo State, the award winning environmentalist, insists that in spite of the many challenges facing Nigeria, there is hope in the horizon for citizens of the country
The Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN) has achieved a lot in a short time to the extent that recently you were given an award in your community. But to start with, how do you rate environmental groups in Nigeria in their quest to achieve a sustainable environment? Are you satisfied with the work they are doing in terms of creating awareness on environmental issues?
Thank you for recognizing our little contributions and for congratulating me on the recognition by my people as an environmental ambassador for communities. Now, straight to the question, of course, it is not a secret that environmental protection and defense Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Nigeria are very few, extremely few! And that may derive from the fact that the environment subsector is a highly technical sector. And it is also a sector that is not easily manipulative. So, you deal with real-life issues. It is either you are doing it or you are not doing it. And once you are doing it, it is feasible. And then, it is for those that have the guts to go extra miles. Even though they are visible, everybody thinks that we know them and everybody thinks that we see them all the time. But, what you see in the environment, if you want to campaign for environmental justice, it is beyond what you see. You go beyond to assume what is under the environment to understand the challenges of the environment and to tinker with ideas on how to bring justice to everybody, because everybody depends on the environment. So, it is not a one-sector issue for campaign, but, even at that, it is a problem and it is a challenge that the environment sector is in deficit of actors for environmental justice.
That brings me to the issue of Ogoni Cleanup, which has been on the ground since the time of the immediate past administration. Now that issue has lasted for almost a decade, what is your assessment of the Ogoni Cleanup, as we speak, almost 10 years after?
You see, I always analyze the Ogoni environment, you know, remediation process from the angle of the fact that we will be deceiving ourselves and we will not be telling ourselves the truth if we say that nothing is happening. Something definitely is happening, but the pace at which the things are happening is unacceptable. Yes. Because with the speed of events geared towards the recovery of the Ogoni lands, you know, through remediation activities, is such that even within the last ten years, you know, that is between the last administration and now, a lot of other issues have cropped up alongside the already existing ones. While we are talking of, you know, the space that has been cleaned up, there are new spills, like we see the blowouts and the oil spills that occur in Ogoni lands almost on a regular basis.
So, it continues to cover whatever little efforts have been made. Whereas, if it had been taken at once, like the way the American government took the issue of the Gulf of Mexico explosion, you know, at one fell swoop, you take it, let it cost whatever resources and Nigerian government can recover whatever funds they spend in cleanup of Ogoni lands from the multinationals. Polluters must pay principal. So, you have destroyed, you don’t have to wait for Nigerian government to use Nigerian taxpayers’ money to remediate and clean up your mess, whereas you have carted away your petrodollar profits. It is something that, yes, work is going on, but the pace at which it is going on, and all that the government, especially this present administration, is giving us is platitudes, just platitudes. And making us feel that something can happen or something will happen. We are looking forward to this. When will this start happening? This is almost two years down this administration. And they met the Ogoni cleanup process already going on and they knew that Nigerians were crying that the exercise is slow. And now, even their pace is slower than it was. Because it is just talk, talk and talk. We have not seen sustainable action as far as the cleanup exercise is concerned.
So, if that is the case, when the federal government has not succeeded in doing the re-cleanup exercise, is it right to start talking of resuming oil activities again in Ogoniland that has been devastated over the years?
It’s a traumatic experience for the Ogoni people and supporters of justice for Ogoni lands or the environmentalists to be talking about resumption of oil activities in Ogoni lands when the issues have not been addressed. We want to cover up everything in the name of politics and our fourth generation to run the national economy. But I think that there are issues on ground that if they are addressed, nobody in his right senses will now begin to talk about resumption of oil operation in Ogoni lands. If that is going to be beneficial to the Ogoni people, to the Nigerian people and will not cause greater harm to the environment. Because whatever you do, so long as you destroy the environment, you destroy the people’s sources of livelihood and you destroy the people’s longevity. And because the natural things that help them live long have been destroyed, it shortens their life span. No wonder that life span of an average Niger Delta is shorter than the life span of people from other parts of the country. So, for us, we have always said it and we have told the Federal Government that nobody will say don’t resume oil operation in Ogoni, but the issues that created the problems have not been addressed.
So, what should be the final word on the supposed, purported resumption of oil activities in Ogoni lands as of now?
The point is that the root cause of the problems that led to stoppage of oil operation in Ogoni lands from 1993 till date cannot be swept under the carpet. They have to be looked at holistically. Who are the new oil operators that will be on ground? What are their track records of engagement, operational activities and conduct? What can they show Nigerians and the Ogoni that makes them think that they will do things differently? Now, can we look at having a policy, law or regulation on oil operation in Ogoni lands, specifically using that as a metaphor for the entire Niger Delta region that looks at one stakeholder’s ownership of the oil companies and their activities? So, what will be the equity holding of the host communities in the structural ladder and governance of the oil companies that will be operating there? What will be the benefits derivable by the host communities? Of course, we know about 13% derivation being managed by the states. And the state apparatus or state structure may be populated or led by people that do not host any oil activity in their communities. So, they won’t understand the pains and the agonies of the communities hosting these facilities. Again, what will be the take away of the oil bearing communities that can transform their communities to the Dubais, United Arab Emirates, Kuwaits of this world and the rest of them that are oil producing communities and countries like Nigeria? What are the regulatory mechanisms put in place to ensure that defaulters are held accountable?
Away from Ogoni issues, the country has been suffering periodic flooding. Now the rains are already here and NAIMET’s predictions, from all indications, the government has not even thought of any proactive approach to curtail flooding when it happens again. Are there ways, indeed, we can avert flood disasters in future?
Definitely! Flood disasters like every other, whether natural and human-induced activities, can be checked. So, why are we often prone to flood disasters? Apart from the incident of climate change, which makes predictability of the weather conditions inaccurate, what are we doing as humans to protect ourselves? Because this is not like, how do we adapt to flooding? But how can we stop it from happening? How can we avert it? Now, one is that we know the routes, the major flood routes across the country. Two, Metrological Agencies of Nigeria always make forecasts on weather and rainfall patterns every year. Thirdly, is that we have the human element in the push on flood disasters by human activities. When we, in most cases, do land recovery, we push the waters away and do land reclamation. And then when you push the waters and reclaim the land, what do you cause eventually? You cause a blockade of the water flow system. And once you block the water channels, what happens? Water must find its way. And number four is that Nigeria, you know, is a country that has sectors or sections that are already below the sea level. And if you have a sector that is below sea level, what do you think you should be doing to protect the communities around them? You do proper embankments. I mean watershore embankments along the rivers. And of course, even rivers are like engines. You maintain the engine of your car. It gives you good service and good performance. So, the same way, if you maintain the rivers through desilting, through canalization, to create routes that when water, you know, overflows, the river banks. It can have a way that is controlled. So, another thing that is just coming to my mind is that this issue of dam collapsing in Sokoto and a dam overflowing in Cameroun and all that.
Do you think that building more dams in the country can help curtail floods in the country?
Well, in fact, you don’t cure one problem with another problem. You know, big dams on their own are environmental terrorists, because everywhere a dam collapses, who suffers? While flood water caused by collapsed dams keeps overflowing, the entire surrounding environment suffers. And when you build large dams, of course, you have to feed it with water. And that leads to compressing the water of the space to get the speed that will generate the energy value. So, but if we build small dams, hydro powers and then we do adequate canalization, there is something that we are not taking advantage of like, there are areas that you cannot build them. I understand you cannot build them everywhere. So, like, in Benin City, where I live, when it rains, the streets get flooded. Can you build dams there? No! But what you can do is that you can do canalization by building solid gutters that direct the water to a harnessing point. We can also build a storm water project, where the waters get to and then push all the water from the streets, which finally empty into a reservoir built to collect such water. Such collation points can be turned into a mini-dam or mini-hydropower generating project. Two, is that it can act as a reservoir to gather the waters for other activities. Like, for instance, we know that the beverage companies in this country also contribute to the destruction of our water bodies. Therefore, when you gather the water, you can sell the waters gathered in such reservoirs to the beverage companies, who will refine the waters and use for their production activity. In that, you save the environment, you create job opportunities that sustain local livelihood and you generate additional resources to run the state economy.
That brings me to the next question. You know, in this country, we have a lot of water resources. So, it’s like water is everywhere, but people don’t access good water to drink. Which is why I was thinking that, how we can make the government and Nigerians to have access to clean and affordable water?
Well, if our governments are serious, because lately, there have been a lot of activities on water and what we have come to know is that the government is not even serious about the water sector. Rather, they are interested in privatizing water and harnessing the water resources, and putting it in a potable, usable way and then transfer the burden to the citizens and this is why we in EDEN joined other like-minded groups to do the dry taps report to push for provision of potable drinking water for Nigerians. And the picture, as we saw it, explains that for a very long time, our governments have since abandoned the responsibility of providing drinkable water for citizens. In other words, in some of the states like Lagos and other states that we looked at, a lot of funds have been appropriated for water infrastructure, but the waterworks are not working. And so, if the monies appropriated for water resources are not used, where did the money go to? Private pockets of course! Therefore, we should be asking two questions. If Nigerians are serious, we should be asking our governments, where is our money, where is the water? So, when you appropriate, through budgetary allocation, monies for water infrastructure, yet, citizens don’t see water to drink, what does that tell you? Even some scenarios were painted, where water authorities, corporations use vendors popularly called Meiruwa to supply them water. Does it not show the level of collapse and decay in the water sector?
On the global scene, when President Donald Trump was campaigning, he came up with Drill America, Drill mantra which means, to me, the fossil fuel industry will still be around for a while. Do you see that as a challenge for future climate justice?
You see, there is one thing I like about Donald Trump for-he is not a pretender. He knows what he thinks is good for Americans and he goes for it and he cares less about what others think. And that is how leadership is supposed to be. Now, I say this as an environmentalist. I know that when it comes to environment, Trump is not my friend, because he does not protect the environment, his is just out to trap the resources in the environment and make it available to make life more comfortable for Americans. So, can our own governments begin to think that way? If as it is happening in the Niger Delta, the benefits of oil extraction were made available to the citizens and operational methodologies are checked, it won’t hurt the citizens. Because even when Trump says Drill, America, Drill, you cannot have an oil spill in America that will go unchecked and you cannot have gas flares in America that will run beyond the EPA-provided levels. But here, our own governments are interested in satisfying the oil companies and then stealing what should have gone to the people. And so long as their pockets are well pillaged, the rest of the people can go to blazes. This is the contrast between Trump and other leaders. And that is why for me, in Africa, my number one President is Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. And I’m proud of him. He is focused on using the resources of the Burkinabes for their own benefit and irrespective of what you think, has he not chased away all the thieves, foreign investors and recovering the country’s resources for the people? Can we do that in Nigeria?
While that is happening in Burkina Faso, in Nigeria, in spite of the public outcry against divestment of international oil companies, the government seems to be encouraging a lot of it. And then, in fact, before the end of last year, there were a couple of successful divestments. What does this portend for Nigeria and the Niger Delta in particular?
You see, first and foremost, is that with the divestment programme in this country, every clear political observer will see the place of pathologies in the country’s state of affairs. Now, under the immediate past administration, we saw that even when those divestment processes got to a level due to the outcry of citizens, including ourselves, the government stopped. And then, as soon as this new administration came in, the first pronouncement President Tinubu made on inauguration day was subsidy removal. So, Nigerians can go to hell. What plans had this administration put in place to cushion the effects on citizens? So, what have they put in place? Now, if you look at it from that angle, I am not surprised that the divestment process is moving smoothly. Who owns Oando that could not meet its equity share provisions and funding provisions as a partner with the Nigerian Agip Oil Company? Suddenly, under President Tinubu administration, Oando became so rich that it could acquire Agip Oil Company overnight. So, do we need to look far to see where it is coming from? And as long as that remains, it paints a gloomy picture for the entire Niger Delta and Nigeria economy. Because, one, it is not as if these oil companies are divesting totally from Nigeria. They are only divesting their facilities onshore, where we, Nigerians, can see what they are doing to where we cannot see what they are doing. And they are receiving incentives to make deep water investments and contributing more havoc. And, of course, when the effects will begin to fall on us, we will see what will be the fate of the environment and the citizens of the Niger Delta in the hands of local poor oil companies if the multinationals, with their level of sophistication, resources and technological know-how they possess, created this kind of mess we are in. So, while this is going on in the oil sector, in the oil and gas sector.
Yet, we now have another serious challenge of illegal mining, which, in itself, is also going to create a lot of problems. So, what’s your reaction to the level of illegal mining of solid minerals in this country, especially in the North? And what can be done to stem the tide?
Now, the problem of illegal mining in Nigeria is that you cannot check it, whether in the North, West, South, or East where mining activities take place. Why is it happening at the pace in which it is happening? It is actually because either the people at the helm of affairs and the corridors of power are the ones using their stooges to do the mining activities, or that they are colluding with their foreign investors who are mining in the communities. As such, the whole issue in the mining sector is not that regulations are as bad as regulations in the oil and gas sector. Then, who enforces those regulations? And then, if you cannot even enforce the legal ones, is it the illegal ones that you can check? So, there should be legislation in this country that will say, once you are in government, you are not supposed to invest in this sector. Such a law should ensure that people in government are barred from having presence in operations of the sector that is personally beneficial. Two, because that can be checked easily, but of course, the aspect of the illegal mining activity, one would be legal mining, because they would incorporate their companies to do the activities, at least you can check them based on their mining codes and their records. But when they collude with external foreign forces, in this instance, majority or mostly the Chinese companies who at times, incorporate a company that is unknown and unincorporated, when you check the records of corporate affairs, you won’t see anything. So it becomes a huge challenge. Now, if there were no collusions, our people would have fished them out quickly and easily. And where, in some cases, the Chinese operators are arrested, it is the Nigerian soldier carrying AK-47 rifle bought with taxpayer’s money that will rescue them. His salary is paid from taxpayer’s money, but he rather protects an illegal actor, who should ordinarily be tagged a criminal. We see them all the time everywhere.
Given the scenario we have found ourselves in this mining mess, is there hope? What can the government and the host communities do to ensure responsible and accountable mining?
Well, for me, I was taught to be optimistic in life and by my optimism, I believe that there is hope. Because the day we say there is no hope that is the day all of us are doomed and dead. And I don’t want to die yet. And I don’t want anybody to die yet. So, yes, there is hope. Now, our hope is that a day will come when somebody like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso will emerge in Nigeria and call the bluff of everybody. And then say, let’s use Nigeria’s resources for Nigerians. I tell you that that day is not far. It will happen in our own lifetime though, so that I can tell my grandchildren who changed our country and rescued us.
What’s your message to Nigerians, particularly in ensuring sustainable environmental practices?
My message to Nigerians is that until we get our leadership right, we should forget about us getting anything right. And getting our leadership right means that until we get people who are not interested in pillaging their pockets at the detriment of citizens, who are there to provide selfless leadership and who know what leadership is all about. Leadership is about sacrifice for the people-the type of leadership that was given by the founding fathers of Nigeria who passed through thick and thin including going to jail to ensure that things change in the country. Can we have the likes of Chief Gani Fawehinmi (of blessed memory) who was detribalized and who believed that Nigeria should be one united country and who believed that every Nigerian should be equal and should be treated equally and given equal rights? Can we have such leadership that will think about Nigeria alongside with Nigerians? But if we don’t do that, we will continue to have it the way things are going. You see the problem is that you know we think that after one particular administration, the next one will be better, but it ends up worst. Be that as it may, there is hope and I believe in the Hegelian principle of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. My final word is that from the debris and the decay of the rotting seed sprouts the blossoming beautiful plant!
