By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – AN environmental group, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and a traditional ruler, the Ibenanowei Ekpetiama kingdom in Bayelsa State, His Royal Majesty King Bubaraye Dakolo have taken a swipe on the overtime degradation of the environment in the Niger Delta since the discovery of crude oil that have led to pollution and the death of many which they said is responsible for a high youth population and lean elderly population in the region.

They made this assertion at the one day Book Reading on the Environment and Culture where they accused the oil exploration companies and the federal government of ecocide which they said is another form of genocide where they have to first destroy the ecosystem before the people. The event attracted activists, students, members of the academia, media practitioners and others.

Dakolo who also read books on the day while speaking on “Ecocide in the Niger Delta” also carpeted the regulators in the industry who he said were at the mercy of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) just as he said that the presence of oil and gas in the Niger Delta region was the reason for the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970 with General Yakubu Gowon reversing his position on the Aburi accord after they arrived Nigeria

He said  “As they drill (crude oil), they don’t follow all the standards and so they spill crude oil, they pour it into the river, they pour it into the swamps, and so on and so forth and then, of course, they also do flaring of gas, so they let gas out, and they burn it and this and the gas you are talking about are actually hydrocarbons mixed with a lot of things.

“So heavy metals are released into the water, and then noxious gasses are released into the air and this has gone on from 1956 till this moment. There are places where the flare has not gone out for 30 to 40, years. So in a nutshell, we say that in the Niger Delta, the flares have been on for about 70 years, nonstop. One or two may go off but the net position is that the flares are always burning, come rain, come shine.

“And then, of course, because the regulator in the Nigerian oil and gas sector has been the weakest or the worst in the world, they have not regulated anything, whether they are DPR or NEPRC.

“Now the regulator is in the pockets of the IOCs. They (regulators) don’t have boats, they don’t have helicopters, they don’t have houseboats and so if they have to come to a garden, for instance, Shell or Chevron or Mobile or Agip, will have to fly them in their helicopters, will have to feed them, will have to quarter them, will have to do everything. So when they come here, they are compromised.

“So the Ecocide is explained off as sabotage. Sabotage means that someone from the community or from the environment went and tampered with the oil and gas infrastructure, leading to either the flare itself or the leakage or the blast explosion.”

Earlier in his opening remarks, the Executive Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey said pollution has been responsible for the death of many hence the dominance of young people in communities today “We have oral history, we have written history and we have all that we need to build a good life in our communities and in our continent.

“Our culture doesn’t permit pollution and all kinds of things that make life unpredictable. It used to be that if your compound, for example, is dirty, people passing by would be asking questions, what kind of human being lives in that place? But today, we have cities that are filthy”