By joshua 
———–as it Urges National Assembly to conduct oversight visits to Ogoniland clean up sites
By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin City.
The Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has expressed the need for African countries to urgently embrace renewable energy sources so as not to be left behind in the ongoing rapid global movement from dirty energy to clean energy.
ERA/FoEN stated that time was running out against African countries in catching up with the rest of the world by their slow approaches to accepting and
investing in solar energy.Executive Director of ERA/FoEN,
Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, who gave a keynote address on Transitional Justice and Nigeria Beyond Oil, during a 2-day conference on Climate Justice held August 9-11, 2021 in Port Harcourt, stressed the need for African countries, particularly Nigeria to divest funds from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Dr. Ojo noted that whereas on a global level, countries are making comprehensive plans to transit from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources and cleaner technologies by the year 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement of 2015, Nigeria was still neck deep in seeking investments for oil prospecting.
According to him, by 2025, some European countries have committed to end production of petrol-diesel cars and fully embrace renewable energy. Already, there are trade-in schemes to get rid of petrol- diesel cars in place of the emerging and fast spreading electric cars in developed countries.In Africa, there is the genuine fear of energy colonialism if all the disused and obsolete energy systems and petrol engines and vehicles are shipped to Africa as Greek gifts or even for sale.
This means that the third world countries would be a dumping ground which will have serious impact on the environment, health and general well being of the people.How will Africa react to this pending crisis waiting to happen and how will the rich countries respond to this during the COP 26 coming up in Glasgow later in the year?, Dr. Ojo rhetorically asked.
“Transitional justice requires that rich countries pay ecological debts to compensate for Nigeria’s stranded assets such as oil and gas reserves, account for the historical carbon emissions released into the atmosphere and address loss and damage for fairness and equity including payment of compensation to victims of climate change”, Ojo further stated.
While reasoning that Nigeria beyond oil is very feasible with several benefits accruable to the country, the Executive Director of ERA/FoEN noted that his organization and its allies including civil society groups, community-based organizations, community representatives across Nigeria have recognized the urgent need for energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
He, however, expressed displeasure over the slow migration from dependence on fossils by the federal government which is still neck deep in seeking investments for oil prospecting especially in the Gongola/ Chad Basins and has committed billions of dollars to the expansion of Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves. Is this the right move for Nigeria? This shows that Nigeria is not ready for a post petroleum economy, he added.
Dr. Ojo insisted that the disadvantages of fossil fuels are far greater than their advantages whereas solar energy has all round advantages without any dangerous impact on the users and the environment.
“The divestment of public finance, loans and subsidies from fossil fuels and investing them on renewable energy development and development of cleaner technologies offers the opportunity for a post petroleum Nigeria,” Ojo concluded.
Meanwhile, The Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), has called for the immediate removal of Prof. Philip Shekwolo as the Acting Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP)
The call for the sacking of Prof. Shekwolo is contained in the recommendations made in the ERA/FoEN comprehensive report titled, “No clean up , no justice: a decade of failure?ERA/FoEN claimed in the report that Prof. Shekwolo, being a senior member of Shell, should have no place in the HYPREP which is undertaking the cleanup of Ogoniland pollution earlier caused by Shell.
ERA/FoEN is describing his inclusion in HYPREP as an intolerable situation, noting “we cannot solve the devastation of the Ogoni environment utilizing the same persons who exacerbated the situation in the first place”.
ERA/FoEN disclosed that Prof. Shekwolo was the Head of the Shell team charged with the cleanup and remediation programme for over 15 years, saying “many of the sites being cleaned today had supposedly been cleaned under the supervision of Prof. Shekwolo.”
Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, says the implications of Prof. Shekwolo taking over as Acting Project Coordinator of HYPREP is an indication that Shell is in control of the Ogoni cleanup and the possibilities are there that he will run the cleanup in the same manner it has always carried out the cleanup exercise in the Niger Delta region.
Therefore, ERA/FoEN calls for the immediate sack of Prof. Shekwolo from HYPREP as well as Shell from the Governing Council, Board of Trustees and the project coordinating office.Similarly, the environment organization frowned on the inclusion of politicians in the recently reconstituted Governing Council and the Board of Trustees of HYPREP.
According to the organization, “the recently reconstituted Governing Council and the Board of Trustees of HYPREP is peopled by politicians expressing a sense of political patronage. The cleanup process should not be used as an opportunity to provide job for the boys or party loyalists.”“
ERA/FoEN calls on the Nigerian state to keep politicians far away from the cleanup process and allow the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other capable individuals to manage the Ogoni cleanup process to ensure it does not fail.”
ERA/FoEN further questioned the delay over the release of at least US$200 million yearly for initial five years period which should have amounted to US$1 billion by 2021.
Has the money been fully paid, and what was the funds used for, ERA queried. ERA/FoEN further stated in its six-point recommendations in the policy brief report that the cleanup of Ogoniland is a multi-disciplinary scientific process geared towards restoring the devastated Ogoni environment and setting the template for the cleanup of the entire Niger Delta region after over six decades of commercial oil production and making of hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.
“This cleanup, if well managed, could rightly be described as a turning point in the history of the people of Ogoni and the entire Niger Delta region. It could also provide the yardstick to determine whether the over 31 million people who call this region home will live or die.”Recall that UNEP 10 years ago published a report which is the first comprehensive and publicly available study on the impact of oil pollution in the Niger Delta.
The report scientifically validated the age long claim by Ogoni people and civil society organizations that Shell and the Nigerian State were waging a genocidal environmental war against its lands, rivers, streams, culture and people. End.