A group, under the aegis of The Clean Ecosystem Foundation, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly to work out the payment of $100billion to oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta as compensation for years of oil exploration and exploitation, which had led to irreversible damages to the livelihood and the ecosystem in the region.
The group made the call in the statement signed by its Executive Director, Mr Isaac Onome, a copy of which was made available to newsmen on Saturday, saying that the compensation once made would douse raging tension and hopelessness that people in the area had been going through.
According to the group, this fund is needed very urgently and specifically to address the provision of health facilities, and replenishment of floundering rare animals, plants and fish species which have been devastated for the past 65 years.
Besides, Clean Ecosystem Foundation said the compensation, which it demanded should be paid into a special account, to be administered by oil-producing states in collaboration with local and international environmental groups, should also focus on reviving fishing and agriculture in the region.
This was just as the group, registered in 2019, said this recommendation came after a month-long tour of nine oil-producing states in the Niger Delta, adding that the fact-finding tour made up of seven environmental experts began in earlier January and ended this week.
“This fund is needed very urgently, specifically to address the provision of health facilities, and replenishment of floundering rare animals, plants and fish species which have been devastated for the past 65 years.
“The fund should also focus on reviving fishing and agriculture and should be worked out urgently before it is too late,” it said.
Speaking further, the group’s Executive Director, expressed his resolve to work with local and international organizations to exert pressure on the Nigerian Government to make payment of the $100b this year, even as he recalled that the leadership of the group led by him once met the former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, who indicated deep interests in the challenges faced by people from oil producing communities in Nigeria.
Onome lamented the situation the oil-producing communities were currently facing, saying that they were not feeling enough of the direct impact of the government’s various interventions due to bureaucracy and the existence of local and national cabals that had taken over funds allocated through the various state-driven agencies.
According to him, extensive medical, biological and carbon emission tests conducted by experts indicated that life expectancy in oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta had been reduced to half of what it used to be 65 years ago.
He, therefore, decried the absence of medical facilities, lack of access of oil-producing communities to healthcare, lack of access to drinkable water, significant loss of absence of protein which is essential for growth and the abundance of carbon monoxide and other gas and oil-related emissions which combine to destroy the livelihood of the people in the oil-producing communities.
“We met no fewer than 5,000 people and conducted medical tests on thousands of people and soil tests in several communities. The conclusion is that the Niger Delta is a walking corpse.
“It was the first time in recent times that any civil society organization visited all the oil-producing communities without exception to conduct soil and blood tests on a large scale, meeting with the people, sharing their experiences and documenting them for posterity.
“Millions of people from oil-producing communities are exposed to cancer, skin and eye irritations, low birth weight, preterm birth, decreased immunity, reproductive problems, neurological impairments, heart problems, asthma and dizziness arising from oil and gas exploration,” he said.
Onome, while acknowledging the creation of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the existence of the Petroleum Industrial Act, however, said they were not retroactive to deal with historical injustice that bedevilled the Niger Delta prior to the creation of those institutions.
He contended that the NDDC and the Petroleum Industry Act cannot address the affliction of the past, saying that the injustice of the past 65 years was monumental and can never be wished away.
“Apart from obstacles associated with political interference, the current instruments do not reach the majority of people in oil-producing communities.
“This is the reason the Federal Government needs a multi-dimensional approach that directly addresses the needs of oil-producing communities in Niger Delta,” he said.
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