Coalition to govt: Step up action against gas flaring, oil spill

During its one-day advocacy campaign in Abuja, participants lamented non-implementation of reports and called on government agencies to be more responsible.
NACGOND which motto is, “Our Environment, Our Life”, emphasised that voluntary compliance by oil exploiting companies is not likely to be. It therefore, called on government to be resolute.
The National Coordinator of NACGOND, Rev Fr Edward Obi, said oil spill is still on the front burner because three years after publication of the research on Ogoniland, not much has been done to help the land.
Ogoniland was assessed, the extent of damage was computed and even the amount it might take to start the first phase of its clean up was made known, yet work is not done, Obi said, adding that “this must be kept in the front burner because the environment is also life of people.
“There’re human beings living there; their farmland has been despoiled, their water fouled, and their air full of toxin. We can’t be silent until this matter is kept in the front burner and action is taken on it.”
He accused oil companies of being impervious to the agitations of the people.
“Government agencies have got all the goodwill. After all, many of them are professional engineers. This is what they’re trained to do.
“But how do you dig the ground with your bare fingers? The problem of some regulatory agencies is they’re underfunded.
“There’s no money in those agencies to capacitate them to fulfill the huge responsibility that is placed upon their shoulders.
“How can agencies that are charged with such important matter be so poorly funded and there’s so much money all over the country for every other thing?” the national coordinator asked.
Answering a question on illegal oil mining and theft in the Niger Delta, he said, “we face oil spills done by oil companies and oil spills as a result of artisanal refining.
“NACGOND stands against artisanal refining until such a time there’s structured…modular refining as we’re suggesting to meet the shortfall that we experience in petroleum products.”
He said NACGOND engages communities in the Niger Delta impacted by oil spills and gas flaring, telling them there are better ways of proceeding with their advocacy than violence.
Dr Mofoluso Fagbaja who represented National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) presented a review of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) research on the Niger Delta.
The Power Point presentation compared Nigeria’s situation to standards in other countries with conclusion that Nigeria’s EIA is in line with best practice on paper but the situation on ground is appalling; meaning regulatory agencies are not doing what they are supposed to do.
Around Port Harcourt, NACGOND has worked with six communities. In Ogoniland, it has worked with several communities chief among them is Bodo where there were major oil spills in 1998.
It is currently executing a negotiation/mediation process between Bodo and SPDC.
NACGOND, registered as Environmental Centre for Oil Spills and Gas Flaring, is a partnership of 25 civil society organisations set up to intervene in lingering environmental degradation associated with oil spills, gas flaring and oil theft in the Niger Delta. It was launched June 16, 2011.  
It has a research team that accesses oil spill sites within 48 hours of being informed by responsible operators and reports its independent findings publicly.