– Trains host communities on oil spills monitoring
Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Civil society organisations have accused the government at all levels of prioritizing making profits over the lives of the citizens in oil and gas host communities in the Niger Delta region.
The civil society groups during a training of community members on monitoring oil spills, organized by the Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action) in Port Harcourt, said the government and oil multinationals are insincere with host communities, considering the amount of money extracted from the region through crude oil and gas exploration.
Speaking on the theme, Effective Community Participation in Monitoring & Reporting of the Impacts of Oil Spills on the Environment, the Coordinator, Oil Watch International, Mr Kentebe Ebiaridor, urged the government to stand up for the host communities because they bear the brunt of oil and gas exploitation.
Ebiaridor said the training was imperative to improve citizens’ participation in reporting oil spills and also what they need to know in trying to reduce conflicts and oil spills in the entire communities.
“It is important that the government always stands on the side of the communities because they bear the brunt of exactly happens in terms of every form of extraction. But we have noticed that the government has prioritised profits over people which in turn has destabilized and destroyed alot of the entire Niger Delta environment.
“It’s either the government do what is right in terms of improving the standard of living for people, reducing the oil spills, reducing the gas flare and also ensuring that the companies do what is right in terms of social corporate responsibility, and also ensure that if an oil is spilled or gas flared, the fine that is accrued from such should be given back to the communities in the manner it is beneficiary in terms of healthcare delivery, development and other livelihood aspects.
“The entire Niger Delta is seriously impoverished in poverty. If you look at it holistically, you will see that after 60 years of oil extraction there is no hope in health facility, no standard educational system, no good road. But this is a region that is remitting millions of dollars for the nation on daily basis.
“If the government is sincere to the people of the Niger Delta, looking at the type of funds that have come out and also be sank into the Niger Delta, you will agree with me that there is insincerity on the side of government and the multinational oil companies that is making it look as if they don’t care about the region.”
Also speaking, a lawyer and activist, Ms. Okorite Yobo, recalled that the UNEP Report in 2011 identified administrative negligence as problem in the region.
“The oil producing areas in the Niger Delta has always suffered administrative negligence and it’s getting worse. There is no response. Government is not paying attention; what is priority is getting the resources and earning the money as a country. But what happens to the host and impacted communities, why are the communities not in the front burner?”
Earlier, the Communication Manager of Social Action, Peter Mazi, said the training which is the second set for host communities was to promote balance information dissemination, so that when there is spills, the community can spot the spill and know the mechanism to report them and who to report to.
“One thing is to spot the oil spill, another is to remediate. We know the effect of oil spill in the environment, the economic and social life of the people. So, this is why the training is here to get the community to be part of the process of spotting the oil, reporting them and even in the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of the communities.
“We have communities in Niger Delta where we have oil activities going on: we have community people from Rivers state majorly, we have from Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and Imo states.
“After the training we want them to take what they gain from here and got to implement them so that from to time we expect to do report from what time to time we expect to see reports and from those reports we know how to engage the government agencies based on the experiences they have on the field.”
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