The Federal Government’s suspected plan to resume oil exploration in Ogoni land remain uncertain, except some contentious issues are addressed, a chieftain of Niger Delta region, Dr Dakuku Peterside has said.
There are indications that the Bola Tinubu administration is planning to resume oil production in Ogoni land, several years after oil exploration in the area was halted due to severe environmental issues.
Tinubu had on February 3, signed a bill establishing the Federal University of Environment and Technology (FUET) in Ogoni, pledging support for the area.
In addition to addressing injustice in Ogoni land, he said the Ogoni Bill of Rights would be revisited.
Peterside, a former director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and a 2015 governorship candidate for APC said on Channels TV on Wednesday said that establishing a university in Ogoni was far from being adequate in resolving the issues the people have against oil exploration in their land.
He stressed that it would be “premature” for the Federal Government resume oil exploration in Ogoni land, Rivers State. He enumerated certain steps the government must take before allowing any oil company to begin production in the area.
“If I must be sincere with you, it will be premature to resume oil exploration in Ogoni land. What I think, and I think that is the part the government has also chosen is to do further consultations, build trust and show genuine commitment to real environmental governance,” he said.
“The challenge all along has been the opaque nature of oil exploration not just in Ogoni land but in the entire Niger Delta. And the fact that the way benefits derivable from oil exploration is distributed to the exclusion of the people of Niger Delta is a big question mark. And until we address that in a transparent manner, then we will not make much progress,” Peterside hinted.
The ex-President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the cleanup of Ogoni land, but the exercise was not completed.
Although Buhari’s government resuscitated and reformed the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) in 2015, providing it with a $10 million budget, the project’s progress was slow.
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report had estimated that the cleanup would take around 25-30 years to complete, and it’s unclear how much progress was made during Buhari’s presidency.
Additionally, the Ogoni people have expressed concerns that the cleanup efforts were not sufficient and that the government’s primary goal was to resume oil production in the region.
It’s worth noting that HYPREP did commission its first water project as part of the cleanup efforts but the overall status of the cleanup remains incomplete.
According to Peterside, the Federal Government’s plan to establish a university in Ogoni was not enough to address the injustice of several decades.
