A renowned environmental activist, Iniruo Wills, has suggested that it will be a welcome development if multinational oil companies cease the exploitation of oil and gas in the Niger-Delta region, while efforts are made to remediate the environment.
In an exclusive interview with mangrovepen.ng, Iniruo described the activities of multinational oil companies in the Niger Delta as an ecological holocaust.
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In his words: “Halting the exploitation of petroleum activities is a distinct option amongst others available to the communities, but should only be explored lawfully, non-violently and after a well-organized competent engagement with top governmental authorities and industry regulators.
“The ecological holocaust visited upon the region through reckless oil and gas mining is such that the cost of reasonable remediation is many times the value of the piecemeal socioeconomic amenities that have been delivered with the minor share of the production proceeds grudgingly released to the region over the decades.
“Some world experts estimate that a meaningful regionwide remediation would cost in the range of $500 billion (five hundred billion dollars).”
The former commissioner of information in Bayelsa State, while calling on traditional rulers to live up to the expectations of their people, also urged them to protect the interest of their communities and the environment.
“The grand tragedy of Nigeria’s petroleum exploration experience is that the operators, the regulators and (shockingly) the vast majority of host community traditional rulers too are either not aware or are unmindful that they owe a duty of care to the communities and the environment, which entails a duty to defend or protect the community or environment’s interests with all their might,” he said.
When asked how Shell Petroleum Development Company’s planned relocation of its offshore activities will affect the Niger Delta, Iniruo Wills said: “It depends on three key factors. First is whether Shell would for a change act conscionably and be repentant in how it concludes its long-started full transition offshore.
“Second is if Nigeria’s petroleum industry regulators and overseers would be imaginative and patriotic in how they manage their statutory duty of supervising the onshore exit.
“Lastly in my view is the extent to which host state governments and community leaders are aware and willing to press for the rights and interests of their people to be taken into account in the management of Shell’s exit.”
