A doctoral research scientist, Institute of Petroleum  Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Dr Onwusameka Ogbowuokara,  has called on the Federal Government to stop the ongoing  bidding processes for the allocation of oil licenses in the country.

Ogbowuokara made this call at the weekend  in a telephone interview with The Tide.

He stated that the call to stop the bidding process became necessary in the past bidding according to him, has  not been transparent and has  been lopsided without taking  the people of the Niger Delta Region into consideration.

He said,  “my utmost concern is that the system has been rigged to favour the Fulanis all the time. That concerns or aspirations of the other parts of the country do not as much worry them.The census of oil wells and oil activities found that much of it belong to northerners. It was also found that Southerners, especially the Niger Deltans, whose primordial land have been carved out and sold to the northerners, do not have any stake at all. Therefore, calls were put out more than six  years ago to the federal government to remedy the situation. Instead of listening, appointments were made into the oil industry that placed Fulanis in strategic positions of the industry”.

He lamented that much of the activities of the oil industry  impact negatively on the environment of  the people of the Niger Delta. “The most annoying thing is that the Niger Delta has been thoroughly polluted. Surface water, ground water and even the air have been degraded. Now, because of the carelessness and indifference of those at the centre, cleaning has not been done in all the sections of the Delta”, he lamated.

Ogbowuokara said further that  “this condition, pollution became worse after the last successful bidding process by President Obasanjo. Those companies that won took little or no care of the environment.

So, why should there yet be another sale of our land to non-natives who would not mind if we die of the attendant pollution or not. Why was it that Nigeria did not think it worthy to manage this critical environment properly before placing further burden of another round of bidding, another burden of pollution on it?”

He warned  that until the environmental issues in the region, which have thrown the region into abject poverty were properly addressed, a further burden should not be placed on the land and the people.

“As a result of this singular neglect and the resultant and massive land, river and air degradation, people of the Niger Delta have been driven deeper into absolute poverty, he emphasized”.

By: Tonye Nria-Dappa