The chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology and Senator representing Kwara Central, Senator Olusola Saraki, has blamed the recurring environmental abuses perpetrated by Multinational Oil companies on lack of strong laws and realistic penalties on such crimes.
The Senator, therefore called for the collective efforts to strengthen the laws and the regulatory agencies to challenge the oil companies and ensure compliance to the directives.
Saraki lamented that then nation has clear guidelines environmental issues and compensation saying that even where there seems to be laws, there are weak and therefore in effective.
His words, “I spent some time to study what is happening in the oil spill issues and have become one of the few senators that have gone to Ogoniland and looked at some of the abuses there. It is clear that the only answer to it is to strengthen the laws and strengthen some of the regulatory agencies to also challenge the oil companies.
“In an environment where there is no clear guideline on environment on compensation, where the oil community can decide, you spill and you tell the community that you are bringing blanket, rice, what are you going to do looking at it that you deprive the community of their livelihood?  Is that the guideline? “In other countries, it is very clear, compensation goes into billions and billions of payment. But in our society, unfortunately, we do not have the law to do that and you know, these oil companies are very powerful and until we strengthen those laws that will ensure that we have proper guidelines like the amendment in NESREA Bill which is to amend the process of compensation, it’s there clearly that if you spill, you must compensate, you don’t abuse the process because you know that the people there cannot afford to go to court, that they can’t get a lawyer to go to court and stay for maybe five or ten years and then you just give them maybe, some amount.”
Senator Saraki cited the environmental law on compensation for spillage which stipulates about N1million be paid to community affected. This he said often times is nothing compared to the damage done to the environment and the people’s livelihood.
“In other countries, the moment you spill, they slam you, they say to them this is the compensation to the people, that they people can’t farm, their fishing in the area is dead and what they should have earned, they have lost it, this is what they should have earned. That doesn’t happen here.
“On remediation, UNESCO came out and said a certain process of remediation must be stopped, because it is not effective. But till today, some of the oil companies are still using that process of remediation that does not work and nobody is saying anything or holding these companies accountable. Unless the laws are changed, it is still going to be a recurrent decimal.

Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi, Abuja