HYPREP And Ogoni Clean-Up: The Glory, The Story

Ogoni, an oil-rich oppressed indigenous ethnic minority in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, received green-light when in 2006, the Federal Government of Nigeria commissioned the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to conduct an environmental assessment on the level of environmental degradation and ecological devastation emanating from decades of oil exploration and production in Ogoniland by Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited Joint Venture (SPDC JV) since the 1950s till the 1990s. SPDC JV in 2012, later transfered its operatorship to National Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), the production and exploration arm of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) . In August 2011, report of theassessment popularly known as UNEP Report was submitted to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Wide jubilation and loud cheers greeted the news across Ogoniland when accelerating implementation of the report’s recommendations was identified as one of the cardinal priorities by the PresidentMuhammadu Buhari-led government in 2015.
Buhari made good his promise in August 2016 by inaugurating the Governing Council and Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Trust Fund (OTF) as part of the governance process for UNEP report implementation in Ogoniland.
As an effort to speed implementation of the report, the Ministry of Environment and the Governing Council of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) announced the appointment of Dr. Marvin Dekil, an environmental expert of international repute who himself is an Ogoni son, as the Project Coordinator. Since then, hope has been heightened, especially as the report highlights the creation of a One Billion U.S Dollar Ogoni Trust Fund (OTF), convertibly N315.25 billion Naira as at the time of the report, to be co-funded by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the SPDC JV and other operators in the area. Ten Million U.S Dollars (N3.03 billion Naira) and One Hundred and Seventy Million U.S Dollars (N51.52 Billion Naira ) was reportedly contributed by the SPDC JV at various times. All of these put the hope of an average Ogoni man at an impressive height in earnest expectation of what will become of Ogoni in terms of empowerment and development when the fund would be put to use.
At present, some Ogonis who still remember the resonating pitch of One Billion Dollars on campaign podiums are aggrieved that almost half a decade is gone and yet nothing much significant is on the ground. There are speculations that HYPREP is a scam and an agent of another institutionalized genocide against the Ogoni people. Considerably, HYPREP in its thinking may have done so much to the Ogoni people but little since no one can justifiably credit HYPREP with nothing.
The Ogonis had expected to see rural electrification, road construction and other structural projects executed by HYPREP across Ogoni land. Since they have seen little or none, they have resorted to media onslaught on HYPREP, painting it black. Most Ogonis lampoon HYPREP for taking so much delight in an uncivilised habit of self-glorification of its achievements which are only visible on social and electronic media platforms. The news making the rounds has it that development by HYPREP does not conform or align with measures of development of its sister organisations the world over.
Some other Ogonis contend that the multimillion naira wasted for rentage of HYPREP office space in Port Harcourt would have acquired acres of land on Ogoni soil, built magnificent edifice for the office and even provided jobs for Ogoni youth. The rest agree that HYPREP is working, but only fault the process of selecting beneficiaries, thus arguing that it is misdirected.
In all of these, HYPREP has maintained that work is in progress at all the impacted sites. HYPREP, during one of its Tuesday’s Rhythm 93.7 programmes said it had carried out human capital development and entrepreneurship training (home and abroad) of hundreds of Ogoni youths. It has also anchored its position on the fact that cognizance was only taken of the impacted sites during assessment but promise was made to partner with other agencies, governmental and non-governmental, to ensure delivery on other important areas which were not provided for in the report but require attention.
With the position of the report, it becomes an issue of serious concern to note that concentration was, perhaps, only on the 15 sites operated by the SPDC JV without consideration that when oil spills, it permeates the soil to the under-water from where it circulates through the water channels and flows to other areas that were not directly impacted.When clean-up is carried out on the impacted sites, what happens to these areas that were not impacted directly but were affected through the circulation process beneath? Should we call for another UNEP assessment?
HYPREP should not limit public sensitisation of its policies and programmes to a select class as it did in November 2019 when it organised a summit for few stakeholders of Ogoni origin. Responses from these select Ogoni leaders during and after the forum showed that they were not informed of its programmes until after the summit. Surprisingly, it also reflected in the speech of one of the leaders who is a member of HYPREP Governing Board that she was not in the know of its programmes. It is expedient that HYPREP should, as a matter of serious concern, brace up by taking its sensitization to the grassroots groups in Ogoni, including but not limited to the market women, the commercial motorbike operators and churches, as no Ogoni man is a better Ogoni man than any other. HYPREP should gain its glory by painstakingly striking a balance in addressing these compendious issues. This will change the story.

Nnaane wrote from Port Harcourt.

Ken Nnaane