The issue of black soot and its effect on pollution of the environment, with specific reference to Rivers State, can no longer be treated with levity because the threat has reached an alarming point. There is hardly anyone living in the vicinity of Port Harcourt who would not have noticed the increasing density of soot emission and pollution in the environment. Great effects usually arise from little causes, and when they accumulate unchecked, irreparable harms usually follow.
It is over six years ago that the observation of black soots settling upon roof tops and living rooms became a sad phenomenon. Expectedly, illegal refining of petroleum products in forest locations, bunkering of crude oil and destruction of such products by law enforcement agents, were fingered as causal factors. In their zeal and macho temperament, law enforcement agents went into action, burning whatever petroleum products they could seize, including boats and vehicles associated with such illegal activities.
Concerned members of the public, particularly residents in the vicinity of the burning orgies, had raised alarm, complaining about the menace and crude manner of burning crude oil. The verdict was that crude oil business had brought about crude lifestyle as well as crude responses to complaints and demand for sanity in the whole business. Oil-bearing communities became the most callously abused and degraded environments in an oil-producing nation.
The time has come for local, national and international agencies and authorities to be informed, if they are not aware already, that soot emission and pollution are alarming threats to humans. Oil business, from the crude to refined chain-link, is a profit motivated activity. The trail of agonies and callousness left behind by the operators of the business are clear indicators that one man’s gain is another man’s pain. Oil-producing environments have borne enough of the pains of crude and refined oil.
The toxic and soporific effects of burnt crude oil products and the soots which have massed up in Rivers State, pose grave dangers, to say the least. If nobody wants to stick out his neck by speaking up on this issue, for fear of offending any authority, let this be a call that soot pollution can be more devastating than COVID-19 pandemic. The soot issue is like a slow poison, building up gradually and whose cumulative effects would jolt everybody up in no distant time. One does not need to be a medical or public health professional to be able to see the danger arising from massing of soots.
Illegal refining of crude oil in the coastal zones of Rivers State had been a jinxed business whose eradication is hard, because of complicity and duplicity. Without wanting to open the can of worms, it is enough to say that the black gold whose effect an Abacha could not resist, would have a similarly soporific effect on Alibaba’s serving men. What if the burnt crude oil products project is a ruse involving less than 5% of seized haul from illegal refiners and bunkerers!
The Nigerian political economy has in-built corrupting components which make it hard for a “clean” man to remain clean in the system. From the nation’s reward system of minimum wage of N30,000 and a maximum one of N30,000,000.00 per month, to the plight of unemployment; who would blame community youths for engaging in illegal crude oil activity. There is no doubt that just as the pollution arises from black soot via illegal refining activities, so also does worsening corrupt practices become intractable via loop-holes in the political economy. There are structural issues!
Apart from physical pollution of the environment via soots through illegal refining activities, there is also a worse aspect of pollution arising from psychological processes. Human psychological environment consists in products of the volition, thinking, attitude, actions and utterances of the people that populate the environment. In the case of Nigeria, it is obvious that there is an excess dose of crudity, callousness and attitude of meanness. It is a true statement that the environment reflects a mirror-image of the people who populate that society.
It is not possible for a corruption-ridden society to show-case integrity and honour, unless through cosmetic measures and pretences. Therefore, the computer programming slogan of “garbage-in-garbage-out” applies in the issue about human environments. Our environment is our image, such that what shows physically are products of what we brew internally through our volition, thoughts and activities. Soots polluting our environment arose from our activities.
Actions and responsibilities of state authorities towards the environmental challenges may not have been adequate enough, which accounts for the continued hazard arising from soot. Those responsible for the emission and spread of soots are a few people looking for gains, but the pains and dangers arising from soot pollution spread across a larger population. Human proclivity to avoid costs also includes the cleverness of passing on the hidden costs of personal gains to the wider public as collective pains. Clever business strategy!
The eternal laws of life operate in such ways that the fate of individuals and the larger public is so accurately woven that the distribution of guilts and pains are without any injustices. To make gains at the expense and pains of other people, would ensure that the gains would be enjoyed with pains at the end. There are many factors which account for how an individual fares in life, all of which ensure justice without prejudice.
Please, let those who know and are charged with the state responsibility of safe environmental and public health take appropriate actions over the issue of black soots. The dangers are glaring enough that it would be foolhardy to wait until the situation gets to the point of uncontrollable crises, before we take actions. To breathe in the soot daily is quite bad enough, but any individual can help himself in any sensible way one can, which would include knowing that there are black soots that are dangerous. Politics of environmental clean-up would not help. Action will!

Dr. Amirize is a retired lecturer from the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.