On the invitation of the Ogoni Restoration and Development Foundation, the president of the Trans Atlantic Group and former mayor of Greenevers, United States of America, Alfred Dixon, last week toured parts of Ogoni land, to assess the extent of oil spills contamination and the level of government preparedness to address the impacts on the Ogoni environment.
Alfred Dixon was accompanied on the tour by the publicity secretary of Ogoni umbrella group, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Fegalo Nsuke and the media advisor to the MOSOP president, Bariala Kpalap.
Speaking in Bodo and K-Dere in Ogoni land, two oil communities that have been heavily impacted by oil spill, Dixon, who was visibly shocked by the level of contamination in Ogoni land, expressed deep concern for the safety of Ogoni people, the poor handling of the cleanup process, which he noted was coming without compensation for years of environmental devastation.
He also noted that there was nothing in place to create an economic base for the hapless Ogoni people.
The former US mayor urged the people to work closely with the authorities to ensure that the interest of Ogoni people was not short-changed.
Dixon particularly expressed concerns about the poverty in Ogoni land, and hoped that the companies involved in the cleanup would be willing to plough back some funds to build an economic base for the poor Ogoni people.
In their separate responses, the head of the Gberezorkpan, Michael Porobumu of Bodo, said the cleanup must be done in collaboration with the local people and community leaders.
He noted that the people’s participation would guarantee that the process benefits Ogoni people.
Also speaking, the paramount ruler of Ke-Dere community expressed joy over Dixon’s visit, and urged the government to immediately commence the cleanup process.
On June 4, the Federal Government flagged-off the campaign to cleanup Ogoni land. The effort is sequel to the recommendations by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, which was submitted in August 2011, in which the UN agency expertly stated that much of Ogoni land had been despoiled by more than 50 years of oil production activities by mainly Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). The UNEP said, in the short term, it would cost at least $1 billion to clean up the oil bearing Ogoni land; while it would take up to 30 years to carry out environmental remediation of the place, at a cost of $50 billion
Despite the Federal Government’s elaborate flag-off event, which was undertaken by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, nothing has yet been done to kick-start the actual cleanup process.
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