ISSUE #31 - March 2021

A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF HEALTH OF MOTHER EARTH FOUNDATION

Standing on Living Soils Looking back from the Future

BUILDING WEBS OF EXAMINING THE AND RESISTANCE AND CHANGE ANTHROPOCENE FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE EDITORIAL TEAM PUBLISHED BY Nnimmo Bassey Nduka Otiono Health of Mother Earth Foundation Cadmus Atake-Enade Joyce Ebebeinwe 30 19th Street, off Ugbowo-Lagos Road, Stephen Oduware Benin City, Nigeria Mfoniso Antia P.O. Box 1057 Ugbowo, Benin City, Magdalene Idiang Nigeria Daramfon Bassey Oluwafunmilayo Oyatogun +234 817 370 6095 Zaid Shopeju www.homef.org GUEST EDITOR Kingsley Oluchi Ugwuanyi CONTACT INFO EDITOR All mails, inquiries and articles should be Ogechi Okanya Cookey sent to

ADMINISTRATION [email protected] Dotun Davids Olatundun Elvis Omorogbe [email protected] Kelechi Okoede Mabel Obaseki FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA LAYOUT/DESIGN Otoabasi Bassey (Base X Studio) @EcoHomef

COVER IMAGE /EcoHomef Photo by Dylan de Jonge on Unsplash @EcoHomef CIRCULATION Health of Mother Earth Foundation Shehu Akowe

ADVISORY BOARD

The Advisory Board is composed of women and men who have distinguished themselves in the struggle for environmental justice and the rights of Mother Earth

Chris Allan (USA) – Environmental health campaigner and philanthropy activist Akinbode Oluwafemi (Nigeria) – Environmental justice campaigner Siziwe Khanyile (South Africa) – Environmental justice campaigner George B.K. Awudi (Ghana) – justice campaigner Evelyn Bassey (Nigeria) – Environmental justice campaigner Esperanza Martinez (Ecuador) – Environmental justice/Political ecologist Nnimmo Bassey (Nigeria) – Environmental justice advocate Pablo Solon (Bolivia) – campaigner, diplomat and movement builder Liz Hosken (UK) – Mother Earth rights advocate Lim Li Ching (Malaysia) – Agro-ecologist and rights advocate Kwami Kpondzo (Togo) — Environmental justice campaigner Mariann Orovwuje (Nigeria) — Food sovereignty advocate

2 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 Contents

04 Home Run 19 Building Webs of Resistance and Change 05 Standing on Living Soils... Looking back from the future 22 School of Ecology: HOMEF Partners with Ecole Urbaine de 08 HOMEF Trains Fishers in Bayelsa Lyon

10 Notes from Dialogue with 24 Examining the Anthropocene Smallholder Farmers 28 Accountability and 13 They Feed Us - A Celebration of Transparency in the South Smallholder Farmers Sudan Oil Industry

16 Lawsuit Against Biosafety 31 Poetry - At Home - The Move Agency Plods On 32 Outcomes from the Polluter’s 17 Poetry- Net Zero Comes to Zero Judgement Roundtable

35 Ororo-1 Well Fire Continues Months After

38 Field Reports - Floating Dead Fish in Odual Communities

41 Field Reports - AGIP’s Gas Pipeline Leaks in Emuoha, River State

44 Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future: New Entrants in the This edition of Eco-Instigator is supported by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS) and Brot fur die Welt (Bread for the World). This publication or parts of it can be used for free as long as the user 47 Books you should read provides a proper reference to the publication. The content of the publication is the sole responsibility of HOMEF and does not necessarily reflect the position of RLS and Bread for the World 48 Upcoming Activities

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 3 Home Run

Thomas Sankara was led by Isaac ‘Asume’ Osuoka, a renowned scholar/activist. Our partnership with Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean (ATALC) in hosting the Sankara Conversation added to its significance. Building solidarity between regions and like-minded groups through shared knowledge is the route we plan to walk This is our Year of Building not only in keeping faith with Alliances and Resistance. We our theme for 2021 but also are strengthening our capacity going forward. Reports on the NNIMMO BASSEY, to break barriers to the Conversation will be featured Director, Health of Mother recovery of climate resilience, in the June Edition of the Eco- Earth Foundation to defend communities, stop Instigator. destructive extraction and promote food safety and Join us to congratulate our justice. Fellow and supporter, Firoze Manji, on his winning of the In January 2021, we partnered Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén with Ecole Urbaine de Lyon Batista Lifetime Achievement (Urban University of Lyon) in Award. Firoze Manji was Building solidarity France to host our first School awarded the prize for his between regions of Ecology (SoE) for the year. years of dedicated work as It was a truly enlightening the founder of Daraja Press and like-minded session with a general focus and his continuous global groups through on the Anthropocene and activism and involvement a detailed look at the rot of in the building of global shared knowledge resource exploitation in the networks committed to the is the route we plan areas of food, extractivism and promotion of dignity, freedom ecology. The debates were to walk not only and liberation. We are proud intense as we examined “Who of you, Firoze Manji. Keep in keeping faith feeds the planet,” “Plantation” inspiring! with our theme for and “Extractivism” as well as “Green Colonialism.” In this As you enjoy reading the 2021 but also going edition, we bring you a short reports, articles and poems in forward. report on the School. this edition, remember to drop us a line or share your stories, In February 2021, we took a articles, photos or poems at giant leap in our Conversations [email protected]. We always series, beginning with the look forward to hearing from first series for the year titled you. “Conversations with Thomas Sankara”. This series on Until Victory!

4 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 Standing on Living Soils... Looking back from the Future

BY NNIMMO BASSEY

We have got to the stage in the world where selfishness has been exalted as a national interest. It is a sad platform where inequalities have been hoisted as a virtue. Humans have become so “smart” that we think machines can replace us, replace relationships and replace agriculture. We even think we can relocate to destinations on asteroids or somewhere else in space! And the truth is that we do not seem to be diminished by all that.

The Years of Repair, a short Looking back from the future from the hands that promote animated film, challenges us enables us to lay the paving our entangled dreams. to jump into the future and stones that ensure we are look at the paths by which not trapped in the quicksands We cannot afford to dream we got there. It shows us the of toxic relations with alone. And after a good dream, power of our imaginations Nature. It helps us escape it does not make sense to and underscores the fact the entrapment inherent remain prostrate in dreamland. that we can get to our in the pursuit of primitive Rather after a good dream, preferred destinations by accumulation of capital and it is time to get up and jump acknowledging the strength of power. It helps us show how into the struggles to build the going together in movements sterile racism, colonialism and dream. powered by love and imperialism are. It takes us to solidarity. the end, restores our faith in We learned a few critical humanity, and takes us back lessons from the pandemic… Looking back requires that penitent and renewed. Brave smallholder farmers we step forward. Looking hold the key to feeding the back from the past is an Washing hands should not world. They are ignored uninteresting, unimaginative stop us from seeing each everywhere, never bailed out and unproductive enterprise. other’s hands and learning and never helped even as they

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 5 Looking back from the future enables us to lay the paving stones that ensure we are not trapped in the quicksands of toxic relations with Nature

point the right way forward healthy crops that are strong These building blocks hold as agriculture gets to the enough to resist pests. One corporations accountable for crossroads. clear trouble is that humans — whether they are operating behind corporate in the extractive or colonial Real farming frames the shields are not just the worst agricultural sectors. It all boils imaginations of today and pests but are incurable and down to building systems of tomorrow … Real farming insatiable predators… care and repair to ensure that brings back to life soils killed Mother Earth is not sacrificed by agro-toxics. Real farmers Farmers are essential workers. and that our peoples are fight against seed laws The time has come to insist not sacrificed on the altar of that criminalise the use of that essential workers must capital. indigenous seeds and stifle no longer be discounted and knowledge and local wisdom. overlooked Life-sustaining Soils Real farmers halt the erosion of native species that are truly Sparks change things. We Soil is the skin and flesh of climate-smart and reject the are the spark needed for the the Earth. It is a source of life. promotion of alien species that change and transformation We are sons and daughters are truly climate-dumb. that must happen ... We truly of the soil. Earth rootedness need to repair relationships holds the key to building Agri without culture is global citizenship, securing the the highway to disease, At personal levels: pay the commons and propagating pandemics and extinctions. debt of love love both for humans and for the Earth. This mindset tramples on At collective levels: pay the Mother Earth and ignores climate and ecological debts A handful of fertile soil critical creatures such as contains thousands of species, worms and a variety of The building blocks to the billions of bacteria and other pollinators that labour to future on the finite planet microscopic organisms. Each ensure we stay alive. reject the destructive organism in the soil system exploitation of nature, and has a function in the food web, Healthy soils produce healthy refuse any act that promotes with some specialising in the foods and healthy populations species extinction and trashes decomposition of matter while ... Healthy soils produce the dignity of our peoples. others help in the dispersal of

6 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 dead organic matter. There is a living give-and-take economy beneath our feet that we must bend down to learn Soil is the skin and about as well as learn from. flesh of the Earth.

The linear and extractivist It is a source of mindset has led to a rapid life. We are sons deterioration of soils worldwide. and daughters of the soil. Earth Economies of exploitation see labour as disposable and rootedness holds nonessential, and continuously the key to building look for ways to replace humans. global citizenship, securing the Bad soils and land grabs lead to displacement, forced commons and migration and, at times, outright violence. We easily propagating love forget that there is a loss of both for humans knowledge and culture when farmers are displaced to seek and for the Earth. livelihoods in cities. Healthy soils are spongy and retain water, while poor parched soils are more impervious and and conversion into private has led to the rise of super get easily eroded. Urbanization properties and for-profit weeds. These super weeds and cementification of soils speculators and so-called emerge as an attempt by are agents of soil exploitation… investors, have led to the nature to repair the ruptures Killing of soils! grabbing of millions of created by humans—a way of hectares of fertile land/soil human-proofing biodiversity. In contrast to the barren without any concerns for local We have to come to the concrete landscapes, healthy populations. In the end, locals realization that one man’s soils are a great . are turned into outgrows or weed may well be another We can learn to regenerate outright farmyard slaves. man’s vegetable. our lands through simple, tested yet inexpensive Economies that do not In all, we must never forget methods, including the recognise the intrinsic value that there are consequences Farmer-Managed Natural of Nature and the continuous for every action. And we must Regeneration (FMNR) and the nurturing contribution of bear in mind that we all have rebuilding of soils using the Mother Earth will continue a shared duty of care or repair. indigenous Zai technology of to reel from the socio- We have a duty of rebuilding Burkina Faso. economic injustices and pain relationships with the soil and that emanate therein. Any with one another. As Gandhi said, “the earth competition that tramples provides enough to satisfy cooperation and displacement everyone’s needs, but not a of farmers disconnects millions few people’s greed.” not just from their farm but from the soil—and their life! The scare of scarcity — hides the cause of scarcity and The dependence on herbicides hunger. The appropriation and crops genetically of the commons, exclusion engineered to withstand them

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 7 HOMEF Trains Fishers in Bayelsa

ayelsa is among the Government Areas (LGAs). activities, COVID-19 came states with well- Also present were Civil and obstructed their path to defined coastlines Society CSOs and the media. recovery. Band sandy beaches. It is home to foraging and nesting In February 2020, an During the training, Nnimmo for several species of fish, enormous number of dead Bassey, Director of HOMEF, mammals and other animals. fish were washed up on emphasised the need to train The principal threat to marine an extensive stretch of the fishers to monitor and report freshwater ecosystems is the Niger Delta coastline. This changes in their environment extractive activities taking news first broke out when and for fishers to be place in the state/region. community people from recognised in the policy circle Ogbulagha Kingdom in as key stakeholders for aquatic In response to this, Health Burutu LGA of Delta State environment management. He of Mother Earth Foundation raised an alarm over the expressed serious concerns (HOMEF) organised a one-day massive death of fish floating on how the once cherished training for fishers in Bayelsa and littering their shores. mangroves of the Niger Delta State on 10 December Reports also came in from have been destroyed by the 2020. The training aimed at fishing communities in Ondo, polluting activities of oil and building and strengthening the Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa gas multinationals. grassroots fishers to monitor, Ibom States, complaining of report and advocate for a similar incidents in their states. An astute environmental healthy marine environment It is, however, worrisome justice campaigner and and to ensure their that the actual cause of the renowned field monitor, Morris participation in the formation incidents has not been found Alagoa, in the training session, of policies concerning aquatic to date. Just as the community stressed that oil pollution environments. Participants people were grappling with degrades the environment and were drawn from fishing the challenges of the massive threatens aquatic ecosystems, communities around Yenagoa die-off of fish believed to health, livelihoods and lives. as well as from Southern Ijaw, be caused by pollution According to him, “because Ekeremor and Brass Local from oil and gas-related the environment is our life

8 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 and our survival depends on it, the only sensible option is to take actions aimed at “Fishermen are suffering because there preserving and protecting the environment. This is why we is no fish in the rivers anymore due to need to effectively monitor oil spills that have become a household our environment with tools that will provide proofs to name in Bayelsa State,” support evidence-based advocacy.” He informed that “this year alone there have been several oil spills that Bayelsa and the Youth Affairs Coordinator of the Akassa occurred due to equipment Development Foundation (ADF) highlighted the challenges failure from the facilities of faced by community folks. He sued for intense monitoring oil companies such as Shell, and data gathering during his presentation at the training. Agip and Aiteo.” As he further Mr Ebiegberi emphasised that “there are heavy plastics pointed out, “most of the spills littered around beaches that are causing temperature happened during COVID-19 rise.” He further commented that “environmental erosion, lockdown, affecting our rivers oil spills, gas leakages, artisanal refineries, bunkering and and creeks, especially in the presence of illegal fishing trawlers fishing near shore Odioama, Okpoama,/Iwoama, are all quite sadly destructive indeed.” Mr Ebiegberi also Baberegbene, Olugbobiri, complained that “there has been no reliable baseline survey Ikebiri, Gbaraun, Angiama, report to authenticate coastal information, especially in Ogboinbiri, etc. in Brass and Bayelsa State.”. He saw it as an imperative to have such a Southern Ijaw LGAs of Bayelsa report to harmonise common actions. He concluded that State. Apart from the oil spill “for fishing to thrive, the marine environment should be incident in Ogboinbiri that is thoroughly monitored with the aim of ensuring biological still under contention, all other diversities, protecting and conserving the environment so as incidences were reported to support depollution and create a habitual environment for to be caused by equipment marine lives.” failure.” The meeting ended with a call to unite fishers and the need Mr Prince Ebi Clifford Enaibo, for fishers to be part of the FishNet Alliance - a network of who is the secretary of fishers engaged in and promoting sustainable fishing in line Nigerian Union of Fishermen with ecosystem limits. Fishers were encouraged to stand and Seafood Dealers as in solidarity against extractive activities in water bodies, well as vice-chairman of the including rivers, lakes and oceans. National Fishing Association of Nigeria, Bayelsa State At the end of the training and group sessions, the fishers chapter, in an interview resolved that: noted that fishers are faced with both environmental 1. there should be increased participation of fishers and livelihood challenges. in policy spaces as regards aquatic environment “Fishermen are suffering management; because there is no fish in the 2. the extraction of oil and gas of any kind offshore rivers anymore due to oil spills and onshore must stop, and no new fields should be that have become a household opened; name in Bayelsa State,” he 3. there should be promotion of traditional knowledge said. of fishing practices, including those that would help mitigate impacts; and Henry Raynus Ebiegberi (also 4. the activities of industrial trawlers along the Atlantic known as “the Shoreline coast of Bayelsa must be duly regulated. Traveller”), an indigene of Minibie community in

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 9 Notes from Dialogue with Smallholder Farmers

BY OGECHI OKANYA COOKEY & JOYCE EBEBEINWE

Smallholder farmers feed the world – this is Issues deliberated upon during the dialogue an undiluted fact both in the Global North and include Genetically Modified Organisms South. Industrial agriculturists may continue (GMOs) and their implications for Nigeria’s food to invent technologies that they want people industry, alternatives to GMOs; agroecology to believe will feed the world, but their as a viable solution for food and climate innovations remain what they are – means of challenges, general and specific challenges profiteering. Smallholder farmers hold the key farmers face in the cultivation of different to healthy food and sustainable agricultural crops, harmful farming practices, sustainable systems. However, a resilient food and farming indigenous farming practices, and indigenous system is highly dependent on the protection crop varieties. Knowledge was shared on and preservation of biological diversity. While how GMOs tamper with smallholder farmers’ industrial agriculturists and their market-based ability to secure food sovereignty for Nigeria. technologies are destroying biodiversity, real This is due to the fact that GM seeds come farmers (i.e., the smallholder farmers) are with patents that disallow re-cultivation of the struggling to maintain a sustainable food and same seeds in the next planting season. This farming system. In recognition of the threats is coupled with the fact that the cultivation of to biodiversity and the struggles this crop of the seeds lead to soil degradation and loss of farmers face on daily bases, Health of Mother biodiversity, which can be linked to various Earth Foundation (HOMEF) held a dialogue diseases and viruses, including Covid-19. with smallholder farmers in Kano State, Nigeria, on 28 January 2021. The dialogue re-enforced the farmers’ understanding of their vital role in the

10 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 preservation of biodiversity and the indigenous food systems in Nigeria. To Agroecology is against industrial strengthen this understanding, Joyce Ebebeinwe, HOMEF’s agricultural practices which involve Programmes Manager, who the heavy use of toxic chemicals represented the Director at the dialogue illustrated the that degrade the soil and fossil connection between food fuel, resulting in 25-30% of global and agricultural system and the invasion of diseases emissions, amongst such as Covid-19. According other unsustainable practices. to Ebebeinwe, “industrial agriculture and the attendant risky technologies thrive in monocultures and bring about reduced genetic diversity. , recommended as the panacea Consumption of GMOs amongst other unsustainable for these challenges. One has been linked to immune practices. Agroecology remedy was the use of disorders as well as other supports biological pest compost or natural manure, conditions that reduce our control, agro-forestry and examples of which are cow ability to fight infections.” mixed cropping as against dung, goat droppings and the monoculture systems poetry manure. Another Dr Olugbenga Adeoluwa, promoted by industrial solution was the use of neem a senior lecturer at the agriculture. or dogonyaro leaves, seeds University of Ibadan and a and oil, recommended for practising farmer, informed The farmers agreed that controlling pests that trouble participants that when farmers farming practices championed crops like maize, cowpea adopt farming techniques like by the industrial agriculturists and okra; and the use of the use of chemical fertilizers, are alien to the indigenous chilli pepper to drive pests pesticides and the cultivation farming systems. According like grasshoppers. For better of GM crops, there is the to the farmers, some of the cotton heads, an adequate use likelihood of importing foreign impacts of the alien practices of phosphorous and potassium problems. These practices are: the loss of taste of some was recommended. are promoted by industrial harvested crops like tomatoes, agriculturists. The lecturer cum loss of firmness, slower crop The farmers shared their farmer, therefore, championed growth, increased post- experiences with chemical agroecology as a practice harvest spoilage and increased fertilizers versus manure. that promotes preservation pests, which tend to force According to them, the and cultivation of natural them to use more pesticides. application of chemical seeds found in the immediate fertilizers on a farmland only environment of farmers. It For the cultivation of allows short term use of the promotes farming practices different crops, the farmers land after which the farmer that enhance the resilience narrated the different and has to seek another land to of agroecosystems as well related challenges that they plant on. Again, where the as safeguards the rights of experience. For groundnuts, application of a mudu (a local farmers. beans and maize, the measuring instrument of about challenge is pest; for cotton, it 1.13 kilograms) of chemical Agroecology is against is stunted growth; while rice fertilizers will perform industrial agricultural practices is challenged by rusting or optimally for a short duration which involve the heavy bronzing. All these challenges of two weeks, a mudu of use of toxic chemicals that were clearly linked to the compost like cow dung will degrade the soil and , use of chemicals. Indigenous last almost a year. Also, crops, resulting in 25-30% of global and natural remedies were such as yam, cultivated with

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 11 These crops, according to the Kano farmers, are no longer available for cultivation.

The abandonment of The abandonment of indigenous crops for indigenous crops for some exotic crops that are believed to be more economically viable was identified as some exotic crops a problem that may lead to a further loss of that are believed to indigenous crops. While the cultivation of some foreign or exotic crops was not ruled be more economically out, the consciousness that such crops come with their own challenges was instilled during viable was identified the dialogue. For example, an experience was as a problem that may shared about the planting of cauliflower, a non- indigenous, low-calorie, vitamin- and fibre-rich lead to a further loss of cruciferous vegetable in the class of broccoli, indigenous crops. cabbage, arugula, turnips and the likes. Out of all the other crops on the farm where the cauliflower was planted, lizards chose to eat up only the cauliflower. This led to the inability to meet up with the demand for the vegetable, which has been found to be beneficial in chemical fertilizers, sometimes seem to be combating cancer, for better memory, stronger bigger but begin to rotten within a short time bones and improved cardiovascular system. of one week. It was, thus, reasoned that it is generally The heavy usage of chemicals in farming was better to plant crops that come from the observed to be connected to the infertile soils immediate environment. Such crops can easily that farmers now battle with. The chemicals be cultivated and earn smallholder farmers destroy microorganisms that keep the soil and finances. Most of these crops do not need to be crops nourished. bought from the government or other seed- selling corporations who tend to focus more The farmers shared insights on the indigenous on their own gains than on making life easy farming practices that they wish to preserve, for local farmers. “Agriculture should also be a considering their huge benefits and the harmful means of making money for local farmers,” Dr practices that they need to shun. The beneficial Adeoluwa had said during the dialogue. indigenous practices include crop rotation, bush fallow and shifting cultivation. Irrigation The farmers also complained about other farming was suggested by the farmers as challenges such as lack of capital, storage a way of boosting their productivity and facility, social amenities and land, inadequate mitigating the harsh impact of climate change. water supply, and insufficient government Conversely, some of the harmful practices intervention. which the farmers discouraged include bush burning, leaching (too much irrigation) and At the end, participants at the dialogue over-cropping. unanimously agreed that to produce enough food and build good resilience to climate On the issues of indigenous crops, the farmers change, there is a need to continue to: explained that there are several crops that they get from the government. However, there • say No to GMOs; are indigenous crop varieties that they wish • opt for natural manure as well as natural to preserve and continue to have unrestricted ways of achieving good yield and of rights/access to. Some of these indigenous controlling pests and weeds; and crops are corn, millet, maize, guinea corn and • adopt other practices that are much more soya beans. The indigenous crops that have beneficial to the soil and ecosystem. been lost are bambaranuts and cocoyams.

12 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 They Feed Us: A Celebration of Smallholder Farmers

By Babawale Obayanju and Edgar Imafidon

n the early months lends a voice to the people manual tools to ensure that of the year 2020, who really feed the world – the world does not go hungry. before the COVID-19 the traditional smallholder Yet many of these farmers Ipandemic, we journeyed farmers. are often overlooked and to Kano State, one of the constantly find their livelihoods food baskets in Nigeria, as Traditional smallholder farmers threatened by climate change well as to places such as grow about seventy per cent and industrialized agriculture, Enugu State and Benin City of the world’s food on less which undermine the in Edo State. The mission than a quarter of the Earth’s biological diversity on which was to find out the impacts available agricultural land. we all depend. of climate change on food They are called smallholder production and to ascertain farmers because they own During a visit to Dawanau if the claims that Nigerians or farm on small plots of Market, the biggest seed are hungry were a fact or land on which they grow market in Nigeria and one of a myth. We made relevant subsistence crops, relying the largest in West Africa, portraits that tell stories almost exclusively on family or situated in Yangari, Kano of community resilience, manual labour. They make use State, we met with traders nutrition, agroecology, and of available workforce (which who told us they were nearly the critical role of seed and is shrinking due to mass never out of foodstuff all food sovereignty in mitigating rural to urban migration) and year round regardless of climate change. Our journey

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 13 seasonal changes and the typically receive yams from Zaki Biam, Benue State (the impact of climate change. acclaimed biggest yam market in Nigeria) from January to The market always has July, while from August until around October supplies come supplies coming from different from Owan area of Edo and Kwara States. parts of the country and at different months of the year. Dawanau Market also plays host to huge storehouses for For example, substantial yam rice, beans, millet, wheat and other seed traders who also supplies come to the market come from different cities of Nigeria. from Benue, Adamawa, Gombe, Nasarawa, Taraba, Women were observed to be marginal workers in this food Niger and Plateau States at processing market. Younger men were seen doing most of different months of the year. the farm work and food processing. The traders have observed that climate change impacts On our way to a farm called Dakasoye, around Kura in Kano – excess or low rainfall, State - where wheat, beans, rice, cucumber and some other and so on – affect crops were grown -- we came across local rice millers in regions differently; hence, small “shack” rice milling houses. the availability of food in the market remains unshaken. They were milling rice and packaging it using manual/ With the closure of the traditional tools and materials such as sacks, wooden sieves, Nigerian borders to food drums, plastic containers and sticks. The average quantity importation, there have of milled rice per hour using this manual method is 48kg/hr, been significant efforts by which when compared with pedal-operated thresher (90 kg/ the Nigerian government to hr), bullock treading (140 kg/hr), and motorized threshers support farmers to grow rice, (above 500 kg/hr) is very low. Young men were either at the beans, yams and wheat. machines milling the paddy or using the wind to filter the chaff from the rice. The women, on the other hand, were In the past years, we have not seen doing smaller-scale processing of leftover milled rice. seen this kind of increase in We were told that they got their rice from farms around the volume of food supplied Tundun Wada in Kano State. Kano State is one of the most to the market. We are important rice-producing areas in Nigeria, with more than adducing that one reason for 20,000 rice farmers involved in rice farming and processing. the increase is government’s The processed rice is later sold in the Kano markets, which support to farmers, says serve a population of over 9,000,000 people. Alhaji Sani Abdulahi, Leader of Dawanau market yam On the farm in Dakasoye area, it was observed that traders. He informed us that farmers were adapting to the impacts of drought by using over 100 trucks laden with water from the Challawa Gorge Dam, which is another yams enter the market daily government intervention to irrigate their farms. Water for nationwide distribution. from the dam supplies the Kano River Irrigation Project According to the International as well as Kano City (see: https://www.researchgate.net/ Institute of Tropical Agriculture publication/261401292_Study_Towards_Upgrading_the_ (IITA), Nigeria produces about Prevailing_Method_of_Rice_Threshing_in_Kano_State). But 71% of the annual supplies this intervention is not without some negative impacts on of yams globally, equalling the communities around it. However, for these farmers here, more than 37 million tons (for its benefits outweigh any negative impacts. details, visit https://www.iita. org/cropsnew/dioscoria/). The pattern of agriculture in Kano State, like in other parts of the country, is completely regulated by the available water In consonance with the resources. Kano experiences a short rainy (wet) season from Alhaji’s statement, a trader May to October, which restricts cultivation to one cropping at New Site Yam Market, in period each year. A further limitation on agricultural Dawson, Benin City said they production is caused by the floods, which inundated over

14 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 one million acres of land in the river basins Genetically Modified (GM) seeds into our farms. during the wet season, as was observed during An example is GM beans which were approved our first visit to communities around Dawakin and released by the Nigerian Government in Tofa, Kano State, in 2019. The floods left the January 2019 into our markets and farms as a land unfit for cultivation. possible solution to the hunger crisis.

Traditional smallholder farmers, with their very The truck drivers who move food from one rich experiences and in-depth knowledge of region to another highlighted bad roads as a local seeds and the conditions for their survival, significant factor that increases the number of hold many of the practical solutions that can hours/days they spend delivering foodstuff. The help place agriculture on a more sustainable traders we encountered also highlighted the and equitable footing given the needed lack of adequate storage facilities as another support. To do this efficiently, they will need issue that causes food shortage. help to overcome market challenges, chief of which are bad road networks, lack of adequate Our women, especially in the Northern region, storage facilities to keep their produce, and need to be given more space to function with other disincentives for sustained land use, the men at the markets and at the farm, like is including insecure land tenure, high transaction the case in the southern communities visited. costs and weak institutional support. Climate change is real, and more positive steps It takes an average of 2 days to bring yams need to be taken by the government to help from Zaki Biam in Benue State to Benin City farmers cope with its devastating impacts. It due to bad road…a driver in Benin complained. is time our governments moved beyond the Moving a truck laden with 350 40kg bags promised Nationally Determined Contributions of local rice from Kano to Benin takes me an (NDCs) as was made in the UN Framework average of 2 to 3 days with several security Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) challenges, double interstate taxation/extortion, Conference of Parties (COP) to real actions on and bad road networks…complained the driver. the ground.

In Nigeria, food is available and in abundance, Babawale Obayanju and Edgar Imafidon are but the access to safe, healthy and appropriate photographers from TellThatStory. food fit for our people and their culture is a major cause of hunger in the land. Our indigenous seeds are at risk with the influx of

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 15 Lawsuit against Biosafety Agency Plods On

The case against the National Biosafety Also, the case seeks a declaration that the Management Agency (NBMA), the Biotech continuous refusal by the NBMA and Monsanto company- Monsanto Agricultural Nigeria to provide scientific evidence to dispel fears Limited and others with regard to permits of the applicants as contained in the exhibits for the introduction of Genetically Modified presented in court infringes on the fundamental Organisms (GMOs) into Nigeria plods on. rights of the applicants as guaranteed under the The hearing of the case, which was earlier Nigerian Constitution and aforementioned Act. scheduled for 20 January 2021, was adjourned The case was first filed in the Federal High Court to 23 March 2021. The case was mentioned of Justice, Abuja, in 2017 but was struck out on at the Federal High Court, Abuja, with both 15 August 2018, not for lack of merit or Cause parties present and ready for hearing, but the of Action but for technical reasons. The case court excused the proceeding for lack of time. was, however, resumed in 2018 as a matter Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey, stated of fundamental human rights and has been that the adjournment will not deter efforts scheduled for hearing at the Federal High Court to ensure that justice prevails and to secure of Nigeria on 23 March 2021 after several shifts our food system from the hazards of modern on hearing dates. agricultural biotechnology. “The case is very much alive,” he insisted. Various studies have linked GMOs to serious environmental and health maladies. They have The case seeks a declaration that the Bt cotton grave implication for biological diversity, which (MON 15985) and maize (1) NK603 & (2) enhances resilience to climate change and MON89Q34 x NK603 supplied by Monsanto pandemics such as COVID-19. They threaten and approved by the NBMA for commercial our indigenous and nutritious foods and promote release and confined field trial respectively unsustainable agricultural practices. in Nigeria contravene the fundamental rights HOMEF calls for a ban on GMOs in Nigeria, to life and human dignity of Nigerians. These stressing that the way to food security and food rights are guaranteed under Section 33 and 34 sovereignty in Nigeria is through agroecology of the 1999 Constitution (as Amended) and and adequate support for smallholder farmers. Article 4, 5, 16 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.

16 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 POETRY Net Zero Comes to Zero

BY NNIMMO BASSEY

Extreme climate stands at the door Record temperatures Boiling oceans, cyclones and deaths Shrinking ponds, parched lands And a smiling line-up of power-drunk deniers

Climate inaction a hellish creed Question is what does the voluntarism add to... Extreme avoidance of action intensified The world has no history of cooperation Voluntary modes activated for climate inactions History is replete with conflicts, conquistadors, Nothing but sophisticated mathematical thieves and xx acrobatics Net zero pathways Yet, cooperation is in the memory of humans The only sure tool for survival is watching each Youths to whom tomorrow belongs resist other’s back Community lands stolen by foods, swelling It means each person carrying her fair share seas and raging deserts XX And not offset loads by wishful thinking

Your ambition aims at 1.5 or well below 2 degrees And well below hits below the belt of the victims long discounted

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 17 But greed and profiteering vacuous pledges point at 3 degrees Or more You are bent on Incinerating the planet

While pretending that persons displaced by climate impacts are not refugees You pen beautiful theses on how the Geneva Convention Set definitions of a refugee in untouchable concrete Such is the stuff of tyranny and selfishness

Today I am displaced Today I am scorched, Today I am cooked by the sun

Tomorrow You will be And the papers of your mathematics The papers of your definitions, conventions and outrageous selfies with Your celebrated deals and mis-agreements and net zero Comes to zero As you miss the net And get hit by balls Of fire

18 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 Building Webs of Resistance and Change

Tomorrow You will be And the papers of your mathematics The environmental issues achieve this objective and narratives and putting the The papers of your definitions, conventions and outrageous selfies with and challenges that the world other key organisational health of Mother Earth at the Your celebrated deals and mis-agreements and net zero battles with today are so objectives, HOMEF brought centre of all activities. complex that communities, together team members, Comes to zero groups and movements board members, partners Strategic connectivity leads to As you miss the net have to come together to and volunteers at its team alliance building without which form strong alliances so building and annual general strong resistance cannot be And get hit by balls as to effectively resist the meeting held in Asaba, Delta built to defend communities, Of fire forces that are responsible State, Nigeria, from 1st to 5th promote climate resilience, for these issues and bring February 2021. support sustainable practices about a meaningful change. like agroecology and stand To champion this cause in During the event, it was against ecocide, environmental 2021, Health of Mother understood that building racism, neocolonialism, Earth Foundation (HOMEF) alliances and webs of inequalities, gender is focused on building webs resistance would necessitate discrimination and destructive of resistance and change strategic connectivity, strategic extraction of resources. (alliance building). In order messaging, ethically-grounded to strategise and plan to activities, transforming

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 19 In a session on ‘Advocacy: Building Resistance and Provoking Change,’ activism and advocacy were described as connected and vital tools in Strategic connectivity Building Webs of Resistance and Change. Activists were leads to alliance defined as people working towards social change/ building without which transformation; people asking questions that threaten the strong resistance status quo; people trying to uncover the dynamics that cannot be built make people unable to earn a living. The overarching target of an activist is to ensure that the conditions that put people organisation in the alliance; of his community members in bad situations are changed. and c) the need to have for trying to protest against groups from different fields, the negative impacts of the During a session on ‘Use for example, economists, Owukpa Consolidated Mining of Research in Building researchers, farmer Company. Resistance and Provoking associations, etc. Change,’ insights were shared These conflicts, incidences on what makes up effective The meeting provided space of pollution from extractive research for mounting for strategising for HOMEF’s activities and the use of resistance to injustice and work in the Oilwatch Network dangerous technologies in instigating change. It was and for discussions on agriculture, leading to the noted that such research fossil and mining conflicts loss of biodiversity and many would involve sourcing in Nigeria and Africa. The more ills, make ‘building webs credible information from Oilwatch Network aims to of resistance and change’ an community people (whose resist fossil fuel activities in urgent issue. testimonies are primary data), tropical countries in Africa the internet, conversations and in the Global South. It Plans for all the activities of people on social media, does this by exposing the under all of HOMEF’s key local and national agencies, negative impacts of extractive work areas (Fossil Politics, government public records, activities and establishing a Hunger Politics, Ikike and government legislations, non- link between the destruction Alliance building) were governmental organisations/ of biodiversity, climate change, discussed in detail; strategies civil society groups, human rights violations and were fine-tuned and exhibitions, conferences, news the role of multilateral financial recommendations made for media and opinion polls. institutions. better outcomes and outputs. One of the projects for the Another session on ‘Building It was noted that in some year 2021, titled Shifting and Sustaining the Team/ communities in Kogi and the Power Lines, focuses on Network/Alliances’ shared Benue States, the mining the path. the fundamentals of alliance companies have some of the It also aims at challenging building and maintenance. community members speaking current imaginaries on which It was noted that in forming for them. Those who stand exploitative, polluting, wasteful alliances, the critical issues against the companies are and unjust systems have been to consider include a) the seen as anti-development. An built and to unlock the world commonality of the goal of example is Okwori Onaji, a from the grip of fossil energy every group in the alliance, community activist in Benue dependency. These can be including the funders; b) who State who was framed and achieved especially through would be representing one’s attacked in 2020 by some building stories (participatory

20 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 grassroots stories), looking up Policies.’ The project is There were also discussions from the past and looking back planned in collaboration on content creation, from the future. with the Alliance for Food documentaries and use of Sovereignty in Africa as well stories; project planning, Some of the project’s as farmers, CSOs, researchers implementation and reporting; objectives are to a) work with and media practitioners in effective social media use governments to commit to Nigeria. Resolutions from the and communication/branding shifting power modes from session on the agroecology strategy; and ideas for fossil fuels to renewables with project include the need: effective administration and the aim of building a fossil- to increase the number of coordination within the team. free future; b) amplify the farmers to be trained on actions of women and youths agroecology, use strong At the end of the meeting, in the movement against media strategy to achieve team/board members, energy colonialism; and c) the project’s goals and to as well as other partners promote participatory research effectively engage with who participated, were work among activists and policymakers. energized as all had a strong academics etc. This project understanding of HOMEF’s will involve Oilwatch groups in Other planned activities focus and strategy for the Latin America and Southeast include biosafety conference year. The sessions were highly Asia. and rally; conversations series interactive and interesting, on Thomas Sankara (which with exercises that promoted Activities planned with other has already taken place), on better understanding among networks were also discussed. ecocide, on Frantz Fanon and team members and partners. For example, there was on AfriTAP; School of Ecology space for brainstorming on on various subject areas; stilt Participants joined the event in the FishNet Alliance and the dialogues; and agroecology person from Benin City, Abuja, Ecological Defense Network. workshops with farmers, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Bayelsa Also, some light was shed policymakers and other and Asaba, while others joined on the project ‘Promoting stakeholders, etc. via Zoom from Lagos, the Agroecology and its Inclusion Philippines and Brazil. in Nigeria’s Climate Change

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 21 School of Ecology: HOMEF Partners with Ecole Urbaine de Lyon Speaking at the virtual press conference, Nnimmo Bassey expressed his concerns about the current geological age called the Anthropocene. He explained that humans have assumed a certain measure of exploitative control over the environment and the earth’s resources. To surmount challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation and pollution, which human activities are largely responsible for, terms such as sustainability have been coined. According to him, “sustainability has been on the card for decades, and everyone speaks about Health of Mother Earth SoE session which held from sustainable development. Foundation (HOMEF) 26th to 28th January featured Yet the three circles of partnered with Ecole Urbaine Mariam Mayet of African sustainability which include de Lyon in hosting her first Centre for Biosafety, South the economic, environmental School of Ecology (SoE) for Africa and Mamadou Goita of and social — covering the 2021. This partnership was IRPAD, Mali, who spoke on 3Ps representing People, officially announced at a “Who feeds the planet”; Firoze Planet and Profit — are not virtual press conference held Manji of Daraja Press on balanced in the scheme of on Friday 15 January 2021 “Plantation and Extractivism”; corporate operations. Focus to present the third edition and Ikal Angelei of Friends is mostly on the economic of Ecole de l’Anthropocene of Lake Turkana, Kenya, who aspect of sustainability, (School of Anthropocene) spoke on “Green Colonialism”. leading to economic 2021 organised by Ecole Nnimmo Bassey, Director of systems of exploitation, Urbaine de Lyon (Lyon Urban HOMEF, co-moderated all the destruction, dispossession and School) in France. The School panels at the SoE. extractivism.” of Anthropocene ran for one week, from 25th to 31st (Monday to Sunday) January 2021. ...the three circles of sustainability which The SoE which formed one of include the economic, environmental and the sessions of A l’Ecole de social — covering the 3Ps representing People, l’Anthropocene, examined the roots of resource exploitation Planet and Profit — are not balanced in the with particular focus on food, scheme of corporate operations. extractivism and ecology. The

22 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 It has been the character of the mining and extractive industry generally to focus more on profit maximization, thereby discounting the environment and labour. This character is not only displayed on the African continent but in other countries like Canada and the United States of America.

From the press conference, it was gathered that the challenge of climate change calls for a new approach. This approach, according to Nnimmo Bassey, is that of repairing connections, which have been weakened by undue competition and lack of solidarity and care among humans. He emphasised, “We must stay connected to reclaim the pathways that will make the universe livable. We must reconnect to ourselves and to Mother Earth. We can’t continue with business as usual.”

HOMEF’s School of Ecology is a space for education and knowledge sharing focused on creating nuanced understanding of the problems that plague our environment. It is believed that if one cannot understand the roots of a problem, one cannot formulate suitable solutions. The School of Ecology is hinged on sharing knowledge that will lead to actions.

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 23 Examining the Anthropocene

BY MAGDALENE IDIANG

ur climate is changing. Sea levels of simultaneously pursuing economic growth are rising; are melting; and and preventing and/or mitigating climate climate zones are shifting. According change. Contemporary work in the broad area Oto scientists, the global average of assessing the anthropogenic impact on surface temperature of the earth has warmed the planet suggests that several ‘Planetary to 1.02 °C (degree Celsius) as of the year Boundaries’ have been crossed.2 2020.1 Scientists see this increasing warmth as an anomaly driving temperature extremes “We are no longer in the Holocene epoch – in different seasons and regions, intensifying the past 12,000 years of stable climate in heavy rainfall and so on. There appears to be which agriculture, settled communities and a consensus that human activities are greatly great civilizations first appeared but in the responsible for this condition. This increase Anthropocene,” stated Paul Crutzen, a Dutch may not sound dramatic, but even small climate atmospheric scientist and the 1995 winner changes create enormous repercussions of the Noble Prize Laureate in chemistry. The ranging from wildfires, floods, , famine Anthropocene epoch characterizes the human etc. race as a geological force influencing fauna, flora and the climate. Human activities have Increasing recognition of the causes and become so pervasive and profound that they consequences of climate change has generated rival the great forces of Nature. Humans have a great deal of doubt regarding the feasibility bored 50m kilometres of holes in search of oil. Mountain tops are removed to get coal.

1 https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/ 2 Ward, et al. 2016 article at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164733

24 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 The oceans dance with Anthropocene, as the name billions of tiny plastic implies, suggests changes beads. Weaponry tests brought about by human have dispersed artificial activities, especially those Anthropocene, as radionuclides globally. The pertaining to the exploitation the name implies, burning of rainforests for of natural resources and the monoculture production methods of energy generation, suggests changes sends out lethal smog-palls transportation, industrial brought about by that settle into the sediment agriculture as well as other human activities, across entire countries. production activities. The Humans move around an name assigns the debacle, especially those unbelievable amount of which is the outcome of the pertaining to the rock every year, profoundly above activities to humans exploitation of reshaping the world. Each without distinction. This year, more than 100 times means that all humans are natural resources as much equally guilty of generating (CO2) as volcanoes emit is the complex climate/ spewed into the air. Humans environmental crises ravaging are currently overseeing the the world irrespective of most significant disruption to whether they are in the Global changes, whether in terms the planet’s nitrogen cycle in North or South, irrespective of the environment as a 2.5 billion years. All around of whether they are rich or whole or of climate, all point the world, industrial areas, poor, whether they are the to the ‘rapacious capitalist highways, towns, housing oppressors or the oppressed activities’- the predatory estates, as well as artificial and whether they have system of extraction, pasturelands and planted technological power or not. destruction, dispossession and forests are being constructed. accumulation. These are the While these artificialised The term Anthropocene is drivers of the environmental natural areas represented a sweeping grouping of all and climate catastrophes that only 5% of the earth’s surface humanity as being guilty all humans now suffer. It is in 1750, in this era, they of ecocide. However, the these drivers that need a label. represent almost one-third of the earth’s surface.3

Scientists believe that due to the rapid changes in recent times, especially since the industrial revolution in Britain from about 1760 to about 1840, the earth system is moving away from the relative equilibrium it had known since the beginning of the Holocene (11,700 years ago). Such an extensive impact marks the beginning of the Anthropocene. 4

3 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51996792_Global_Change_and_the_Earth_System_A_Planet_Under_Pressure 4 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1995/crutzen/biographical/

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 25 of emissions in excess of the planetary boundary, while the Global South has contributed only 8%.5 High- income countries have a substantially higher degree of responsibility for climate damages than one might expect by looking simply at current or cumulative national- territorial emissions. Hickle’s findings further provide guidance for conceptualising and quantifying liability for ecological, social and economic damages. This is of allowing perpetrators of particular importance to Are we all to blame? to evade responsibility. Yet lower-income countries that responsibility needs to be suffer disproportionately from It is important to realize that assumed if something must climate damages despite not the idea of the Anthropocene be done about the current having contributed to excess is actually causing more miserable state of the world. emissions. harm than good in efforts to address the menace of climate The UN Framework This is an era in which change. Avoiding hasty Convention on Climate decaying capitalism is generalisations, hence not Change (UNFCCC) includes destroying Mother Earth’s looking for a catchword that the principle of “common but life-support systems. The can encapsulate everything, differentiated responsibilities language of the Anthropocene is what is super important. and respective capabilities.” should, therefore, focus on With a terminology like the This principle has been widely capitalism’s responsibility for Anthropocene, the “human used to determine differential the global climate crisis. This race” is overall responsible national responsibilities for is to say that the language for climate change and all climate change mitigation of the Anthropocene is in environmental disasters. efforts. But the principle of need of serious scrutiny and differentiated responsibilities modification or a complete The Anthropocene is defined can also be applied to overhaul. in terms of a generalised allocating responsibility for ‘we’ that obscures important climate change itself and differences. The ‘we’ is the damages related to it. This Pointing the finger at issue because it is generalizing should be based on the an entire human race and not specifying. It does fact that countries which is a non-subtle way of not take into account that have contributed more to allowing perpetrators American, Chinese and British global emissions are more to evade responsibility. banks are the frontrunners in responsible for related highly polluting investments. problems than those that have Yet responsibility Nor does it consider that an contributed less. needs to be assumed average America consumes if something must be 32 times more resources According to Jason Hickle’s done about the current and energy than an average article on quantifying national miserable state of the Kenyan or Nigerian. Pointing responsibility for climate the finger at an entire human breakdown, the Global world. race is a non-subtle way North has contributed 92%

5 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(20)30196-0/fulltext

26 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 27 Accountability and Transparency in the South Sudan Oil Industry

BY BIOR KWER BIOR

the oil-producing states and communities are concerned.

This study, therefore, sought to determine if these particular stipulations of the PRMA 2013 have been fully implemented. The study relied heavily on interviews with fifty (50) key informants from South Sudan Parliament, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Ministry of Petroleum, selected local government, and the oil companies. The respondents were purposively selected based on their in-depth Introduction other mineral deposits, South knowledge of the Act (PRMA Sudan is not immune to the 2013), other petroleum Extraction of natural resources impacts of the “resource curse” regulatory regimes in South without a well-thought-out phenomenon. To avoid this Sudan, and the oil economy resources revenue sharing looming danger, the Republic in the country. The study mechanism has been shown of South Sudan enacted interview schedule focused on to lead to discontentment. the South Sudan Petroleum the following issues: Usually, the discontent leads Revenue Management Act to an upsurge in political (PRMA) of 2013. The Act • Whether the three and military violence. This allocates 2% and 3% of the per cent (3%) and two is the case in resource-rich petroleum net revenues to per cent (2%) of the countries where the leaders the oil-producing states and petroleum revenues have not instituted transparent communities respectively. have been transparently models of resource revenue This resource-revenue allocated and transferred sharing between the national sharing model is also built to the oil-producing government and the natural into the 2011 South Sudan communities as stipulated resources-producing Transitional Constitution. in the Act read together communities or regions. However, it is not clear if the with the South Sudan Act has been implemented in Transitional Constitution With the presence of letter and spirit inasmuch as of 2011. abundant natural resources, the allocation and transfer of • Whether these allocations noticeably petroleum, gold and the 2% and 3% quarters to and transfers have been

28 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 transparently disclosed to the public as Transitional Constitution of South Sudan 2011 stipulated in the Act. (as amended); (2) Establishment of the relevant • If the relevant government institutions institutions needed to implement the provisions needed to manage these funds have been of the Act; and (3) the transparency of the instituted as stipulated in the Act. transfer and spending of the revenue both at the national and state levels. Implementation status of the PRMA 2013 It was found that the transfer of the 3% to The petroleum industry in South Sudan is the counties leaves so much to be desired governed by a number of regulatory regimes inasmuch as the provisions of the Act are which have been instituted over the last fifteen concerned. An analysis done by David Reng years. These regulatory regimes include the and Nhial Tit-Mamer shows that there have Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA 2005), been no allocation and transfers of the 2% the Sudan Interim Constitution (2005), the and 3% to the oil-producing communities Southern Sudan Interim Constitution (2005), and states respectively since 2011 while the and the Local Government Act (2009). The government budgets show a combined line for CPA mandated the allocation of 2% of the net the oil-producing states and counties transfers petroleum revenue to the oil-producing regions (see here)7. in Southern Sudan. This percentage was successfully allocated and transferred to the Additionally, the 2% of the net petroleum beneficiary regions during the implementation revenue has not been properly transferred to phase of the CPA. However, information is the oil-producing states as provided for in both sketchy on how these funds were utilized the CPA 2005 and PRMA 2013 read together during the CPA implementation period. with the South Sudan Transitional Constitution 2011 (as amended). Again, Reng and Tit- To ensure that the net petroleum revenue Mamer’s analysis indicates that only 1.6% of is equitably shared between the national what was required by the Act was transferred government and the oil-producing states and to the oil-producing counties and the states. areas, the PRMA 2013 Act provides for the establishment of a number of administrative However, it was surprising that no money structures such as the Community was ever received by the oil-producing states, Development Committee (CDC) and the CDC’s according to interviews with various members Coordination Forum (CDCCF). While the CDC of the parliament and the community members is supposed to supervise how the funds are from the oil-producing states and areas. This being utilized at the community level, the shows that the budgetary allocations, transfers CDCCF was set up to provide oversights for and spending are not in line with what was the work of the CDC (for details, see here)6. provided by the laws cited earlier. These According to the Local Government Act 2009, improper allocations of the petroleum net the CDC is supposed to be established by revenue are not only affecting the communities, the County Legislative Council. This body according to the interviewees, but it is also is supposed to approve plans presented by affecting states in which oil is being extracted the CDC and supervise its functions at the in all the Greater Upper Nile Region. community level. The findings also show that the CDC, CDCCF Based on the interviews with fifty (50) and the County Legislative Council, which purposively selected respondents, the report were mandated by the Act to implement its presents the findings on (1) allocations of the various provisions with respect to the net 2% and 3% to the oil-producing states and revenue allocations and transfers, have not areas as stipulated in the PRMA 2013 and the been instituted. Without these institutions,

6 https://www.suddinstitute.org/assets/Publications/572b7eb49cda4_SouthSudansPetroleumRevenueManagementAct_ Full.pdf 7 http://www.jstor.com/stable/resrep20116

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 29 the provisions of the Act Key Policy Recommendations would not be implemented as justly and transparently as Based on the results presented and discussed above, the provided by the law. It was report makes the following key policy recommendations to also found that there has the Government of the Republic of South Sudan and various been no public disclosure of stakeholders: the key information regarding the allocation and transfer • There is an urgent need for the government of South of the 2% and 3% of the net Sudan to reach out to the oil-producing communities and petroleum revenue. clarify why the money allocated to them as stipulated in the Act has not been transferred to them. Because of this lack of • The oil-producing communities and the states in transparency, the communities conjunction with the national government need to and the states are left without expeditiously establish the relevant institutions needed to adequate information on the implement the provisions of the Act as stipulated. benefits of oil extraction in • There is a need for transparent disclosure of the key their areas. All the community information regarding the implementation status of the members we interviewed are PRMA 2013 to the public. convinced that the money • The Ministry of Finance should make sure that 3% and might have been embezzled 2% of net petroleum revenue are transferred to the in Juba, while informants beneficiaries as stipulated in the Act (PRMA 2013). from the relevant government institutions who were Bior Kwer Bior is the Executive Director (ED) of the Nile interviewed were reserved on Initiative for Health and Environment (NIHE) located in Juba, the suspicion that the money Republic of South Sudan for the states and counties might have been embezzled in Juba.

30 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 POETRY

Finally HOME was in sight Handymen properly dressed in earth’s powdery droplets hastened Mother Earth from her sitting space peeked and sighed with relief At HOME - Good company was At HOME She knew about the documentations of her She knew about the Struggles The Move She would share her sitting place with her benefactors

BY OGECHI OKANYA COOKEY It was all planned out Her flying beauties did not mind They would seat on their designed couch Merrily the documentations of Mother Earth And watch conversations and dialogues with moved Mother Earth Furniture, vents of cooling man-forged air moved There should be a Memorandum of The delightsomeness, the hominess of Mother Understanding Earth called And it must exclude caveats stopping the flying Come.... Come.... Come.... and other beauties Mother Earth benefactors edged Of course from taking a leak on two-legged, Closer...Closer and Closer erect benefactors Hastily and joyously they moved No disrespect intended Hands graced with powdery droplets from The ogbono trees were theirs as much as it Mother Earth was the erect beings’ Salted steam dripping from their faces When Mother Earth waved at the ogbono tree All eyes and hearts were At HOME It waved back and benefactors got ogbono seeds, no stress And all hands on deck There must be a relationship of mutual respect Moving carriages knew also and were eager to and benefit offload At HOME The hairy little fast-paced spruces agreed No room for naysayers At HOME all felt At HOME

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 31 Outcomes from the Polluters’ Judgment Roundtable

The Polluters’ Judgment The people of the region infrastructure due to a lack of Roundtable was held at have responded in a number repair and maintenance. Oronto Douglas Conference of ways, notably through Hall, HOMEF’s International recourse to the law courts The case went a step further, Headquarters in Benin City on in Nigeria and beyond. One above the judgement that 23 February 2021 amongst such is the case was given by a lower court in where four farmers and fishers Nigeria on 30 January 2013, Over the last six decades, from Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and when Shell was held liable for the Niger Delta region of Rivers States, in partnership the pollution at Ikot Ada Udoh. Nigeria has been immersed with Friends of the Earth The current case that led to in extensive environmental Netherlands, took Shell to a the victory held Shell liable for pollution from the activities Dutch court. all the environmental pollution of oil and gas corporations. and degradation in Oruma, These pollutions have Brief chronicle of the case Goi and Ikot Ada communities resulted in severe damage to in the Niger Delta region of communities, livelihoods and The case was filed by four Nigeria. raised health challenges that Nigerian farmers in 2008, have plunged life expectancy who alleged that widespread The decision on the oil spills in to a horrifying 41 years. pollution on their land was Oruma and Goi declared that caused by leaks from Shell’s oil Shell Petroleum Development

32 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 the experts attributable to Case B amounting to € 22,420.09 and £ The case was filed by four Nigerian 8,500.00; and • declares the judgment farmers in 2008, who alleged that as enforceable as far as widespread pollution on their land possible. was caused by leaks from Shell’s Thirteen years had passed by oil infrastructure due to a lack of the time the Appeal Court on the 29th of January 2021 ruled repair and maintenance. in favour of three out of the four Nigerian farmers holding that Shell must compensate them for the damages caused by the oil spill pollution. The Court also held that Shell International has “duty of Company of Nigeria (SPDC) as a day) that it does not care” to ensure that their vis-à-vis Oguru, Efanga comply with this order. Nigerian subsidiary behaves and the other residents for • orders Royal Dutch responsibly in its operations. In whom Milleudefensie (MD) Shell (RDS) to ensure the case of Ikot Ada Udoh, the is representing, is held liable that within one year Court asked for more details for (i) the damage resulting of notification of this to figure out the extent of the from the leakage at Oruma judgment, the Oruma I pollution there. on 26 June 2005 and (ii) and the Oruma II pipelines acting unlawfully by not are provided (and remain The farmers involved, that acting before that date to equipped as long as these is, Chief Fidelis Oguru and install an (adequate) Leak pipelines are in use as Mr Alali Efanga (plaintiffs/ Detection System (LDS) on main or backup pipeline) appellants in Cases A and the Oruma pipeline. It orders with a Leak Detection B) are from Oruma, a village SPDC to compensate Oguru System (LDS) as referred in Bayelsa State, Nigeria; and Efanga for the damage to in para. 6.43, and Chief Barizaa Dooh (plaintiff/ resulting from (i) and (ii), to be orders RDS to jointly pay appellant in Cases C and D) prepared by the state and be MD et al. a penalty of € is from Goi, a village in Rivers settled according to the law. 100,000 for each day State while Elder Friday Alfred The decision: (part of a day counted as Akpan (plaintiff/appellant in one day) that it does not Cases E and F) is from Ikot • orders SPDC to provide comply with this order; Ada Udo, a village in Akwa the Oruma I and the • rejects the additional or Ibom State, all in Nigeria. Oruma II pipelines otherwise claimed; In a similar vein, on 12th (and to keep it fitted as • compensates for the costs February 2021, another long as these pipelines of the proceedings in lawsuit also brought against are in use as main the first instance, so that Shell was won by two other or backup pipeline) everyone bears his own communities in Nigeria who with a Leak Detection costs; were given the right to sue System (LDS) within • rejects more or different Shell in the United Kingdom one year of notification claim (for the first time on for the environmental of this judgment and appeal); atrocities committed in the orders Shell Petroleum • compensates the costs communities in Rivers State, Development Company of of the proceedings on Nigeria. Nigeria (SPDC) to jointly appeal, so that everyone pay MD et al. a penalty of bears his own costs € 100,000 for each day • determines that SPDC (part of a day counted will bear the costs of

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 33 Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), not protect the people. on 23rd February 2021, hosted a Roundtable Following the observations, the following to unpack the implications of the judgements demands were made by the participants: for the quest for environmental justice by the people of the Niger Delta. The meeting had 1. The Nigerian judiciary should strictly participants including lawyers, law students, hold polluters to account on all rulings youths, members of Civil Society Organisations, made with regard to socioeconomic and representatives from host communities’ ecological harms in the Niger Delta. network and the media. 2. Cases should be dispensed swiftly to ensure that plaintiffs see justice in their The participants interrogated the judgements lifetime. based on presentations by Barr Chima 3. Oil companies should stop polluting the Williams (one of the lawyers for the four Niger Delta and should take immediate farmers/fishers), Comrade Celestine Akpobari steps to clean up current and historical (a frontline Ogoni environmentalist), and pollutions in the region. discussions lead by Rev David Ugolor with 4. The IOCs should adequately compensate Emem Okon, a frontline environmental individuals and communities affected by advocate in Niger Delta, as moderator. their environmental harm. 5. Shell should ensure that the four farmers’ The Roundtable observed that: compensations are urgently negotiated and paid, and their environment properly 1. International Oil Companies (IOCs) use cleaned up. divide and rule tactics to cause crises 6. The government and Chevron should, as in host communities while continuing a matter of urgency, put out the rig fire to carry out their polluting extractive burning at Ororo well 1, Oil Mining Lease activities. (OML) 95 off the shores of Ondo State, 2. The judgements clarified that parent which has been on for 9 months now. companies can be held accountable for 7. There should be a meeting with the ecological crimes committed by their leadership of the National Assembly subsidiaries - this which has restored hope in order to analyze the details of the to the communities. judgements and draw some strategic 3. The forum observed that IOCs have a lessons from them. general duty of care which mandates 8. Shell must install the leak detection system them to prevent further leaks as much as (LDS) to forestall further leakages into the possible and limit the damage as a result environment. of leaks from their facilities. 4. The unending pollution in the Niger Delta The demands from the roundtable were signed can be summed as blatant ecological by: and economic corruption, which leads to ecocide. • African Network for Economic and 5. The United Nations Environmental Environmental Justice (ANEEJ) Programme (UNEP) report has created a • Environmental Rights Action /Friends of baseline for the environmental assessment the Earth Nigeria of the entire Niger Delta region. • Oilwatch International /OWN 6. The judgement reflects the power of • Ogoni Solidarity Network solidarity across communities in the Global • Host Community Network of Nigeria South, highlighting the power of people (HoCON) united for a common cause. • Kebtkache Women Development and 7. No more hiding place for Shell and, by Resource Centre extension, other environment destroyers. • Health of Mother Earth Foundation 8. The forum further observed that (HOMEF) international companies control the oil fields; thus, the majority shareholding by the Federal Government of Nigeria does

34 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 HOMEF ALERTS Ororo-1 Well Fire Continues Months After

pressure amelioration and other service providers were discouraged from continuing their work in the well”, GP had claimed.

Before the fire outbreak, the wellhead suddenly began to release a rush of hydrocarbon fluids from over-pressured reservoirs to the surface through a malfunctioning Blow Out Preventer (BOP) on the rig. But by 22 April 2020, the situation was reported to have stabilised as gas flow/leak was under control. GP claimed to have later written to DPR on 23 April 2020 to get approval to control the gas flow and fluid droplets from the Fire is still raging on the laws and regulations, was wellhead but got no response. Ororo-1 Well, in shallow water reported to have revoked GP’s The DPR denied receiving any Oil Mining Lease (OML) 95 in licence. Comments made by such letter. Ondo State, eight full months DPR to Africa Oil+Gas Report after a blowout occurred on 15 show that the Ororo-1 Well After the fire outbreak on May 2020, on the Hydraulic had challenges and that GP 15 May 2020, GP reported Workover rig Grace-1 HWU did not receive any consent writing to the DPR for contracted by Guarantee from the Department for the permission to use dispersants Petroleum (GP). According re-entry operations. and other materials around to an account from Africa the well and the environment Oil+Gas Report, the rig was DPR claims to have revoked to forestall loss of lives and involved in re-entry operations the licence on 30 April 2019, increased pollution. GP also on the Ororo-1 Well, which while GP claims to have begun claims to have contacted GP had received a licence to the re-entry processes in Chevron (the operator of the operate in 2003. The re-entry October 2019 and received OML 95) and Halliburton for operation began in October a revocation order from DPR assistance. 2019. In the middle of the during the process. GP blamed re-entry, between 6 and 7 the fire outbreak on the The DPR stated in Africa April 2020, the Department of revocation order coupled with Oil+Gas Report that it did Petroleum Resources (DPR), control challenges experienced not deem it fit to respond to which is responsible for in the rig in April 2020. “On GP’s request because the ensuring that the Oil and Gas hearing about the revocation well which was awarded to sector comply with petroleum order, specialists on well it (i.e., GP) in 2003 had been

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 35 revoked since April 30 2019, Schedule to the Petroleum responsibility to be attributed which marked the expiration Act. According to paragraph to different sources when date of the granted extension 16A (1), “The holder of an oil an incident such as the for the commencement of mining lease may, with the Ororo-1 Well fire occurs. The field development and full consent of and on such terms ownership of marginal fields production in the well. and conditions as may be has been likened to a sub- approved by the President, lease having a head lease GP in partnership with farm-out any marginal field between the government as Owena won the Ororo field which lies within it.” lessor and the OML holder in the marginal field round of as lessee on the one hand 2002/2003. However, they The term Farm-out explains and a sub-lease between the did not operate the field (for an agreement between the OML holder as farmor and a 17 years) until October 2019, holder of an oil mining lease marginal field holder as the when GP said it commenced and a third party which farmee on the other hand. A re-entry. Prior to the re-entry, permits the third party to lease is defined as a contract GP was listed among the explore, prospect, win, work between parties which allows marginal field operators who a party to hold possession had failed in developing their of a land or part of it for a fields years after they received specified number of years. the licence to operate the After the fire A sublease also grants an fields. The DPR planned to outbreak on 15 May interest in land in accordance revoke GP’s licence along with 2020, GP reported with the terms of the head those of similar operators on writing to the DPR lease. Also, in paragraph 16 31 March 2015, but decided of the First Schedule to the to give them more time, for permission to Petroleum Act, it is stated according to Africa Oil+Gas use dispersants and that: “As between the farmor Report. other materials and farmee, the farmor shall around the well and retain all ownership rights to The Ororo Oil Field is one the OML, and the rights, title of the marginal oil fields the environment and interest or estate of the awarded to interested and to forestall loss of Farmee shall be equivalent qualified oil and gas investors lives and increased to those of a sub-lessee in in the 2002/2003 marginal accordance with the terms field round in Nigeria. pollution of this Agreement.” If a field Marginal oil fields are fields has been removed from that were discovered by oil the original OML, then the multinationals in the course and carry away any petroleum ownership of a marginal field of oil exploration on larger encountered in a specified may be vested in the farmee acreages in Nigeria. They are area within the time frame of (see: details at https://www. fields that the multinationals the lease. mondaq.com/nigeria/oil-gas- are not interested in bringing electricity/591234/marginal- into production because they In another instance, paragraph fileds-in-nigeria-who-owns- are considered uneconomic. 16A. (2) states that: “The the-field). The DPR defines them as President may cause the farm- fields that have remained out of a marginal field if the In the case of Ororo-1 Well, undeveloped for more than field has been left unattended the Nigerian Government, 10 years but have reserves for a period of not less than through the DPR, awarded GP booked and reported to the 10 years from the date of the the licence to operate the well. Department yearly. The first discovery of the marginal The DPR may then be seen regulation of marginal fields field.” as the lessor and GP as the in Nigeria comes under the lessee. However, since GP’s Petroleum Amendment Act Sometimes the ownership licence to Ororo-1 Well has of 1996, which introduced of marginal oil fields is in been revoked, the Nigerian paragraph 16A into the First doubt, making it possible for Government becomes the

36 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 owner. This is why the DPR has taken the responsibility of handling the Ororo-1 Well fire.

The DPR, in May 2020, told Africa Oil+Gas Report that it would do all it could to extinguish the fire, including possibly drilling a relief well and engaging a Halliburton owned firm of well control specialists to put out the fire.

On 18 May 2020, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) tweeted that it will certainly take at least six weeks in the earliest to accomplish the task of putting out the fire.

Today, the fire rages on.

There is no clear communication on how the environment will be remediated.

The DPR is hereby called to:

• Put out the fire and remediate the environment. • Duly compensate impacted fishers and communities • The company (whether private or public) responsible for the fire which has caused gross ecological damage should be sanctioned

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 37 FIELD REPORTS

Floating Dead Fish in Odual Communities Location: Ogboloma Community, Abual/Odual Local Government Area, Rivers State A HOMEF Field Report: 18th December 2020

Over the past six decades, oil exploration in activities across the Niger Delta region. the Niger Delta has left community people In December 2020, another incidence of the in the region impoverished. This activity has floating of dead fish on rivers was reported rendered several Niger Delta people homeless, in Odual communities, a group of six coastal degraded their environment and deprived communities in Rivers State. This is similar to them of sources of livelihood. All these are the dead fish incident which occurred in April due to massive levels of pollution emanating 2020 in Bonny and Andoni Local Government from oil spills, gas explosions, the release of Areas of Rivers State. Responding to the harmful gases into the environment and the incident, the Commissioner for Environment, emptying of industrial wastewater into streams Egbis Tamuno, advised residents not to eat the and rivers. These have resulted in the massive dead fish to avoid poisoning. death of fish and aquatic organisms in coastal communities. Odual communities are in Abua/Odual LGA of Rivers State. The communities share a In recent times, there have been recurring boundary with Bayelsa State. Although located reports of massive death of fish in coastal in Rivers State, the only access road to the communities across Nigeria. In the first few communities is through the neighbouring months of 2020, massive deaths of fish were Bayelsa State, while the Abua axis of the LGA recorded in about four coastal states in Nigeria, is accessible from Ahaoda just off the East- namely, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Delta. West road. Although the causes of the deaths remain generally unknown, constant monitoring and Ogboloma community is one of several coastal investigations in the affected areas suggest communities, like Adada, Ayun, Emelego, that these deaths might be as a result of Okolomade and Akani, sharing the Saka creek, heavy pollutions from continuous oil extraction which empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

38 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 Floating Dead Fish in Ogboloma of fish found dead include mudfish and catfish. “When we catch such fish, we cannot eat them Ogboloma is a relatively small community of as most of them are already rotten. Most of about 2,000 people who are mostly farmers what we noticed about the fish is that many and fishers. A few of them are civil servants. of them are either injured in their fins, head The community, along with its neighbours, or tail. The flesh of the fish becomes hard.” raised an alarm about dead fish floating on This incidence has really taken a toll on us as their creek. HOMEF monitors got information a fishing community, and we are calling on about the incident and paid the community the government for immediate remediation,” a visit. The communities fear a possible Amamine pleaded. outbreak of disease as most inhabitants rely on the water from the river for their daily King Micah Igonieghel (the Paramount needs. According to community members, Ruler of Ogboloma Community) expressed different species of fish like the governor fish shock at the dead fish incident. According (Aghurugh), mudfish (obolo), floating fish to him, “I really don’t understand what is (Oriim) and catfish (Obarh) were affected. happening on our waters. Since I got wind of this phenomenon, I have been thinking about Testimonies what will be the likely cause of the marine pollution that is affecting fish in our rivers. My Omololi Amamine, a fisher and retired civil mind flashed back to before the floods. And I’m servant, narrated his ordeal: “for over 12 years thinking that it could be due to the continuous since I returned to the community, I have been oil explorations that have been carried out over depending on the Ogboloma creek to take care the years by Shell’s operations in OML 22. of myself and family. I have never seen such a There is a possibility that in the cause of all that thing like this before.” exploration over time, some form of radioactive/ toxic substances would have washed into the He explained that they first noticed signs rivers.” of dead fish before the flood that affected a greater part of their communities but felt it was He stressed the possibility of the flood carrying just a case of a dead fish. the chemicals and mixing them up with the river water and of the chemical affecting The fisher connected the death of the fish to the fish. The paramount ruler also observed the activities of the several oil companies on that almost all communities where such oil their waterways. According to him, the species exploration activities took place have also seen dead fish floating on their rivers. He explained that in the history of this kingdom, such incidence has never happened.

“I started seeing this dead “I strongly believe that the radioactive/toxic fish floating for about two materials are the source. I might be wrong, but it is important to note that such activity is months now, and honestly, dangerous to our environment. I am looking at we have never seen the situation where we can get the water from anything like this before. the creek tested, and a sample of the dead In the past, I make money fish checked to know the type of toxins that are in them. My people depend on the marine from my catch. Now, with ecosystem for sustenance. The fish we catch this type that I have caught there are for our consumption and also for today, I can’t make anything business,” King Micah stressed. out of it; I have to throw He added that some community people them away.” have trained their children to school from the Ogboloma creeks. The paramount ruler, however, expressed sadness because some of

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 39 his people, who are unaware “I started seeing this dead a regular occurrence in the of the looming health hazards, fish floating for about two Niger Delta to see dead fish have been consuming the fish. months now, and honestly, floating on the waterways. In “We just hope that this does we have never seen early 2020, a large number of not turn out to be an epidemic anything like this before. dead fish were seen washed because the outcome will In the past, I make money ashore on the coastline of the be too disastrous,” King from my catch. Now, Niger Delta region. Obviously, Igonieghel feared. with this type that I have the food chain of the majority caught today, I can’t make of the dependants of the The fishers in the community anything out of it; I have to water is threatened as there are the ones that are mostly throw them away.” is no clear understanding of impacted as the fish are their the cause of this incidence. main source of livelihood in Conclusion With such occurrences of the community. Explaining dead fish becoming regular, the impact of the incident, Coastal communities in a well-coordinated official King Igonieghel stated that the Niger Delta, despite investigation is needed “We will now have to depend their massive wealth urgently to ascertain the on imported fish (Iced Fish), in abundant natural immediate and remote causes and it’s very expensive. While resources, still depend of the death of the identified we are trying to do some on fishing and farming species of fish to prevent investigation to unravel what for their livelihoods. It reoccurrence. has happened, we have told is gradually becoming our people not to eat any of the fish for now until we are confident that it is safe enough for consumption. Recommendations

Howbeit, our fishermen will 1. The government should initiate an investigation now have to start looking into the incident as a major ecological disaster for alternative sources of and ensure that the public is duly alerted on the livelihood because for now, found cause(s) their sources of livelihood have 2. There should be adequate sensitization to been destroyed.” raise the awareness of people, especially in the coastal communities, to ensure that the Mr Jimmy Orukari, another dead fish are not consumed or sold in view of fisher from Odau who resides possible health implications. in Ogboloma community, 3. The true cause of the incidence should not narrated his experience: “I be concealed but be revealed and addressed, went out to fish today, but and the perpetrators duly held liable for the many of the fish that got into ecological crime. my net seem to have some 4. The government should urgently carry out ailment that I can’t explain. health audit in affected coastline communities I was able to get Akpanam to ensure their health status and offer (catfish ), but it was already treatment as necessary in order to prevent an dead, and it’s not looking epidemic. healthy at all, so I’m not going 5. Fishers and community folks should promptly to eat it. Initially, I had thought report future occurrences of similar incidents to that if the fish was still a little relevant authorities and stakeholders. alive when I get home, I could 6. The government should begin an immediate still dry it and use it. But now diversification of its resource and reduce I can’t use it because I don’t its dependence on fossil fuel as it has been know what killed the fish I identified as a major cause of the deaths. caught without the use of chemical but with just my net.”

40 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 AGIP’s Gas Pipeline Leaks in Emuoha, Rivers State Location: Elibrada Community, Emohua LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria Date of Visit: 08 January 2021 Report By: Ogechi Okanya Cookey and Tammy Cookey

It is very common to hear When communities become Elibrada Gas Leak about oil spills, gas leaks or aggrieved and act out, they are Elibrada is one of the eight explosions and several kinds often repressed with officers communities in Emohua clan of environment-degrading of the Nigerian Armed Forces. in Rivers State, Nigeria. On incidents emanating from Responses from oil and Wednesday, 6 January 2021, oil and gas installations in gas companies in the Niger Elibrada experienced a gas communities in the Niger Delta regarding incidences of leak from a pipeline belonging Delta. There are scores of gas and oil leaks have been to a multinational oil and oil and gas pipelines, some anything but satisfactory. It gas company. The incident, underneath the lands and has been a circle of delayed, fortunately, did not lead to waters or on the lands where inadequate and insincere any death but has raised community people farm, fish responses, denial and shifting environmental concerns. and carry out other activities. of blame from the oil and gas “Some community people own Several of these pipelines are firms, which all claim to be farmlands around the area of putrefied from old age and practising sustainability. the gas leak,” a member of exposure to high humidity Oil spills and gas leaks have the community complained. due to contact with mud and continued unabated for over The gas leak happened in the water. 50 years in the Niger Delta, early hours of the morning, and in 2021 they began between 3 and 4am. While More often than not, spills and quite early. On Wednesday, some community members leaks are left unattended until 6 January 2021, Elibrada, a believe that the leaking gas communities rise up. They are community in Rivers State, pipeline belonged to the left to destroy farmlands, the experienced a gas leak that Nigeria Liquefied Natural aquatic ecosystem, drinking killed the vegetation around Gas company (NLNG), others water, and so on. the area.

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 41 believe that it belonged to the noise was so piercing that they thought it was coming Nigeria Agip Oil Company from right inside their residential area. The hissing noise is (NAOC). This confusion came usually considered to be the sign of a major and severe gas up as both oil multinationals leak. Apparently, this was the first time Elibrada community have their pipelines running on was encountering a gas leak from an oil and gas facility. the same line. Dr Vincent Weli, an air pollution meteorologist Clement Okogbule, an okada rider, in Elibrada informed that and senior lecturer in the “The leak continued from the early hours of Wednesday Department of Geography and morning till around 5-6pm before company officials came in Environmental Management, to stop it.” University of Port Harcourt, stated that “it was later Government and company officials reportedly visited discovered that the leaking the site on 7 and 8 January along with the community pipe belonged to Agip.” chief and youth chairman who joined the officials in the site inspection. Details of their visit are not yet known to An elder from the community, members of the community. At the time of this report, no Ben Igbere, narrated his information about the gas leak had been placed on NLNG’s experience: “Around 3:56am website to let the public know whether or not the pipeline on Wednesday, we heard a in question is theres. loud sound like a cannon gun, a deafening noise. The sound A disturbing scenario surrounding the incident was woke people from their sleep. narrated by Dr. Weli who expressed great concern. People began to run helter- According to him, “A television broadcast of the incident skelter as the noise continued. was showing a trench that was dug together with a It was quite unusual.” generator, suggesting sabotage. I tell you the truth, that pipe ruptured without anybody touching it. When I wanted A group of youths who shared to start taking measurements to do my report and get their experience said that they power of attorney from my community, I was also informed heard a hissing noise at about that (on the site of the pipeline) there was a trench that 3am on Wednesday and that was dug with what looked like equipment that was used to rupture the pipe and that phones and other things were found. This got me confused. It was later I got information that this was what the companies do when such things “Around 3:56am happen. They want to create a scene of sabotage.” on Wednesday, It is no longer news that sabotage is the best plea and play of oil and gas multinationals, especially those operating in we heard a loud the Niger Delta, against the environmental havoc caused by sound like a their operations. cannon gun, a deafening noise. The gas leak incident has left Elibrada community members with a sense of insecurity as they are reminded of the The sound woke constant danger that host communities to oil and gas people from their installations are exposed to on a daily basis. According to sleep. People Ben Igbere, “this is why it is good for communities that are close to gas pipelines to always be a concern [be cared began to run for] to government as well as oil and gas companies. This helter-skelter will enable the government and company to think out as the noise compensation plans.” “Nobody knew that such an incident continued. It was would happen,” he concluded. quite unusual.” The exact cause of the gas leak is not yet known. Some recorded causes of a gas leak include faulty equipment and wells that are poorly prepared. It is the hope of the

42 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 community members that Recommendations efforts will be made to prevent a repeat of the incident. 1. Investigations should be The exact carried out to ascertain cause of the gas The presence of several the exact cause(s) of the leak is not yet flammable and toxic gases gas leak and adequate make gas leak in the facility actions taken to ensure known. Some of an oil and gas company non-reoccurrence. recorded causes dangerous. Some of these 2. Community members of a gas leak gases include methane and should be given adequate include faulty Volatile Organic Compounds education concerning (VOC), which are detrimental safety measures that equipment and to the atmosphere and must be adhered to when wells that are exacerbate climate change. gas leaks and related poorly prepared. According to research, those incidents occur. around a gas leak site may 3. Adequate compensations It is the hope of experience illnesses with should be paid to the community physical symptoms such as community members members that breathing problems, dizziness, whose farmlands were efforts will be headaches, feelings of nausea, affected by the gas leaks, light-headedness and fatigue. and procedures should be made to prevent The possibility of community put in place to ensure that a repeat of the members experiencing these their farmlands remain incident. symptoms cannot be ruled out fertile. as, even after the leak, some community people were not scared of going into the area of the leak without protective coverings.

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 43 Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future: New Entrants in the Climate Movement

BY SONALI NARANG leaders gathered for the 2014 UN Climate Summit. The climate movement is closely connected to other parts of the , in particular groups aiming for a sustainable society and sustainable energy. With this movement, new youth international organisations have emerged to join the climate change movement, such as Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future.

Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion (XR) Photo: Markus Spiske. is a global environmental movement with the aim of using nonviolent civil The climate movement march in Copenhagen on 12 disobedience to compel is the collection of non- December 2009, calling for a government action to avoid governmental organisations global agreement on climate. tipping points in the climate engaged in activism related to system, biodiversity loss, and the issues of climate change. The activism went beyond the risk of social and ecological It is a subset of the broader Copenhagen, with more collapse. Extinction Rebellion environmental movement, than 5,400 rallies and was officially established in but some regard it as a new demonstrations taking the United Kingdom in May social movement given its place around the world 2018, with about one hundred scope, strength and activities. simultaneously. The climate academics signing a call to The 2009 United Nations movement convened its action in its support in October Climate Change Conference largest single event on 21 2018. It aims to persuade in Copenhagen, Denmark, September 2014, when it governments to act justly and was the first United Nations mobilized 400,000 activists expeditiously on the climate Framework Convention on in New York (plus several and ecological emergency. Climate Change (UNFCCC) thousands more in other It had then declared that we summit in which the climate cities) during the People’s only have 12 years to stop movement started showing Climate March. The March catastrophic climate change its mobilization power on a was organised by the People’s and our understanding large scale. Between 40,000 Climate Movement to demand that we have entered the to 100,000 people attended a climate action from the global 6th mass extinction event.

44 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 The movement now has a skip Friday classes. They do presence in 75 countries, this so as to participate in If elected officials fail including India. The group demonstrations to demand has “three core demands” that political leaders take to act, we can expect for governments around the urgent action to prevent these young people to world. It wants governments climate change and for the adopt more disruptive to “Tell the Truth”, to “Act fossil fuel industry to transition tactics and do the Now”, and to “Go Beyond to . From work on the ground Politics” in order to confront Jakarta to New York City, to elect new leaders. the climate and ecological children and teenagers are emergency that the world walking out of class and Even if they cannot is faced with. It wants marching in the streets to yet vote themselves, governments to communicate demand action on climate there are many ways the urgency to bring change change. And the world is they can—and will and reduce greenhouse gas taking notice. Communications continue to—shape emissions to net-zero by experts say these young 2025. XR seeks to “rebel” and climate activists are using our politics and our asks groups to “self-organise” their moral authority as future. without anyone’s permission children, and their social and to come up with collective media savviness, to surf a action plans as long as they rising tide of adult concern. An adhere to the group’s core estimated 1.6 million kids in talking about climate change principles and values. 125 countries hit the streets for decades, but the latest during a protest in mid- generation of protestors is Fridays for Future March 2019. And a youth- louder and more coordinated led demonstration planned than its predecessors. She The school strike for climate, worldwide for 20 September further added that “Young also variously known as 2019 was the largest climate people are getting so much Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth protest ever. Dana Fisher, a attention that it draws for Climate, Climate Strike or sociologist at the University more young people into the Youth Strike for Climate, is of Maryland in College Park movement.” an international movement who studies activism, said of school students who that young people have been #NoMoreEmptyPromises

In the first month of 2021, strikes, demonstrations and protests continued across the globe, with protesters demanding more decisive actions to tackle climate change. Activists and concerned citizens continue online campaigns and protests on the streets while keeping physical distant due to the coronavirus pandemic. Fridays for Future on 13 January 2021 announced the upcoming Global Climate Strike for March 19, 2021. Youth organisers from Fridays for Future chapters all across the world will be planning local marches Photo: https://fridaysforfuture.org for that day and, presumably,

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 45 some digital strikes, as well. #NoMoreEmptyPromises is the theme/hashtag for the upcoming strike. “Those in power continue to only deliver vague and empty promises for far off dates that are much too late,” reads a statement on Fridays for Future’s website.

According to the organisation, the goal of the planned strike is to demand world leaders to swiftly implement science- based, short-term climate targets that address justice and equity as part of the climate crisis. Part of what they want to highlight in the coming strike is the urgency of immediate action in the face of the weather- and Photo: https://fridaysforfuture.org climate-related disasters that have devastated various countries last year - from the different places, but their call pressure. If elected officials fail wildfires that afflicted parts of for #NoMoreEmptyPromises to act, we can expect these Australia, North America and is uniting people beyond young people to adopt more Latin America, to the droughts borders under the same disruptive tactics and do the in Africa, to the storms that goal of immediate climate work on the ground to elect devastated Central America change resistance movement. new leaders. Even if they and Southeast Asia. The Mitzi Jonelle Tan from the cannot yet vote themselves, climate strikes are an example Philippines is of the view that there are many ways they of youth becoming more if we do not act now, we will can—and will continue to— politically alert, rejecting adult not even have the chance to shape our politics and our inaction and demanding more deliver on those 2030, 2050 future. from governments. targets that world leaders keep on talking about. “What Dr Sonali Narang is a climate Conclusion we need now are not empty change researcher in India promises, but annual binding (Email snarang68@gmail. Climate activists, carbon targets and immediate com). environmental protesters cuts in emissions in all sectors and concerned citizens raise of our economy,” Tan implores. awareness on issues related When governments resist to climate change and the reasonable requests, decades environment on social media of social movements teach us and around the world. For that the number of activists over two years now, youth escalates. We can look at climate activists from around the histories of the HIV/AIDS the world have been striking movement, the Civil Rights and taking to the streets movement, African liberation to demand climate justice. struggles and “poor people’s Now, with the COVID-19 movements,” which show us pandemic, the actions will be that when people get driven taking on different forms in up the wall, they turn up the

46 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 Books You Should Read

The End of the Megamachine: The Pandemic Pivot A Brief History of a Failing by John Feffer

Civilization The Pandemic Pivot is a report from the by Fabian Scheidler Institute for Policy Studies, the Transnational Institute, and Focus on the Global South The book The End of the Megamachine: written by John Feffer. It is both a sobering A Brief History of a Failing Civilization by analysis of the present moment and a hopeful Fabian Scheidler is a loud alarm that must not cry on behalf of the power inherent in a global, be ignored. It offers great insights into the people-oriented response to the COVID-19 growing instability and looming collapse of the pandemic and the societal breakdown that Megamachine in the 21st century, showcasing led to it. The report offers insights into and an the dangers as well as new possibilities for actionable frame¬work for a just transition to systemic change that open up. The book a regen¬erative, anti-racist, feminist economy. exposes the roots of the destructive forces It demonstrates that equity and cooperation threatening the future of humankind today. are not merely nice principles but survival The first part of the book tells the origins of strategies. Reading The Pandemic Pivot economic, military and ideological power 5000 will propel a return to sanity and humane years ago. The second and key part of the gov¬ernance, and illuminate the way forward book retraces the formation and expansion of that is still possible if we begin soon. the modern world system over the last 500 years. The author dismantles Western progress mythologies and shows how the logic of endless capital accumulation has devastated both human societies and ecosystems from the outset. The book is a paradigm shift from a history of the winners to a people’s history. It is a must-read for any people-oriented person and change agent.

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 47 Upcoming Activities Our School of Food Policy Dialogue /Advocacy Ecology provides Abuja, 24 March 2021 spaces for the interrogation of School of Ecology - Environmental Justice colonialism in the 6-7 April 2021 framework of the Biosafety Conference and Rally colonisation of Abuja, 13-14 April 2021 Nature.

Dialogue with Students Abakaliki, 21 April 2021

Community/Stilt Roots Dialogues Uyo & Bundu, Port Harcourt - 20-24 April 2021

Conversations on Ecocide 25 May 2021

Always visit www.homef.org for upcoming events and how to participate.

48 / ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 Looking to help? If you would like to join our team of volunteers, send an email to

volunteershomef.org

ECO-INSTIGATOR #31 / 49 homef conversations The HOMEF Webinar series explores the areas of Climate Change, Food Systems, Fresh Water Ecosystem and other Socio-Ecological issues.

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Health of Mother Earth Foundation

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