How the federal government sacrifice Nigerians for monetary gains

His views are supported by a 2011 report made available by Environmental Rights Action (ERA) which said gas flaring releases nitrogen oxide and other substances such as benzene and xylene which are known to cause cancers. The report explains that these pollutants can affect communities even 30km away from the flaring locations.

While gas flaring has officially been declared unlawful in Nigeria since 1984, the Nigeria government has continually allowed the practice to go on unhindered while the oil firms pay fines for flaring gas. Although oil firms say they are working to reduce gas flaring, reports indicate that gas flaring has increased and continues to increase in Nigeria.

Reports reveal that gas flaring in the Niger Delta will take more years to end than anticipated by the average Nigerian. This is because besides the unwillingness of the oil firms to stop gas flaring, the fines being collected from them by the federal government deter the government from implementing the law banning gas flaring.

Government’s inability to enforce the law, in the view of many, is attributed to weak institutions of government and Nigeria’s dependence on oil revenues, a situation which has given oil firms the strength to continue with impunity polluting and destroying the environment. Reports also show that there are about 100 gas flare sites in the Niger Delta, some of which have been in existence since the early 1950s in the absence of any political will to bring the practice to a halt.

According to data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria lost up to N173.76 billion to gas flaring in 2014. The NNPC in its Annual Statistical Bulletin for 2014, disclosed that oil and gas firms in the country flared 289.6 billion standard cubic feet (SCF) of gas in Nigeria in that year.

Flaring offenders, the report reveals, comprise the multinational oil companies which are the worst in terms of quantity, as they flared 211.836 billion SCF of gas, representing 11.2 per cent of their total gas production of 2.11 trillion SCF.

Production Sharing Contract, PSC companies followed as they flared 66.12 billion SCF of gas. Sole Risk/Independent oil companies produced 9.71 billion SCF of gas, utilized 1.85 billion SCF and flared 7.86 billion SCF, representing 424.5 per cent of the total gas produced in the sub-sector.

Similarly, Marginal Fields companies flared 3.78 billion SCF. Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL -53.6 billion SCF, Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC – 51.92 billion SCF, Mobil Producing Nigeria – 42.86 billion SCF; Nigeria Agip Oil Company, NAOC – 35.79 billion SCF; Addax Petroleum Development Company – 35.6 billion SCF; Total Exploration and Production – 22.78 billion SCF; Total Upstream Nigeria 18.73 billion SCF; Esso – 4.517 billion SCF; Chevron Texaco – 4.43 billion SCF; Amni Petroleum – 3.87 billion SCF of gas.

Economic experts have condemned the Nigerian government for being only interested in maximizing the monetary profits from oil production to the detriment of the people living in the area where the oil is produced and gas is flared. Oil companies, it is believed, find it more economically more convenient to flare the natural gas and pay the inconsequential fine than to re-inject the gas back into the oil wells or convert it to electricity for the people in the area.

Various legislative measures to curb gas flaring in Nigeria have been in place since 1969. Since 1984 it has been illegal to flare gas in Nigeria without the written permission of the minister of petroleum resources. The current penalties for gas flaring in Nigeria officially stand at $3.50 per 1000 standard cubic feet (SCF) of gas flared.

This is why oil and gas bearing communities in the Niger Delta are not happy with oil firms operating in the volatile region. The communities have expressed displeasure over the manner in which the firms flare gas and abandon the people to their fate. They are also displeased with the manner in which the federal government and the Department of Petroleum Resources collect fines from oil firms involved in gas flaring.

They have argued that the federal government, which enacted the law against gas flaring and criminalized the act, has failed to summon the political will to implement the law, but rather is happy to collect fines from oil firms and allow gas flaring to go unhindered and the community dwellers to bear the brunt.

Major oil bearing communities in the Niger Delta, and particularly Ndokwa West and Ukwuani in Delta, are bearing the burden of the activities of the oil firms. A leader in Obodougwa, a community hosting Energia Oil in Delta is an example of a community suffering from gas flaring in the region. Ebedei community in Ukwuani is another example of a community affected.

Leaders and members of the communities gave shocking details of how they are affected when gas flaring continues unabated. They argued that the federal government and the DPR are being insensitive to the plight of rural dwellers.

The communities told of the impact of gas flaring on all aspects of their lives including health, farming, water and the environment. They insisted that the federal government must stop the collection of fines from the oil firms and implement the laws against gas flaring or use the fines collected from the firms to develop the communities in the gas flaring areas.

Leaders of Obodougwa and Ebedei told NAIJ.com that various petitions had been written to the presidency and the federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources but no response had been received. They said that when they confronted the oil firms, the companies defended their continuous gas flaring on the grounds that they had paid fines to the federal government and the DPR. Hence, gas flaring has continued and the community’s people continue to suffer while the money goes into the coffers of the federal government.

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They expressed their helplessness, as their leaders in the national and state assemblies have failed to make recommendations to end the menace, perhaps because, as is alleged, they are benefitting from the oil largesse. The Obodougwa community secretary, Pastor Olise Benedict, told NAIJ.com: “Our years of farming have nothing to show for it. Our maize and cassava are not growing. We see the pains all over our bodies. Our people have emaciated because of the smoke that goes into the air and falls on us. We plant yam and maize, they don’t survive, even our cassava has failed to yield. You see the stem standing but nothing underneath it.

“Many of us are partially blind because of the smoke emanating from this gas. This thing is killing our people and no one is helping us to stop it. We have written petitions to the federal government but no response from them. The most recent was sent last year October. When we go to the oil companies they will tell us they have paid fines to the federal government, we become helpless. Then they will tell us to stay action.”

Some of the community elders in Delta also told NAIJ.com that they have been suffering from the negative impact of the gas flaring. Chief Ifuwa Agbaye, a 65-year-old man, reeled out the challenges that communities in proximity to gas flaring zones are passing through. He said many diseases go with the gas flaring, including blindness among the elderly.

Humphrey Uzuakpundu, a special assistant to Governor Okowa, said that the gas flaring has an enormous effect on the communities. “Our problem is how to get to the people in charge. Our water is spoiled, we can’t sleep at night because of excessive heat. Our health is also not okay because of gas flaring,” he stated. Accusing fingers have continually been pointed at the federal government as sole beneficiaries of the oil largesse, whereas host communities are groaning in pain.

Henry Enwelikwu, another community member, called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency over gas flaring in the region. He said compensating a community to allow gas flaring to go on unhindered should not be given consideration. He said representatives of the Niger Delta people in the National Assembly are not keying into the need to bring gas flaring to an end. Consequently, gas flaring continues unabated.

Across the Niger Delta region, woeful tales have become the lot of the communities whose farmlands, vegetation, water bodies and the general environment have been badly devastated by the impact of gas flaring. It has also affected the people’s health as various diseases accompany gas flaring in the area.

Rev Edward Obi, a Port Harcourt-based human rights activist from the National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in the Niger Delta, gave vivid details of the effects of gas flaring in the region. He said the gas flaring leads to acid rain.

“Rain water in gas flaring areas cannot be taken; the gas we breathe in can cause cancer. All over the world, it has been agreed that gas flaring should stop and we have agreed to work to make it stop in Nigeria. Rather than burning the gas, it should be converted to generate electricity for the people in the affected areas.

“It pains me that communities in the Niger Delta are living in this condition for the past years. We, in the civil society, are concerned over the impact of gas flaring. The oil companies are aware that there is gas in the villages but rural communities in the region are as poor as any other village in the third world countries.

“I begin to wonder how one can be sitting on top of gas and be as poor, dirty and suffering as church rats. There are some communities in the Niger Delta that for over 40 years do not differentiate between day and night because of gas flaring,” Rev Obi said.

Dr Michael Uzoigwe of the Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reforms said that within the next 10 years communities in the gas flaring areas could be wiped out due to the impact of the gas. He lamented the fact that government has passed several regulations against gas flaring but lacked the political will to implement the policies and compel oil firms to end gas flaring.                                                    

Faith Nwadishi, another human rights activist, said concerted efforts have been made to force government and oil firms to commit to ending gas flaring but government has rather resorted to collecting fines while gas flaring goes on unhindered in the region.

She said governments at all levels must wake up to their responsibilities. “A law has been passed which criminalizes gas flaring. But rather than implementing the law, the federal government goes around collecting fines from the oil firms. And the oil firms see it cheaper to pay fines than end gas flaring.”

Nwadishi further said: “Right from day one, a company is not expected to flare gas the way they flare it in Nigeria. They are only supposed to do operational flare but they have refused to obey the law because the government that passed the law is not willing to implement the law it passed.

“They collect the fines and they do not return it to develop the communities. We cannot have a law that says gas flaring is evil and we have a government that encourages firms to continue gas flaring and collect fines from them. This is injustice and it cannot continue.”

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