By: Felix Ikpotor
Youths of Ogoni in Rivers State have asked President Mohammadu Buhari to immediately sack the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi for his role in the alleged delay in the implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, report on oil impacted sites in Ogoniland.
The youths and stakeholders also demand the full implementation of the Local Content Act in the award of contracts in the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, and livelihood programmes for people of the area.
Failure to do so within seven days, the youths said would attract a mass protest at the Federal Ministry of Environment and shutdown of HYPREP activities.
Briefing newsmen after a meeting of Ogoni youth leaders and stakeholders in Port Harcourt, Comrade Saviour Oscar Imeabe, President of South South Youth Initiative said the mismanagement of the HYPREP clean-up program which was supposed to remediate the Ogoni environment and create succor to the people and the fact that the project has completely derailed from it motives, left them with no option than to inform the world about their disappointment and next line of action in a bid to return the project back on track.
He recalled that in 2017 when the clean-up program took off, Ogonis were very upbeat about their expectations but, “sadly five years after, two project coordinators have
come and gone and now we are operating with the third and the story is the same or even worse”.
He lamented that, “today all the contracts in HYPREP are being awarded to faceless contractors without recourse to the established Local Content Act which guarantee the local contractors a fair share of the allocation in the contract spread. Five years down the line, not even a single aspect of the project has been conclusively done, yet millions of dollars and billions of naira have been frittered away. The livelihood program which was also a key aspect of this project that was supposed to give a sense of belonging to the youths of the land has been so politicize and whittle down to a level that has turned Ogoni youths to beggars on a project they should claim
ownership of. This and many other ills in HYPREP today has made a mess and mockery of the good intentions of the President Muhammadu Buhari who came through as a white knight to the Ogoni people when we needed him most. The project which was supposed to be a field project has been converted to a paper work which exists only in Abuja while the degraded environment which was supposed to be remediated is left in further degradation. The current Project Coordinator literally lives in Abuja and wakes up daily to the whims of the minister who
has demonstrated complete lack of commitment to the project. Contractors who have no business in environmental works are those holding sway in
HYPREP today as long as they have Abuja connection.
The youths further demanded the full implementation of Local Content Act in the award of contracts in HYPREP based of 60/40 percent ratio in favour of the Ogoni people, immediate suspension of every attempt to withdraw three hundred million dollars ($300,000,000), from the Ogoni Trust Fund by the HYPREP management as alleged and the removal of the Minister of Environment who ‘has become a clog in the wheel of
progress to the implementation of the project, due to his constant bureaucratic bottlenecks that has delayed the project beyond expectations amongst others.
They warned that, ‘failure to show commitment and accede to our requests in seven days after the receipts of
our complaints, we shall have no other choice than to shut down completely the activities of HYPREP’.
Also speaking, Comrade Kingsley Menele, President, National Youth Council of Ogoni People, NYCOP, said the body has no confidence in any leadership of HYPREP as they have failed in the implementation of the UNEP report.
He called on the federal government to quickly intervene and call them to order or the youths shall protest at the expiration of the ultimatum.
On his part, Comrade Nwisabari Bani, Rivers State Chairman of National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) said they are in solidarity with Ogoni youths in calling for the implementation of livelihoods programmes for them.
A member of the late Ken Saro Wiwa family, Mr Yira Wiwa who also spoke at the briefing said they have led several delegations to HYPREP but all their demands have never been adhered to.
“We have led several delegations to meet the management of HYPREP but our demands have fallen on deaf ears. The area is still very much polluted, there is no clean-up going on anywhere. Since the present PC came on board in March, nothing has happened there except meetings upon meetings without any effect. The water project which has been bided for and people expecting it to happen is stagnant including the livelihoods programmes,” he said.
