A human rights organization, ‘We The People,’ has said that it is considering legal options to hold international oil companies responsible for the massive environmental degradation from their operations in the Niger Delta for the past seven decades.

The organization said the move became necessary following the rush by the IOCs to abandon their onshore operations for deep offshore activities currently called divestment.

Executive Director of ‘We The People,’ Ken Henshaw, stated this during a Legal Roundtable on Oil Company Divestment, held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Henshaw said the roundtable was aimed at galvanizing experts on the environment, legal system, the media and civil society organizations to proffer legal options to hold the IOCs responsible for the years of environmental carnage in the Niger Delta before they are allowed to embark on what many have described as the criminal flight of oil multi-nationals.

According to The PUNCH, he noted that it would be difficult to hold the companies accountable for the pollution of the region caused by their operations once they leave the shores of the country, hence they needed to be tackled to take responsibility for their activities.

Henshaw stated, “Since 2020 to 2021, many international oil companies that have operated in the Niger Delta for nearly 70 years have all started selling off their assets, Agip is selling to Oando, Shell is selling to Renaissance Energy, ExxonMobil is selling to Seplat. They are selling off these assets and the players taking over these assets are indigenous companies.

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“We think that this is a real problem in the sense that we are not sure of the chances or opportunities of holding these companies accountable when they leave.

“We all know that the extraction of crude oil and gas has created different levels of problems. Routinely, gas has been flared for almost 70 years, routinely oil spilled for almost 60 years and this has caused serious ecological damage and also damage to the health of the people. It has made their fishing and occupation not viable.

“So after 70 years, we are simply saying that there is a need for us to assess the extent of negative impacts created by oil extraction and place liability and responsibility where liability and responsibility should be placed.

“We are simply asking through this meeting, what are the legal options available to hold these companies accountable?”

Delivering the keynote address, a specialist in Petroleum and International Law and Policy at the University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Ibiba Worika, urged the Federal Government to exercise restraint in ratifying the oil companies’ assets divestment.

Worika advised the government to ensure that companies address the historical pollution and other environmental concerns in the oil-rich region before being allowed to leave because the people will be at the receiving end.

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He said, “For us here in the Niger Delta, the divestment of IOCs is something that basically we are likely going to be at the receiving end, our environment has been essentially despoiled over the years due to decades of oil and gas exploration and development and historical pollutions have never been addressed by the oil majors or the government, and unfortunately, our communities are left alone to deal with this.

“The question is, should these oil and gas majors be allowed to divest their assets and just walk away, without addressing the historical pollution and other environmental concerns?

“I don’t think that would be fair, I think that the Federal Government should exercise restraint on giving its approval so we can have a round table discussion where these concerns can truly be expressed and let’s see what it is that can be done to address these concerns.”

Worika added that should the government fail to do the needful soonest, civil society organizations in the Niger Delta would be left with no other option but to institute legal action against the Federal Government and the IOCs.

He insisted, “I have not heard of any instances where a local government area or a state government took it upon itself to sue an oil major for and on behalf of the communities. I have not seen that, but we still have them sharing the revenues from oil and gas exploration from all these communities.

“If this is not done then I fear that we may have to institute legal actions ahead of the divestment, restraining both the Federal Government and the oil companies concerned from divesting until these matters are looked into, much more approximately, and of course remediation, as well as compensation packages are arranged for the communities.”

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On his part, a former Commissioner for Environment in Bayelsa State, Iniruo Wills, said the blame for unending environmental pollution in the region should be on political leaders, such as governors, ministers and senators from the region, who he accused of abetting the pollution of the environment.

Wills, who is an environmental advocate, alleged that the political leaders have allowed the trend to continue because of pecuniary benefits.

He said, “Some of us are surprised that no state government in the Niger Delta is doing anything serious about abating the pollution in the region. So this is an opportunity to call on the individuals, I don’t like fiction or ghosts, but individuals like you and I, who are holding the offices, have the authority needed to do something.

“Some of them are in Abuja, Abuja is too far, we are in the Niger Delta, who are people in the Niger Delta that we the people have put as our gatekeepers to defend us, to defend our territories, such as the governors? So the kind of pollution and other environmental hazards that we have been singing about for 50 to 70 years are continuing, not just because of the people in Abuja or the oil companies.

“It is because somebody or people who are governors, senators, or ministers of petroleum from the Niger Delta have refused to do anything about it.

“As of this moment that we are speaking, if pollution is continuing in Rivers State, it is because Governor Siminalayi Fubara does not consider it a priority. If it is continuing in Bayelsa State, it would be because Governor Duoyi Diri does not take it as a priority.

“The day that one governor in the Niger Delta considers that this thing is a danger to his people and he is going to deploy the full weight of his executive authority and resources to deal with it, this madness will come to an end.”

Tunde Odesola

Sleep is the next-door neighbour to good memory. This is the view of neurologist Andrew Budson and neuroscientist Elizabeth Kensinger in their book, “Why We Forget and How to Remember Better: The Science Behind Memory,” published in 2023 by Oxford University Press.

It’s my considered view that lack of sleep can twist the head backwards, like Humpty Dumpty-headed Nigerian leaders, who amass fleeting riches, little realising that life is a transient journey exemplified by the birth of Solomon Grundy on Monday, christening on Tuesday, marriage on Wednesday, sickness on Thursday, worsened on Friday, death on Saturday, and burial on Sunday.

Macbeth murdered sleep and he slept no more; Nigerian leaders murder sleep, yet they snore even more because hell lives here.

Both Budson and Kensinger believe that memory isn’t a bank that just sits somewhere in the brain. They aver memory is an active and effortful process. Using FOUR as a mnemonic for things to do to get information encrusted into memory, both researchers opined that the mind must (F)ocus attention, (O)rganise the information, (U)nderstand the information and (R)elate the information to something the brain already knows.

According to the authors, when someone goes to a party and can’t remember anybody they met or when a student studies for an exam and can’t recollect the content they know, such an individual cannot focus attention. When struggling to retrieve information from memory, the scholars advise the individual to avoid the urge to generate possible answers, saying in those trying moments, the individual should use retrieval cues such as remembering events at the party or what he read the last time he studied for the exam, ‘the context, and the possible connections’.

To store up information in memory for longer-term access, getting enough sleep is one of the most important things to do, counsel Budson and Kensinger, adding that, “Sleep helps information to move from being briefly accessible to being stored in long-term ways.” Eating right, engaging in regular exercise, keeping a healthy body weight and being socially active are other ways of keeping the brain healthy, says the researchers.

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Budson, a Professor at Harvard Medical School, contends, “There’s nothing wrong with outsourcing your memory or using memory aids. I offload my memory as much as possible. I have all my passwords written down in a secure digital place. I use calendars, planners, and lists.”

Kensinger has a piece of advice for the student studying for an examination: Do not cram! She explains that the need for sleep and the time it takes to reach understanding make it important for students to start their preparation early and keep it going throughout the semester rather than cramming right before a big test.

Chair of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Professor Kensinger says when the individual is aging, and not struck with Alzheimer’s disease or age-related diseases or disorders, the brain prioritises the gist of events by embracing the similarities across events rather than trying to hold on to each individualised event.

In an article, “Why We Have to Forget to Remember,” written in The Sunday Magazine, a psychologist, Oliver Hardt, says: “If we lost the ability to forget, we might also lose the ability to remember.” Hardt, an assistant professor at McGill University, explains the brain needs to free up space to make room for new memories.

Hardt, who specialises in cognitive neurosciences, says, “The brain is some form of promiscuous encoding device. It just forms memories of basically anything you pay attention to. If that goes on unchecked for days and days, the brain will be flooded with an army, almost, of useless memory demons that distract you in any way possible. That’s where the brain’s automatic forgetting process comes in.”

Furthermore, Hardt says ‘neuromodulatory events’ help the brain figure out which experiences are important. “If you get excited, or afraid, or you have a moment of surprise, or there’s something novel in it you didn’t expect, these experiences cause the release of certain substances in the brain (like dopamine and norepinephrine). They improve the memory-making process that is going on in the moment. If there is a strong emotion associated with a memory, there’s a greater chance it will withstand the brain’s natural forgetting process,” he explains.

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Although none of Budson, Kensinger or Hardt links brain health to corruption, the way Nigerian leaders loot the treasury while the populace hail will, no doubt, reveal profound research findings. Essentially, corruption is a function of the mind, with Nigeria being the rich farmland, where Òkété, the pouched rat, shoots at the farmer; ignoring the folkloric song, Òkété o ma yin’bon s’oloko, popularised by senior citizen Tunji Oyelana. With mouths full of palm kernels, pouched rats in government aim the bullets of inflation at the skulls of the masses as prices of goods and services soaraway.

Nigeria’s òkété leaders ignore the fate that made Macbeth describe life as ‘a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’.

If you read George Orwell’s Animal Farm, you will understand there’s nothing humans can do that animals can’t do when the ink in the quill of a writer is drawn from the well of creativity. Also, if you listened to Fela Anikulapo’s evergreen belter, Beast of No Nation, you can recollect the ‘egbékégbé’ atrocities performed by ‘òturúgbeké’ ‘animals in human skin’.

Once upon a time in Kogiland, there lived a little òkété called Bello. Due to its insatiable greed, the òkété could store plenty of palm kernels in its mouth for days and watch other òkétés’ children and aged òkétés starve to death. Inasmuch as its own children, family and friends eat and live well, it doesn’t matter whatever happens to all other òkétés. Because of its agility, the òkété can also store palm kernels in holes and treetops. It doesn’t matter if the palm kernels rot away, it’s okay insofar Òkété Bello’s family and friends have enough to feed and waste.

Òkété Bello soon grew big and arrogant. One day, it saw its reflection in the mirror inside the farmhouse. Òkété Bello didn’t see a pouched rat in the mirror, it saw a lion, a White Lion! It shouted, “Wow! Na mi bi dis!?” It took many steps away from the mirror, looked at itself fully, shook its white mane, and suddenly dashed forward, like a lion after a prey, stopping just an inch from the mirror, and roaring at the mirror, “I am a lion, a white lion!”

In a dark corner, the Tortoise cleared its throat, startling the òkété, who let out a squeak.

Tortoise: I bow and tremble, the White Lion.

White Lion: Are you talking to me, Tortoise?

Tortoise: Are you not the White Lion?

White Lion: Ehm, yes, I am.

Tortoise: Why don’t you go to Kutuwenji to join your fellow lions? I can lead you there.

White Lion: Sure? When?

Tortoise: We can go right away, I hate procrastination.

White Lion: I won’t devour you, don’t be afraid.

Tortoise: Thank you, sir.

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They trekked for three days and three nights, arriving at a wild plain by dawn. “You see that Iroko tree?” asked the Tortoise, pointing at a lone tree on the horizon, “Yes, I see it,” answered the White Lion. “Beneath it is the den of lions,” said Tortoise in a nasal tone, “Go and join your kindred, stop eating palm kernels, go and eat fresh meat and crack fresh bones.”

“Are you going back?” the White Lion asked Tortoise, who said, “Yes, I’m going back to Surulere to oversee the palm kernels on your behalf.”

There was a fierce battle for power when White Lion reached the den. Nobody noticed it. The aging lion from Katsina was abdicating the throne and aspiring lions were jostling to take over. The ferocious fight raised a cloud of dust. The den quaked. White Lion watched and pitched its tent with the Katsina pride against the Lagos pride.

The Katsina pride needed to bind the pinned-down Lion of Bourdillon, but the paws of the lion couldn’t hold the rope, so the white Lion strutted forward, “My claws and mouth can do the job. I’m the White Lion!” The Katsina lions looked at one another, they kept silent. White Lion, using its claws and mouth, ran the rope tight around the Lion of Bourdillon, calling the leader of the Lagos pride names. The Lion of Bourdillon kept silent, calculating.

At the last minute, the Lion of Bourdillon roared to life, shattering the rope and launching an onslaught. Lagos and Katsina lions fought all through the night and victory swung the way of Lagos in the morning. After the dust settled, the aging Katsina Lion retired to Daura. EmefieLion was the first casualty, White Lion is the second, and there will be more to go. In the winner-takes-all jungle, lesser animals mustn’t toy with the lion’s share. Lions don’t forget, only humans do.

The White Lion has transformed back to òkété aje lójú onílé, and has run into a hole. Nigeria’ll forget this drama very soon.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Facebook: @Tunde Odesola

X: @Tunde_Odesola

The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, has announced plans to review rates of mining licenses and other sundry fees payable by mining operators in the country.

Speaking during a consultative meeting with stakeholders in the mining industry on Thursday in Abuja, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, stressed that the review has become inevitable if government is to effectively fulfil its obligations of providing an enabling environment for mining operations whilst also raising more revenue for government.

He added that the plan would also boost the capacity of government to effectively reposition the mining sector and solicited the support of stakeholders for the impending increase in fees for mining licenses and other sundry fees.

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Highlighting efforts to reposition the mining industry, the Minister revealed that asides from on-going reforms, the administration is sanitising the mining environment through the newly unveiled mining marshals, which he affirmed has been conducting operations in parts of the country to protect legitimate miners and combat illegal mining.

The minister in a statement signed by his special assistant on media, Segun Tomori said, “For us to continue to ensure that we secure the mining environment and keep putting in place measures that will ease the operational difficulties and challenges that confront miners, we need to review the rates of mining licenses and other sundry fees.

“We felt that we can’t just do this without letting you know because invariably, you are the players in the industry.”

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Concerning the recent revocation of dormant mining licenses, the Minister noted that the government followed due process and extant laws guiding the action, emphasising that a 30-day restitution window still exists for operators that were affected.

It will be recalled that the Minister announced a restitution fee of N10m, 7.5m, 5m and 2.5m for Mining Leases, Small Scale Mining Licenses, Exploration License and Quarrying License respectively for revoked dormant licenses including those earlier revoked for default in payment of annual service fees.

In his submission, the Director-General of the Mining Cadastral Office, Engr. Obadiah Nkom, who also chair the fees review committee, stated that the committee recommended new rates that are affordable and will enhance the competitiveness of the fiscal regime of the mining sector in comparison with regional and global standards.

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Speaking on behalf of the stakeholders, the President of the Miners Association of Nigeria, Dele Ayanleke commended the Minister for his efforts to put the mining sector on global frontburner, expressing support for ongoing reforms and plans to review fees payable by operators.

He urged the minister to consider challenges faced by miners and ensure the rates are affordable.

Other stakeholders in attendance include Representatives of Women In Mining, Gemstone Miners Association and top officials of the ministry.