By Sunny Awhefeada,
Ogoni implicates agony whenever it is mentioned. To underscore this reality, a 1998 book titled Ogoni’s Agonies: Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Crisis in Nigeria edited by Abdul Rasheed Na’ Allah, frames the totality of the perennial agony occasioned by the exploration and exploitation of crude oil in Ogoniland. Crude oil that the Nigerian state counted as blessing became a curse to the Ogoni people as the exploratory activities of Shell and other oil multinationals turned the once lush fertile rainforest and beautiful rivers into a vast wasteland and waterways of death.
The International Oil Companies (IOCs) ruptured the pristine and peaceful ambience of Ogoniland and lit a fire that destroyed the land and people leaving a huge ecological crisis. Crude oil with all its devastating essence flowed into the rivers, streams and swamps and laid them to waste. What was to follow was the wiping out of Ogoni from the face of the earth. Then a man, Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa, an Ogoni, thought something must be done to save the land and the people.
Together with others he led a struggle on the platform of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) to draw the attention of the world to “Ogoni’s agonies”. Ogoni landscape was militarized and subjected to untold repression. The struggle raged for close to a decade and in the end Saro-Wiwa and eight others were hanged by the Nigerian state in November 1995. It was this chain of incidents that provoked the Na’ Allah’s edited Ogoni’s Agonies…….
If the Nigerian state and the IOCs thought that they got away with the tragedy they foisted on Ogoniland, they failed to realize that no degree of conspiracy and military repression can forever suppress an altruistic struggle aimed at the liberation of an oppressed people. In death, the plaintive voices of Saro-Wiwa and all the others undone by the Nigerian state and the IOCs continued to be heard.
The voices troubled the world and humanity looked in the direction of Ogoniland. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was one of the leading global agencies that heard and heeded the voices. UNEP swung into action and at the end of it, authored a report prescribing a cleanup of Ogoni territory for the land and people to live again. The activities heralding the cleanup took time to get started. But when they did, the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) took the lead with its apt motto “remediating the environment and restoring livelihoods” which was what the IOCs destroyed and took away. HYPREP took the bull by the horns and went to work to make Ogoni come alive again.
So far, the work of HYPREP has not been given the needed exposure and attention. Yet, HYPREP has done so much in rejuvenating Ogoniland and reframing its narrative of agony into relief and hope. The alliterative alignment of Ogoni and agonies in Na’ Allah’s book is fast yielding place to a new narrative of revival for the once despoiled land.
The second week of this month saw a team of newspaper columnists conducting an independent tour of Ogoniland to do a firsthand appraisal of HYPREP’s intervention.
At the instance of the cerebral politician, administrator and newspaper columnist, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, the team toured Ogoniland and bore witness to the massive transformation of the environment that is taking place there. From Khana, to Gokana, Tai and Eleme, the four local government areas that made up Ogoniland, HYPREP has shown capacity and commitment to restoring the area into a habitable entity. The presence of HYPREP and its activities dominate the landscape and rivers. Nothing is left untouched in the cleanup project.
The people of Ogoni now drink and cook with portable water. This was impossible in recent past when the water was polluted by crude oil. The water schemes in Kpoghior/Gio, Barako and other ninety communities now ensure a healthy life for the people. The coverage of the water scheme projects is now an average of eighty percent for the entire Ogoniland.
There is ongoing massive excavation and treatment of polluted soil. Some of the spots visited contained crude oil deposits that are being sucked out and taken away for disposal. This will make the land habitable for humans, good for farming, animal husbandry and other human activities. Locations at Ajeokpori, Obajioken, Obolo-Ebubu were among the many remediated sites. HYPREP deployed injection wells with oxygen in giving life to the soil once again. There has also been re-vegetation and crop-testing.
The despoiled shoreline is similarly receiving attention. From Goi to Bodo and Bomu, one is taken through a long stretch of streams, rivers and expansive swamps which make up the Ogoni wetlands.
The ingenuity of HYPREP’s intervention is depicted in what is being done to clean up the shoreline and waterways. A system described as low pressure-flushing is being deployed to remove hydrocarbon from the waterways and wetlands.
This will depollute them and make aquatic life possible again. Of significance here is the restoration of the mangrove forest which once overwhelmingly accounted for more than half the biodiversity of the region. The mangrove exudes oxygen that imbues it with a therapeutic essence. Fish and other aquatic species also find their home in the mangrove habitat. It was this mangrove ecology that was becoming extinct due to pollution. There is still a barren patch we were told was once lush mangrove belt that was wiped out by oil pollution. That patch, like many others, is being subjected to pressure-flushing and reclaimed.
The areas already certified depolluted are fast becoming vast mangrove terrains as new mangrove trees are being planted on a daily basis. Thousands of mangrove trees have been planted and the natives have been taught the technology of nursing mangrove seedlings from which they now earn a living. Members of the visiting team also took time to plant mangrove trees. Signs of life returning to the reclaimed waterways are evidenced in the crystal waters, fishes and birds that fly and walk daintily by the shores. The sea crab which the Ogoni call Yaakanwa famed for its culinary and aphrodisiac value has also returned to dwell in the new mangrove.
Beyond land and water remediation, HYPREP has also embraced the holistic manifestation of human capital development. Education and health have been privileged up to the tertiary levels. Primary schools, secondary schools, a university of environment at Tai and a center of excellence at Wiiyaakara also for environment have sprung up in Ogoni. Primary health care centres, cottage hospitals and a specialist hospital at Dotem have also registered their humanizing presence. There is also a smooth network of roads connecting the different communities.
The educational facilities, the university and the center for excellence, are intended to be of global standard and what is already on ground at the centre is breathtaking. Put together, the average work completion rate of the education and health projects is seventy-five percent. All the sites visited have workers working to meet deadlines.
The ongoing remediation project is fast changing the Ogoni narrative from a tale of agonies to relief and hope. The transformation of the degraded environment is not in doubt. What is most commendable in this effort is the people-centric character of the project. Much is being done in the restoration of means of livelihood and occupational interest in farming and fishing. The people are fully involved in the remediation projects and many of them have been trained in vocational skills.
The provision of portable water, building of hospitals, a university and a research centre devoted to environmental studies attest to the deliberate consolidation of human capital development. The Project Coordinator, Professor Nenibarni Zabbey and the head of Communications Dr. Enuolari Mba-Nwigoh have demonstrated capacity and passion needed for the execution of HYPREP’s humanizing mandate.
Despite the commendable nods, HYPREP should focus on more critical engagements with the public and involve more stakeholders in their work in order to guarantee the new lease of life for the Ogoni people who are beginning to savour what true happiness means.
