CONTAINING THE AITEO OIL SPILLS

The authorities must hasten their effort to stop the flow

Following the uncontrollable flow of oil that is fanning from a blowout in the facility of Santa Barbara Well 1 of Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company, operator of the NNPC/AITEO Joint Venture on OML 29, several communities in Niger Delta are now at serious risk. The cause of the blowout which started on 5th November is still being investigated but preliminary reports indicate equipment failure while officials of the company have not been able to contain the flow because of the high pressure believed to be life-threatening. This same high pressure is the reason a committee the federal government set up to investigate the spew and cap the wellhead has been unable to access the site. The inaccessibility of the wellhead location is reportedly due to the hydrocarbon fumes that have saturated the atmosphere in the area.

As things stand, it is imperative for the federal government to step in, beyond stopping Aiteo from continuing their work, which cannot continue anyway. There is an urgent need to invite experts from around the world that are familiar with this type of hazardous situation to help cap the wellhead and contain the spill. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment, community representatives and Aiteo should consider the long-term impact of this tragic incident.

Already, the oil spill has polluted the rivers and lakes in the communities, gravely affecting lives and livelihoods of the people. Sources of fresh water for drinking and cooking are contaminated. For many of the communities in Bayelsa and Rivers States, the situation is dire with a technical expert engaged by Ijaws in the Diaspora stating that “after 15-20 days of continuous flow, the spill has already released a minimum of 150,000 – 200,000 barrels of toxic hydrocarbons into the sensitive mangrove ecosystem and possibly twice that much. Even by international standards, this constitutes a major hydrocarbon spill, and its impacts are likely to be serious, extensive and long lasting.”

There is already an emergency. People in the affected communities need immediate assistance to enable them cope in their polluted environment. Experts have described the spill as a major disaster that threatens ecologically sensitive wetlands, killing fish, shrimps, and other marine lives, as well as birds. But more disturbing is that of the livelihood of the people threatened as their main stay, which is commercial fishing will have to be put on hold for a long time. It is even said that the situation may cause displacement of some people, unless properly handled.

NOSDRA has already instructed Aiteo to guarantee the future of its operations in the area by carrying out concrete actions to address the situation, which will include clean-up of impacted areas, remediation of spill site, as well as post-spill impact damage assessment. Aiteo says it is closely monitoring all activities related to the affected communities, viz. feeding, lighting, hygiene, drinking water and medical requirements with the help of local associations while also regularly monitoring the quality of air to ascertain the livability of the affected areas.

However, before a clean-up of the immediate and extended areas impacted by the blowout, the pressing challenge is to stop the flow. It is also important to learn useful lessons that would ensure we do not have this sort of tragedy again. The responsibility for that rests with not only Aiteo but all the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta.

Tuesday letter1

MINNA CITY CHORALE AND ORCHESTRA SOCIETY

How do you define “civilisation?” Well, contrary to the principle of relativity in physics, it would seem that the idea of “civilisation” is an idea of absoluteness, and this is where the world of today finds itself in abysmal mess because the conceptualisation of “civilisation” is warped, thus we have strife, terror, hunger, pestilence, etc., to show for pursuits of “civilisation” as savages define it. I have drawn an informal “scale-of-civilisation” (known to me and me alone as the schedule of “Refined-Cultured-Sophisticated,” R-C-S, by which I judge on a scale of one to 10 how I perceive the other person’s “tastes and actions,” with “open defecation habits” not even qualified to have the unity assigned value, naturally). It is Sunday 28th November 2021 and my former student here at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Stephen Harrison (music director), invited me over once again for a scheduled two-hour performance by the Minna City Chorale and Orchestra Society, an event I have come to tag in my mind, “an evening of savouring civilisation in the midst of adversity.” The anchor of the evening, Akin Agbejule (isn’t this compere one heck of a speaker of the English Language? Minna got talents, uh?), unknowingly taught me a brief lesson in musicology when he remarked in passing that what was the Minna Chorale Society now has a catchy appendage, the “Orchestra Society” and that explained the presence of a cello on stage plus the “big brother of cello,” a man-sized cello-esque giant called “double bass” if I heard right (the thought-consciousness “orchestra pit” briefly flashed through my mind). At the end of any session of this Society I have attended, I always come away with the feeling that Nigerians “aren’t yet enjoying life, even the ‘big men’” but, with the right re-set buttons pushed down, we can do “merriment” and be “merry people” though we should spare a thought for Leah Sharibu and those hapless Nigerians sharing her fate this moment. I always feel rotten that I could not do anything to assist this Society spread its wings, so to say, but it was “sweet music to my ears” when the Minna patron of this Society, Pastor Yerima El-Samaila (was he not the one my late best friend, Samuel Ekpeyong, recalled as Pastor Samande of the Faith Foundation Church in the early 1990s?) mentioned that Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s veep, is a keen and avid “fan” of this Society. Now, eh eh, I said it, I knew it in my heart, the one who can appreciate the productions of this Society is a “sophisticated dude.” Good news there by Pastor El-Samaila, plus the announcement that the veep’s 2021 “Christmassing” involves a performance by this Society by mid-December at Abuja. Oh, boy! Now, those “re-set buttons” are being pushed down so folks outside Minna may also be “merry” especially since “’tis the season to be merry, la la la la la la la la la.” Yeah, if one judges Minna town by its “culturisation or ‘life’ or happenings,” it’d be a surprise that a high-cultured orchestra group can be domiciled in Minna. But, thank God for Christianity and the grits that determined Christians possess to nurture and sustain “lively ideals” (like education, gospel music, folk music, entertainment, hospitality businesses, etc.) in the face of near-impossible odds. The Minna City Chorale and Orchestra Society is matured now to be a global travelling band, bringing succour, à la Africa free-spirited enthusiasm, to troubled souls around the world. My hunch about this Society’s great potential and sophistication has been vindicated by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. The humble beginnings of this Society and the “humble-humblity” of Minna town was the reason for that nagging, “uh, really?” thing at the back of my mind.

Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State