Niger Delta Environment in Dire Straits, Says Robert

Austin Ekeinde

Entrepreneur and founder of Zeetin Engineering, Azibaola Robert, has observed that the world is headed for the precipice if man’s unwholesome activities remained untamed. Robert who has taken proactive steps to preserve the Niger Delta environment for years had after an expedition into the forests of the region, returned with lamentations over the degradation.

“I have long had the firm belief and been a witness to the fact that the world we all live in is heading to the precipice due to some of man’s untamed activities. My assertion was informed by the discoveries I and my team made during an expedition into the deep rainforests of the Niger Delta region in 2021, under the auspices of my foundation, tagged, ‘Expedition Into Deep Forests’, an environment-sensitisation and non-profit organization,” he said.

He stated this while delivering a lecture titled: “Azibaola Robert’s 14-day Expedition into Deep Forests: An Assessment of the Environmental Conditions of the Niger Delta Rainforest”, during the seventh Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Association for Environmental Impact Assessment of Nigeria (AEIAN) held at the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) conference hall, Abuja last week.

Robert said that the situation in the Niger Delta region, one of the vital rainforests in the world from where the oxygen we breathe is produced, is dire because, “there have been mind-boggling explorations and production of crude oil which have over the years become the dominant source of environmental pollution to lands and waters, flora and fauna. To say that the environment of the Niger Delta is in dire straits is an understatement. It is exploited and devastated.”

The environmental situation in the Niger Delta region is further worsened according to Robert, due to “frequent massive oil spills resulting from negligence, or old and rusty pipelines, and/or intentional sabotage of crude lines for purposes of securing maintenance contracts and/or compensation by communities, mind-boggling deforestation for timber, firewood, canoe carving, and farming.”

He added that issues of heavy rains “have caused soil erosions, flooding, and rising sea levels. The cumulative result of all these is the permanent effect of loss of biodiversity in the region, which is the main cause of Climate Change in our world.”

It is for this reason that Robert and his team visited deep forests of the Niger Delta rainforests in late 2021 for on-the-spot assessment and shared their experience at the public lecture.

Robert, who had his early childhood in the Niger Delta community of Otakeme (just few kilometres from Oloibiri, where Nigeria first struck oil in commercial quantity in 1957) in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, reminisced witnessing the early stages of oil exploration in the region.

“I knew then how the Niger Delta rainforests environment was. It was a beauty to behold; a most serene environment I have beholden. Full of life, varieties of fishes, innumerable species of trees, marshland of various wildlife, beautiful and variegated birds, etc. It was a region of endless canopies of trees filled with majestic snakes, roaming, roaring animals, food and medicine on the spot while in the forest.

“You would not lack anything if you were in the forest of the Niger Delta; so far you had a machete and a matchbox. Although we enjoyed ourselves during our 14-day expedition into the deep forests of the Niger Delta, it was heart-rending for me to witness, firsthand, the environmental destruction that has taken place in the region over the few decades.”

It is against this background that he and his colleagues undertook a 14-day expedition to find out “what has happened to the region’s environment, and to tell the world what the real situation is.” The team’s experience was “heart-rending”, says Robert, leader of the team.

“We realised that most of their pristine forests had been depleted by wood loggers for personal gains. Timber logging is big business which has become the bane of the people.

“We also realised that one of the primary occupations of the local people, being fishing, is almost becoming extinct. Fishes in the forest have been depleted to the extent that there is no more natural habitat for them to breed due to deforestation and poisoning from oil spillage. Environmental pollutions from crude oil spills have become a regular occurrence such that people now find it normal in their day-to-day lives.

“The rich biodiversity and wildlife are greatly depleted and continues to be depleted; most species of animals have become extinct. The resultant-effect of all these is that the means of livelihood of the locals has been taken away from them and survival has become a struggle. These have also affected their culture and ways of life, and resort to adopting extraneous means of survival,” he lamented.

He cited “themes in most of our early literature by writers like Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart); Ola Rotimi (The Gods Are Not To Blame), and more, where he argued that the concept of ‘evil forest’ by clans and villages was their own way of protecting the environment as it had done in his own Otakeme community.

He argued that the ‘liberation’ of such ‘evil forests’ opened the floodgate of mindless exploitation of forest resources in the Niger Delta region, adding, “Huge trees were targeted, cut down and logged for personal gains.

He continued: “Animals’ sanctuaries were invaded, destroyed and now a lot of species are faced with extinction. Large lands were being cleared for installation of pipelines and oil facilities. Gases were then being flared 24hrs a day non-stop. Animals now had 24hrs daylight! No alternative sanctuaries were arranged for the wildlife as it is done in other climes where oil must be explored, but native species must be relocated and protected.”

Robert urged the communities to reconnect with their pre-colonial “cultural ways of life with inbuilt systems peculiar to them for biodiversity preservations and wildlife conservation,” and “help preserve the ecosystems and ensure sustainability of life.”

However, there is hope of reversing the dire situation, Robert said, following their engagement with the rural rainforest communities of Otakeme, Otabagi, Otabi, Otuoke, Otuegila, etc, in Ogbia LGA of Bayelsa State “together with local and international media organisations, embarked on an enlightenment programme in some community to serve as benchmark for other communities to NGOs and government agencies to follow.”

The leadership and people of the communities are taking actions, Robert sad. They “have agreed to make rules to safeguard and protect their forests and, how they should be used, with particular emphasis on conservation for future generations.”

According to him, “We need to plant trees, as I have committed myself to doing; create forest reserves, ban logging of woods of less than internationally recommended sizes, stop crude spills, whether by oil companies or from locals, etc.”

He called for urgency, recommending “practical and collaborative efforts from federal and state governments and their agencies, national and international non-governmental organisations and local communities to ensure that effective policies were established and implemented in an effective manner.”

Robert re-echoed the danger: “The effects of Climate Change on all of us are real. We must do something together for the future generations. So, we must do something to ensure that trees continue to find sanctuaries in that region and help clean up our world. There is great need for urgent, practical and collaborative efforts from Federal and State governments and their agencies, National and International NGOs and Local Communities to ensure that effective policies are established and implemented in an effective manner.”