25 Years of Environmental Governance

BY BENNETT OGHIFO

The critical milestone that has been reached during these 25 years of civil rule is that Nigeria, a major producer of crude oil from which it derives a large chunk of its revenue, has yielded to international pressure to stop the use of its crude oil for economic development, as an initiative designed to lower the earth’s temperature as agreed at the Paris climate change conference. The Paris Agreement, in seeking to strengthen the global response to climate change, reinforced the goal of limiting global temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Thus, the federal government is vigorously pursuing its plan to transition from the use of fossil fuels to cleaner fuels, intensifying the use of gas as its transition fuel.

Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP) was produced in 2021 with the federal government committing to net-zero emission of carbon by 2060.

The energy transition plan could reduce Nigeria’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to 45% by 2030 and up to 90% by 2050, according to the federal government. President Bola Tinubu recently pledged to wean Nigeria from overdependence on petrol and diesel to utilise the more efficient natural gas resources. The president, who commissioned the expansion of the Ashtavinayak Hydrocarbon Limited (AHL) Gas Processing Plant in Kwale, Delta State, the Assa North-Ohaji (ANOH) Gas Processing Plant in Ohaji-Egbema and the 23.3km ANOH to Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) Custody Transfer Metering Station Gas Pipeline Projects, said the projects were good for Nigeria’s transition to cleaner and more efficient fuels. He also directed government agencies to buy vehicles powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

Regardless, environmentalists are gravely concerned that the federal government has neglected other more pressing issues of the environment that directly put the lives of Nigerians at risk. They are worried about these disturbing issues that were carried over from the military era, which the democratic leaders ought to attend to promptly but which, regrettably, they have neglected. It is a broad spectrum that includes dumping of electronic waste all over the country, soot/ash generated by illegal refining of crude oil or incomplete burning of organic matter, burning of seized crude by government officials and uncapping of crude oil well-heads by thieves, with its attendant pollution of freshwater mangroves and rivers in the Niger Delta, as well as coastal erosion in the South-west and the Niger Delta, unchecked gully erosion in the South-east, obliteration of villages and towns in the North by the ever-moving desert sand dunes, among others, are still not addressed effectively.

There is also no active plan to mitigate imminent flooding across the nation. People are only told to seek high ground or are lodged in refugee camps when they are caught in the cross-current, as the only adaptation plan, because politicians like to be seen as doing something for the people. Agencies of the government that should provide early warning to the people are poorly funded and cannot install early warning systems or visit communities to educate people on how to avoid impending flooding.

A report by the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD+), said Nigeria is rapidly losing its forest cover. This prompted the revered conservationist, Izoma Phillip Asiodu to call on the federal government, recently, to keep a promise it made in the 1980s to return Nigeria “to a situation where 25% of our area is covered by forests.” Izoma Asiodu CFR, who is the President Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), noted that Nigeria’s forest cover “Was 35% plus, at Independence. It is 3% now. Forests have been destroyed and there’s a world campaign, because until we get back to that recommendation of 25% of forest cover, the environment is in danger. Let us not be part of those who destroy the environment.”

Regardless of these woes, Nigeria has come a long way since the advent of democratic rule in 1999. Meanwhile, environmental issues in Nigeria first came to the fore in 1988 when whistleblowers in Italy alerted the federal military government that toxic waste in drums had been dumped in Koko, a coastal town in Delta State. The frenzy that followed that ugly event eventually led to the establishment of the Federal Environment Protection Agency (FEPA), which metamorphosed into the Federal Ministry of Environment at the dawn of democratic rule in 1999. Thereafter, all the states and the Federal Capital Territory set up their own environment ministries.

Some environmentalists do not see this as amounting to much. According to the Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, “after 25 years into civilian rule, the Nigerian environment remains comatose with the Niger Delta earning the dubious reputation of being among the top 10 most polluted regions in the world. The tin and coal mines of Jos and Enugu remain open sores in the land without decommissioning and proper closure.” He said deforestation, desertification, gully and coastal erosion, water pollution and sanitation issues remain huge challenges. While climate change is a major contributor to these challenges, sufficient efforts are not being made to build resilience, ensure mitigation, and enhance adaptation.

The proposed 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, he said, “is one project that will have serious socio-ecological consequences – especially because of its probable lack of environmental impact assessment with inputs by communities and relevant stakeholders.”

The poor consideration for communities is also highlighted by the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021 that criminalises host communities by holding them responsible for third party interferences on oil facilities. Further, the unwillingness of the government to prevent divestment of international oil companies from onshore oil fields without their taking full responsibility for almost 70 years of egregious ecological devastation of the Niger Delta is a serious concern that portends intergenerational harms.

A conservationist, Paddy Ezeala bemoaned the loss of about 94 per cent to 95 per cent of its original forest cover- only 3% to 4% left at the time democratic governance began, stating that illegal logging is going on unchecked. Ezeala said the desert has been encroaching at the speed of 0.6 kilometres every year into the country. “The current speed is not known for lack of data, but it can be gleaned from the silting of Lake Chad. What was the size of the lake before democracy and what is the size now? Democracy has not put us where we ought to be.”

However, he said it is not all gloom, as Nigeria has been able to put up respectable representation at the international level. The government has been able to domesticate all the agreements and take environmental conferences seriously. There is even a Presidential Committee on Climate Change, another Presidential Committee on Energy Transition. We have a leadership now that understands the international dynamics.”

At home, the government can do well to enforce environmental laws and regulations to stem illegal wildlife trade and prevent the use of the nation as a hub in this illicit trade.

BENNETT OGHIFO Trained in news writing by Reuters Foundation at Rhodes University, Grahams Town, South Africa, Bennett Eyituoyo Oghifo holds a bachelor’s degree in English and master’s in public administration from the University of Benin and a Post Graduate Diploma in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos. Oghifo is a fellow of Leadership for Environment and Development, (LEAD International), a global network supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, and a member of Africa Association of Science Journalists.