‘Nigeria recorded five oil spills per day between 2018 and 2019’

Nigeria recorded an average of five oil spills per day between 2018 and 2019.

This is according to a statement issued by Oilwatch Africa in its reaction to the recent 1,000-tonne oil spill that occurred in the coastal environment of Mauritius.

Oilwatch Africa has “warned that African leaders must not allow continent to drown in crude oil.”

Oilwatch in its statement noted “the right step taken by the president of Mauritius in declaring a state of environmental emergency over the oil spills. The responses so far, and experiences from oil spill handling in places like Nigeria and South Sudan shows a massive lack of readiness for the destructive spills that are routine in those countries and elsewhere. Nigeria, for example, has recorded an average of five oil spills a day over the period 2018-2019.”

Thuli Makama, member of Oilwatch Africa Steering Committee declared, “African governments should pay more attention to the environment and not place undue focus on vanishing petrodollars. The dream of building our economies on petroleum resources is a pipedream,” she stressed.

Oilwatch Africa, therefore, called on “African leaders to prepare for responses to disasters of the type unfolding in Mauritius.

“It is time to put in place strict laws and regulations to ensure that big polluters – fossil fuels companies as well as owners of oil tankers and similar—pay for their pollution and are held liable for related damages.

“The companies should equally be required to clean up their mess and not pass the costs to coastal communities and then environment.

Nnimmo Bassey, a Steering Committee member of Oilwatch Africa/International, the ecological disaster brought about by the running aground of a Japanese-owned ship, MV Wakashio, is a big warning to the continent. “Africa is wholly surrounded by water and is literally encircled by ships with diverse cargoes. Urgent steps must be taken by the African Union and in particular African countries to ensure that vessels circling the continent are seaworthy and do not have toxic wares as their merchandise.

“African Governments must take their responsibilities to protect the right to a healthy environment of all Africans by moving away from fossil extraction and combustion considering that this is one of the main causes of climate change. They must put the people’s rights in the centre of their decisions towards democratic energy access,” said Kwami Kpondzo, Coordinator of Oilwatch Togo.”

 

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

1,126 Killed, 380 Abducted In 7 Northern States —Amnesty Int’l
The GLOBAL watchdog, Amnesty International, on Sunday, claimed at least 1,126 rural dwellers in seven northern states of Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara, have lost their lives to rampaging insecurity in the zone since the beginning of the year. In a statement highlighting its recent findings, about 380 villagers were also reportedly abducted for ransom within the months under review, with victims’ relatives…

MONDAY LINES: El-Rufai Goes To Law School
I have this Igbo friend whom I call Omo Oduduwa. He speaks the Yoruba language with a competence that claps for whoever his teacher is – and he flaunts it. Every expression that shoots out of his trunk is rooted in wisdom. He once told me in Yoruba that his enemy was ill but he was the one taking medicine for the illness (ó re òtá mi sùgbón èmi ni mo nl’ògun). That statement I remembered when I read Professor Ishaq Akintola of…

Water Resources Bill: Lawmaker Says It Is Dead On Arrival
FEDERAL lawmakers are again smarting for a showdown with their leadership and the presidency once they resume from their annual vacation. The mutual ethnic suspicion in the polity will again reverberate in the consideration of the controversial National Water Resources Bill 2020, Nigerian Tribune investigation revealed. The bill which was shut down in the eighth National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki…

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT: Route To Iconic Leadership
The transformation of leaders into icons has much to do with what they don’t do rather than what they do. While it is fashionable for leaders to say ‘yes’ to a number of things, it is only those who make it a habit to say ‘no’ to many things that become icons. According to Warren Buffet, the investment guru, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost…