BENIN CITY- The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has called on the National Assembly to pass environmentally friendly and people oriented bills as it frowned at the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Reacting to the passage of the bill, Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, venting in a press statement, said the National Assembly failed to do justice to the bill which has been pending since 2008.
He expressed displeasure at the, “National Assembly for the approval of a paltry three percent for the host communities in the Host Communities Trust Fund,” saying, “It’s way below par, and constitutes an affront to the suffering rural communities.”
The frontal environmentalist stated that, “The three percent allocation for host communities is insufficient due to the ecological dislocation of the region which has culminated in an appalling level of pollution of agricultural land, fisheries and drinking water, thus, exposing thousands of people to serious health risks.”
Ojo urged the law makers to reconsider and stand by 10 percent agitated for by host communities owing to the level of degradation already suffered due to years of neglect by oil companies and government. He stated that oil companies should not be allowed to take undue advantage of Nigeria and Nigerians but follow international best practices in dealing with host communities where such facilities are located.
Nonetheless, ERA/FoEN also called on government to immediately divest the 30 percent allocation to frontier oil exploration and invest it in renewable energy development such as solar power to provide improved energy access to citizens given the deplorable state of the national grid.
ERA/FoEN upheld that the UNEP report estimates that it would take up to 30 years and an initial US$1 billion to clean up Ogoniland for instance.
