Jonathan’s dilemma over UN report on Ogoniland

Tribune

9 August 2011

Jonathan’s dilemma over UN report on Ogoniland

Leon Usigbe highlights the content of the report by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on its environmental assessment of Ogoniland, received by President Goodluck Jonathan, last week, in Abuja. He submits that Jonathan faces a dilemma in view of the requirement for the clean-up of the land and other areas affected by long years of oil spillage in the Niger Delta.

++++

The Ogoniland environmental assessment project started when former President Olusegun Obasanjo set up a presidential committee in 2005 to oversee the survey and clean-up of Ogoniland. The committee, which was headed by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Monsignor Matthew Hassan Kukah, was, however, constrained by the enormity of the task and recommended the involvement of the UN, a position also canvassed by Ogoni people. At the presentation of the report, last Thursday, Bishop Kukah told President Jonathan that the report put to rest past innuendoes and speculations on the Ogoniland question and advised the president to begin his much-touted transformation agenda from implementation of the report on Ogoniland.  Conscious of the laxity of government associated with the implementation of reports, Kukah hoped that this administration would have enough political will to tackle the issues as thrown up by UNEP’s findings.

The requirement to undertake the clean-up of Ogoniland is massive in every respect. For President Jonathan, there is a dilemma, more so as the issue of environmental degradation arising from oil spillage goes beyond Ogoniland, even though this study was Ogoniland-specific. However, Jonathan has committed himself to every necessary effort towards the implementation of the recommendations.  As a Niger Deltan himself, he is not unfamiliar with the issues at stake in Ogoniland and the rest of the Niger Delta where oil spillage, caused by the activities of multi-national companies, has been a long-running concern.  As he received the UNEP report, he worried about capability of the country to pull off the clean-up and therefore requested for the UN assistance.   Jonathan was of the view that the Ogoniland issue was a case study which would also help government to look into other parts of the country where oil exploration and production have been going on over the years