By Akinwale Kasali

A Foundation under the aegis of Clean Ecosystem Foundation, has urged President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to work out modalities for the payment of $100 billion to Oil Producing Communities in the Niger Delta.

The fund, it said, is compensation for years of oil exploration and exploitation, which the group said has led to irreversible damages to the livelihood and the ecosystem.

The group said the fund will douse raging tension, hopelessness, and should be paid into a special account to be administered by Oil Producing States in collaboration with local and international environmental groups.

The Clean Ecosystem Foundation which was registered in 2019, in the report issued at the weekend, said the recommendation came after a month long tour of nine oil producing states in Niger Delta.

The fact-finding tour made up of seven environmental experts began in early January and ended this week.

“There is the urgent need for the Presidency and the National Assembly to pay $100b to oil producing communities in the Niger-Delta.

“This fund is needed very urgently, specifically to address provision of health facilities, replenishment of floundering rare animals, plants and fish species which have been devastated for the past 65 years.

“The fund should also focus on reviving fishing and agriculture and should be worked out urgently before it is too late,”

The statement was signed by the Group’s Executive Director, Mr Isaac Onome. He said he would work with local and international organizations to exert pressure on the Nigerian Government to make payment of the $100b this year.

He recalled that the leadership of the group led by Onome once met the former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, who indicated deep interests in the challenges faced by people from oil producing communities in Nigeria.

The group said the oil producing communities are currently not feeling enough the direct impact of Government’s  various interventions due to bureaucracy and the existence of local and national cabals that have taken over funds allocated through the various state-driven agencies.

The organization said the experts conducted extensive medical, biological and carbon emission tests which indicated that life expectancy in oil producing communities in the Niger Delta have been reduced to half of what it used to be 65 years ago.

Onome decried the absence of medical facilities, lack of access of oil producing communities to healthcare, lack of access to drinkable water, significant loss of absence of protein which is essential for growth and the abundance of carbon monoxide and other gas and oil related emissions which combine to destroy livelihood of the people in the oil producing communities.

“We met no fewer than 5000 people and conducted medical tests on thousands of people and soil test in several communities. The conclusion is that the Niger Delta is a walking corpse,” the group said.

While it acknowledges the creation of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), the existence of the Petroleum Industrial Act,(PIB) but said they are not retroactive to deal with historical injustice that bedeviled the Niger Delta prior the creation of those institutions.

The Group said the FG has consistently given special grants to the North East and North West even with the existence of Development commissions in the two regions.

This is the reason why the Federal Government needs a multi-dimensional approach that directly address the needs of oil producing communities in Niger Delta, the group said.

Clean Ecosystem said millions of people from oil producing communities are exposed to cancer, skin and eye irritations, low birth weight, preterm birth, decreased immunity, reproductive problems, neurological impairments, heart problems, asthma and dizziness arising from oil and gas exploration.

The group said, “it was the first time in recent time that any civil society organization visited all the oil producing communities without exception to conduct soil and blood tests on a large scale, meeting with the people, sharing their experiences and documenting them for posterity”.

He said the NDDC and the Petroleum Industry Act cannot address the affliction of the past, whereas the injustice of the past 65 years are monumental and can never be wished away. The group said apart from obstacles associated with political interference, the current instruments do no reach majority of people in oil producing communities.

The Niger Delta Development Council, NDDC was established by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on the June 5, 2000, with the sole mandate of developing the oil rich Niger Delta Region. As of November 2024, Nigeria’s oil production was 1.8 million barrels per day.