A lot of 21st century Nigerians wake up every day with a set out plan and ways of achieving this; it usually starts out with a bath, dressing up in clean clothes, eating a healthy breakfast, getting in a car – or a bus – and going to school, or heading out in search of our ‘daily bread’. This is normal for us and the future seems bright. But beyond the somewhat hygienic quality of our food and water, the fuel in our cars and all ready-to-use commodities garnered from natural resources, most of us are not exactly conscious about how we are able to access these commodities; the details of what farm or water source those things actually come from or who makes it happen. We fail to acknowledge that some people live in the areas that contribute to providing us with our food. Every day, in the Niger Delta region, many of such people trudge through extreme levels of pollution threatening their existence and sustenance all because of the ambivalence of a natural resource that they had no choice over possessing.
Oil spills in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is one of the biggest problems facing the region since the discovery of oil, and a root cause of the continuous exacerbation of environmental hazards, economic decay, and deadly conflicts in the area. The indigenous people of the Niger Delta region have been living with the predicament for over five decades, suffering through the systemic destruction of the sources of their livelihood which revolve around the presence of fresh vegetation, clean water sources, and fish populations. Furthermore, rather than remain a blessing, the discovery of oil and constant oil spillage has caused the region to become highly volatile, overcome by high pollution levels, and prone to fire outbreaks.
The disastrous results of oil spillage continue to have a grave effect on the lives of the Niger Delta people who increasingly experience difficulties in fishing, farming, and trading–or even breathing clean air. And the effects are not just limited to the present and immediate effects on health and the environment, but in the collective ability of the people to develop socioeconomically. Currently, only a few groups and individuals, such as Amara Ijeoma Uyanna and Chinyere Nnadi of Sustainability International (SI. A non-profit organisation), are showing a commitment to ending the peoples’ suffering by undertaking restorative projects in the area.
Evaluations of the extent of damage done to the region have led the affected people in the region backed by local and international environmental activists, to intensify their demands for a cleanup from the parties responsible for the deteriorated state of the region. And organisations such as SI are volunteering to go the extra mile to ensure that a cleanup of the region does indeed take place, but with a socioeconomic foresight that improves the lives of the people who will remain there.
On March 31, 2016, SI launched the OneFarm Project aimed at reversing the atrocious outcome of decades of pollution in the Niger Delta by restoring “one farm at a time” using 21st century solutions. A United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report estimates that the dumping of over 546 million gallons of crude oil has seen over 10,000 oil spills plague the region since 1958. The United Nations (UN) estimates a successful cleanup of the Niger Delta region to cost $1 billion, and take 30 years to complete. Meanwhile the lives of women, men, and children along with their livelihood has been severely contaminated andinterrupted by the inconsiderate actions of a few. Chinyere Nnadi, Co-Founder of SI, gives more insight in a summary of their situation in this moving video.
For Chinyere, the current state of the region is quite personal. Growing up in Nigeria, he witnessed the hazards of the pollution firsthand, as his family had prospered along the banks of the region’s delta for generations. Today, like a true member of the ‘Cheetah generation’, Chinyere is taking the skills that he gained studying in the United States to boost Nigeria’s social and economic progress. “We spent the last half-century destroying the Niger Delta and Africa for its oil and natural resources”, states Chinyere, “But now – and in the future – we will need it for its food, so we must reverse the damages of the 20th century.”
To carry out their mission, the SI team armed themselves with practical and biotechnological solutions for the farms in the region and started a campaign to raise $25,000 to assist in implementing their plans. This also involves providing Nigerians and the rest of the world with a real time documentation of the problem in the Niger Delta region, and every progress that they make in the farms using virtual reality film technology.
Amara, a research analyst with Sustainability International and a recent graduate of Louisiana Tech University, is no less attached to the situation in the Niger Delta.
“Before the oil spills, men and women could fish, farm and trade. The Delta thrived. Today, however, militancy, piracy & kidnapping are the norm. Rich men equip poorer men with guns & targets, and reward execution with currency. Berating these actions seems like an obvious response to outsiders looking in; however, these people have families to support. Desperation leads people to make decisions and join groups that they wouldn’t otherwise consider…”
To this end, the team also plans to use Storytelling for Virtual Reality (VRSE) to tell the stories of the “Daughters of the Niger Delta” in the proposed documentary, showing the repercussions of oil spillage in the region on the women in the region.
Chinyere and Amara’s personal and professional experiences with the region have led them to this point where they seek to bridge longstanding matters with modern solutions. The OneFarm Project plans to utilize a patented, new biotechnology tested and validated at the University of Central Florida which turns oil pollutants into a natural fertiliser.
“When evil happens in the dark- it cannot be rooted out.”
Talking to Ventures Africa about the driving force behind the One Farm Project to improve the socioeconomic and environmental situation in the Niger Delta, SI posits that the key problem with the 50 years of environmental and human rights destruction in the Niger Delta has been making them visible. “The One Farm VR Doc will bring this problem into the spotlight and help people all over the world identify and empathize with the Niger Delta struggle. The Niger Delta cleanup is a massive operation that will span multiple terms of government so it’s important that this becomes a global environmental issue- not a political issue that can be easily abandoned.”
There are benefits to be gotten from a restoration of the Niger Delta region, both for the community and for Nigeria as a whole. Cleaning up the region will provide the residents with economic empowerment opportunities which subsequently improve the country’s gross domestic product. This positive action will also see education take a top spot in the region in order to form the next generation of Nigerians that could provide Africa with its next amazing feat.
According to the team, the general reception towards the project in the Niger Delta communities has been enormous, with the people doubly excited about the technologies that are being provided to them to empower them to take back their livelihood, as well as the international attention that SI is bringing to the devastation of the Niger Delta. Activists in the region such as Ken Wiwa Jr, Austin Onouha of the Africa Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Nnimmo Bassey, Dr. Henry Alapiki & Dr. Nenibarini Zabbey of University of Port Harcourt, and Onyekachi Emmanuel of Media for Justice have also been providing the SI team with more insight into how the locals feel about the crises, with advice on how to execute their plans.
And SI can certainly do with a lot of guidance, particularly in light of the ongoing crisis involving militants. Although the team claims that the violent conflict in the region has ironically accelerated the need for the cleanup and the importance of telling the real story of what’s going on and bringing the experience to the world. Uncontrollably, cleaning up the Niger Delta Cleanup will span across several years, giving the government and the guilty oil companies, such as Shell, enough time to engage sustainable strategies to develop the region’s economy.
On Thursday, June 2, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari launched the $1 billion cleanup which entail building a factory to process and decontaminate the soils in the region. A positive move in the right direction made by the Nigerian government to significantly commit to the restoration of the Niger Delta region. However, the ‘OneFarmers’ insist that normalcy would begin to exist in the region only when the local people are the ones being employed in the cleanup factory working to restore their environment and build the necessary infrastructure, for instance. As opposed to the counterproductive measure of leaving such employment and empowerment opportunities in the hands of foreigners.
…Only then will the economic effects of conducting multiple cleanup and community construction projects concurrently will be massive and far-reaching. But people will continue to be hungry and without opportunity if the cleanup means sparse execution by foreign workers.
As for the oil companies, if they must remain in the region – even though the Niger Delta militants for instance would prefer otherwise – may be forced to consider changing their energy provision strategies, by shifting to clean sources. Ultimately, however, they are mandated to “right the abuses of the 20th century” and be immensely involved in providing adequate funding for sustainable development in the region. Hopefully, the moral disposition of most companies and consumers of oil around the world towards the atrocities of the Niger Delta would propel them to make the right decisions.
SI hopes to be able to work closely with the Nigerian government, corporate bodies, and the local people on the cleanup. But the organisation is not prepared to wait until whenever the aforementioned parties are ready to begin. If the situation persists for longer, the OneFarmers will carry on their project as planned. We have received significant support from various parties. According to them, “We have received a lot of support from Nigerians in the U.S., and corporate partners in the entertainment industry [in America], we have also received support from ConocoPhillips Houston, corporate individuals in Nigeria and beyond.”
But the OneFarm project is not without its fair share of difficulties which it continues to tackle in fulfilling its mission in the Niger Delta. Presently, the project faces the danger of bringing scientists and filmmakers to the region because of the violence and instability. This is in addition to having a much needed synergy with the Nigerian government, creating a global awareness for the local farmers – “the true heroes of the Niger Delta story”, and witnessing the effects of their advocacy in motivating the oil and gas companies to expand the cleanup.
The cleanup is an enormous project and many stakeholders have to come together to make it achievable as quickly and efficiently as possible. The cleanup needs to be viewed as an economic incentive for all, and a means of securing the future for Nigeria against the potential impacts of phenomena such as climate change and the fast approaching population explosion, amongst other socioeconomic threats.
Sustainability International may have started with Chinyere’s vision to improve his ancestral village of Nkwerre in Imo State, and a deep dissatisfaction with the status quo. But because he and Amara could not ignore the sufferings of a people that have been overlooked for too long, the cause has widened, and it has done so with the hopes of awakening the consciousness of the 21st century individual who really wishes to make a change when they wake up every day.
