4.3 We are not asking for favour by heralding our yearnings for environmental justice; we are only asking that our rights, as enshrined in the laws of the land and in the various Treaties the State is signatory to, be effectuated in a manner that is manifestly seen to have been done. That is true justice! Justice is giving the people what is due to them, and injustice is depriving them of what is due to them. Our environment is in this horrendous state not for want of adequate laws; it is as a result of failure on the part of those in whose hands our lives have been entrusted. There has been a grave injury done to our people in utter violation of the known laws of the land; there must, therefore be a remedy because ubi jus ibi remedium.
4.4 Regardless of the economic benefits the State may be deriving from the activities of the oil and gas industries, or whatever laws that permit the companies to carry on their operations, the right of the people to quality life, physical and mental wellbeing, safe and satisfactory environment, and economic and social development is sacrosanct and reigns supreme over all other benefits; and, being a creation of the Constitution, the right enjoys the same supremacy the Constitution enjoys and is thus superior to all other rights conferred on the companies to carry on their operations which portend danger to the people in the surrounding environment. That being the case, those other rights, being subservient to the people’s fundamental rights, must give way to the fundamental rights of the people the same way all other laws which derogate from the Constitution must give way to the provisions of the supreme law of the land. That was the position taken by the Court in the case of Tolani v. Kwara State Judicial Service Commission & Ors where the appellate Court per Denton-West, J.C.A had stated very strongly as follows:
Consequently, the courts guard these fundamental human rights very jealously. Therefore law or Act that is perpetrated against the provisions of the fundamental rights of any individual which is against the spirit of the constitution would not be allowed to stand. The spirit of the constitution must stand firm at all times and to ensure that this is done, the superior courts have constantly held in a plethora of cases that the human rights of the individual should on no account be subsumed or swept under the carpet in favour of other laws no matter how well pivoted that law may be.
5.0
RECOMMENDATION
5.1 The Federal Republic of Nigeria which is not only signatory to the various Charters and Treaties which guarantee the rights of the Niger Delta people, but is also saddled with the obligation of ensuring that the fundamental rights of the people, as enshrined in the CFRN and the Charter, are preserved and protected. It should arise to its duty under the relevant laws, Charters and Treaties. For instance, according to Article 1 of the Charter, the Member States of the Organization of African Unity parties to the present Charter shall recognize the rights, duties and freedoms enshrined in this Charter and shall undertake to adopt legislative or other measures to give effect to them.” In Article 16(2), the Charter stipulates that “States Parties to the present Charter shall take the necessary measures to protect the health of their people and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick.
5.2 The President who is the Head of the Government at the centre should take charge of his Government and the agencies under him/it. The Agencies should not just serve as a mere poverty alleviation programmefor the citizenry; they should do their work as prescribed by the respective enabling statutes. The regime of penalty for gas flaring should stop assame is not the proper panacea for the atrocious outcome of gas flaring.
The oil companies should stop gas flaring or re-inject gas to the oil wells;and if they are unable to do same, they should be made to shut down!
5.3 There is no reason we should have agencies like FEPA, NESREA and NOSDRA and justice has continued to elude our people.
5.3.1 For instance, we have the: National Environmental Standards and Regulations
Enforcement Agency (NESREA). The Agency is statutorily required to: i. enforce compliance with laws, guidelines, policies and standards on environmental matters;
ii. enforce compliance with the provisions of international agreements, protocols, conventions and treaties on the environment, including climate change, biodiversity, conservation, desertification, forestry, oil and gas, chemicals, hazardous wastes, ozone depletion, marine and wildlife, pollution, sanitation and such other environmental agreements as may from time to time come into force;
iii. enforce compliance with policies, standards, legislation and guidelines on water quality, environmental health and sanitation, including pollution abatement;
iv. enforce compliance with any legislation on soundchemical management, safe use of pesticides anddisposal of spent packages thereof;
v. enforce compliance with regulations on the importation, exportation, production, distribution, storage, sale, use, handling and disposal of hazardous chemicals and waste other than in the oil and gas sector; amongst others.
5.3.2 We also have the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA). By virtue of Section 6(1) of the establishing Act, “The Agency shall be responsible for surveillance andensure compliance with all existing environmental legislation and the detection of oil spills in the petroleum sector”.
5.4 Negotiation: As we approach another year, and as we are now in the season of electioneering, rather than strategising to have a bite at thenational cherry, we should engage with the relevant stakeholders and negotiate our future as Niger Deltans, Bayelsans, Nembe se. We should work with our fellow Niger Deltans in insisting that our votes only go to the party/man who pledges an allegiance to our environment to make it whole.
5.5 Pressure Groups: We should constitute ourselves into pressure groups– community by community, street by street, house by house. We should form an army:
i. whose sole weapons of war will be their voices and their pen;
ii. whose conscience cannot be bought by silver or gold or any jewel of precious stone; and
iii. from whose rank none will arise with the character of the biblical Judas Iscariot who earned for himself a reputation of being a betrayal, or Demas who is reputed to have forsaken his brothers and the course they had collectively agreed to pursue the existing pressure groups should not capitulate or acquiesce in their demand for a healthy environment for their people. They should reinvent their tools and oil their vocal machines; and march on until their voices are heard quite loudly and clearly. This extremity in which we have found ourselves is not a Gordian knot; it is solvable.
5.6 Judiciary: The Court is a place set up solely for dispensing justice. Thus, we should keep them occupied doing justice to our demands. The Judges and Justices of our Courts are crucial stakeholders in the protection of our environment; hence so we should engage them the same way we engage the politicians and our political leaders. Environmental rights of minorities within the Nigerian nation should be made justiciable through concerted acts of parliament. In the exact words of the apex Court in the case of Centre for Oil Pollution Watch v. N.N.P.C ….Courts in this country, the lot have correctlyargued, are by virtue of sections 16(2), 17(2)(d) (3), and 20of the 1999 Constitution, section
17(4) of the Oil Pipelines Act CAP 07 LFN and the Oil and Gas Pipeline Regulations under duty to protect the environment and would fail in that duty if in the instant case they do not facilitate the protection these laws have put in place. Their reliance on R v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Ex Parte World Development Movement Ltd (1995)1 ALL ELR 611, 620, Reg v. Inland Revenue Commissions, Ex parte National Federation of self-Employed and Small Business Ltd (1982) AC 617, 639 as instances of liberalization of the scope of locus standi by courts in similar jurisdictions and in the absence of any statutory empowerment is apposite.
5.7 Furthermore,
5.7.1 We must set out a clear environmental protection and remediation agenda for the next administration rather than allow the vagaries of Abuja politics becloud the process and leave us with more meaningless soundbites and less meaningful action.
5.7.2 We must improve the stock of those we send to represent us in our respective Government houses across the Niger Delta and with those we send to Abuja to the legislature. This can only become a reality when we improve the quality of those who control our local politics and political parties. The time for Generals and Warlords is at an end as that era of politics is no longer fit for purpose; our people now need the real intelligentsia in the mould of the eminent Chief Justice Allagoa to step forward. This is a challenge and clarion call to this August body, stand up and stand fast! Infiltrate political parties, take
a stand for the Ijaw people. It is time to protect all their rights not just those that pertain to the environment.
5.7.3 I believe I have earned the right to confidently demand this of you, as I have myself having seen the rot in our political system up close and personal and the need for intellectuals to take over the asylum before the mentally and morally afflicted consign it to a future we cannot come back from. I have contested twice for high office, once for the legislature and once to become Governor of Bayelsa State.
Unfortunately, our politics, our people, and our version of what is practical are dysfunctional in the eyes of what is rational.
5.7.4 We must intensify our call for proper control of our economic resources with which we can adequately install preventive and remedial environmental protection measures at the local level; as I said earlier, only one who sees and has felt up close and persona the searing effects of environmental degradation will understand the need to protect those rights aggressively.
5.7.5 We must hold the Nigerian government and the relevant oil companies accountable for all past unremedied infractions on our environment through the instrumentality of diligent negotiations or stringent legal actions, as the landscape of oil production is changing given emerging global ESG realities. Many of these companies may soon be moving on leaving our environment in a worse state than they met it.
5.7.6 The host communities bill must be expanded to empower the host communities with stronger monitoring and reporting standards to ensure the localization of remedial action.
5.8 As I close, I must state that I am not oblivious of the fact that I have been called upon to give a “Lecture” but I know that I am by that also required to give a wake-up call to all. So, I pray us to spare no effort and should not rest on our oars in the struggle for justice for our environment. Let us not lose hope in our quest to leave our communities (environment) a better place for our children.
5.8.1 The history of the Ijaw man is replete with many different epochsand stanzas and in each season of trial and tribulation, God has seen it fit to bless us with people who are appropriate to champion our causes; Justice Ambrose Allagoa was a man for his time, he ran his race diligently, with honour and steadfastness and met the challenges of his day.
5.8.2 Today, new challenges bedevil our collective existence that demand that we raise men for a time such as this, to confront the monsters of neglect and maladministration showing up in the sorry state of our environment and the concomitant effect on the health and general livelihood of the Ijaw nation.
5.8.3 Justice Ambrose Allagoa’s noble race is run, he has played his part; who will stand in the gap and carry the torch for the Ijaw man and his right to life, liberty, and his pursuit of dignity? This is a time for men and women of character to stand and be counted and working together we can make a difference.
5.8.4 If you would permit, I seek to close with some verses of the famous song of the late legendary reggae singer, Bob Marley,
“Get Up Stand Up”.
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right…
Don’t give up the fight
Most people think
Great God will come from the sky
Take away everything;
And make everybody feel high; But if you know what life is worth;
You would look for yours on earth; And now you see the light
You stand up for your right
Jah!
I thank you for your kind attention.
By Chief Anthony George-Ikoli S.A.N, Founding Partner, George Ikoli & Okagbue
A Paper Presented at the Second Edition of the Annual Justice (His Royal Majesty) Ambrose Allagoa Memorial Lecture Held on Thursday, 8th of December, 2022 at the Ceremonial Court Hall, Block C, High Court Complex, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
