The Road To 2023: What Place For Environmental Justice And Our Communities?

1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Let me start by reaffirming publicly what my acceptance to speak at this very illustriously appointed event indicates – an honour to be thought worthy to facilitate this discourse in memory of his Lordship, the Late Justice Ambrose Allagoa.
1.2 His Lordship, the Late Justice Ambrose Allagoa, an illustrious Ijaw man, the first lawyer of Nembe Sie origin and the first indigenous Chief Judge of the old Rivers State left an indelible impression on the tapestry of jurisprudence as a fearless purveyor of truth, equity, and justice.
1.3 We ride on the shoulders of giants to attain our individual places in the sun, is often a descriptive explanation of the attainments of succeeding generations. Such were the legal, judicial, including the traditional attainments of the person we are memorialising today that a generation of Nembe lawyers rode on those wide and commodious shoulders of his for our current places in the judicial sun. I confess that I most certainly drew inspiration from aspects of his life’s journey to pattern mine.
1.4 His legacy as fearless social advocate is no less commendable given his numerous and untiring efforts to situate the lives of the average Ijaw/Nembe man in better stead. He was the quintessential gentleman whose intellect, drive and conscientiousness would have served our Nembe people and our nation greatly today. Alas, the rest of us must go on and do our utmost to carry on the heavy baton which he has bequeathed.
1.5 Justice Ambrose Allagoa, the 11th Mingi of Nembe was a man of many parts who understood the important role and place of our people and the quality of political negotiations needed to protect their interests and wellbeing.
Preambles
1.6 In tackling the subject matter of this discourse, it is important that I contribute to the eternal constancy of the issues at hand with wide angled lenses of the historical, immediate and the futuristic.
1.7 As we trudge on inexorably, defiantly even into the dawn of the 2023 election season, no one, from the highlands to the lowlands of this exalted plane called Nigeria can deny what is self-evident even indubitable – that this will be one election that will rank as none other before it or none long after we may have seen its twilight and eventual dispensation.
1.8 As an Aboriginal people teetering on the brink of extinction all at once surrounded by the twin malaise of political and environmental devastation, the topic of discourse provides an opportunity for sober contextualisation if not early warning.
1.9 Nigeria has a long history of frenzied and seemingly tension-soaked preelection intermissions; that feeling and notion that every next Presidential election on the horizon will bring with it an end to civilisation as we know it.
From the sabre-rattling of the deeply entrenched political opportunists to the devious deployments of incumbent power mongers, the sound and fury is the same; a cacophony of timpanists ultimately signifying nothing. These times, however, the omens appear different and foreboding.
1.10 Sadly, in recent times, our once proud Ijaw nation’s response to these historical epochs has been typical; the adoption of lazy armchair posturing, taking in the sights from an indulged balcony-like observatory from whence we cheer on the gladiators who bloody themselves in the arena that is the thick of our national geopolitics.
1.11 It is therefore a thing of wonder how we subsequently are astonished that our traditional late-stage whimper at the table, long after the spoils of battle may have been shared, is not countenanced with the seriousness and candour that the sum total of our economic contributions and stark environmental condition demand.
1.12 As a people, it seems that in our usual style, we have again elected to
sleepwalk our way into what is the onrushing political calamity that threatens our very existence with head-on collision; oblivious, unprepared and seemingly unbothered about what the omens portend or the imminent fallout of this cataclysmic event.
1.13 We are seemingly on the move again, sluggishly sheepishly careering into the coming dispensation without a clear articulation of a collective political agenda or position. Ultimately, it seems what will be the final outcome for us as a people is a scenario that has become all too familiar – left behind, obscured and forgotten.
1.14 Again, my commendation goes to the organisers of this event whose topic of choice is apposite and finely appointed at such a time as this.
Concomitantly, my commiserations go to this same August gathering whose job it will be to disentangle the many postulations that will be established in the course of this discourse.
1.15 Respectfully, I posit that we cannot speak to the concept of the environmental rights cum environmental protection of our communities and peoples without speaking first to the protection of our political rights; indeed, a situation of a Russian “Matryoshka” or nesting doll wherein the true essence of a thing is held captive by an outer shell.
1.16 In the book “The Big Leap” by PhD psychologist Gay Hendricks, the
metaphor of the “Russian dolls” was used to describe the process of digging deeper into oneself, and into the subliminal drivers that guide the real reasons we do things. Unfortunately, we as Ijaw men have all too often not been very successful at making the important connection between what is apparent externally and what is important internally.
Definition of Key Concepts
1.17 May I, at this juncture, attempt to anatomise the theme by dissecting same into three (3) distinct albeit interrelated parts to enable us have a clearer grasp of the theme because it is important to know the place of each of the fragments which is distinctly sacrosanct in order to understand them as a whole.
1.18 The theme can be conveniently broken down into three (3) distinct parts, to wit: “The Road to 2023”; “Environmental Justice”; and “Communities”.
“The Road to 2023”
1.19 This component ordinarily presupposes the expectation and anticipation of the dawn of another year, more particularly so as the year 2022 is fast winding down considering that we are already in the last month out of the twelve months in the Gregorian calendar.
1.20 This integrant, however, connotes much more than another year. The year 2023 is not just another year in the sojourn of mankind on this planet earth, as far as the Nigerian people are concerned; it is a major year in our political space – it is a year for a change in the current political epoch.
1.21 Thus, whilst many Nigerians from other geopolitical Zones may be looking to the year 2023 as a year for them to produce the next Chief Executive Officer of the Enterprise headquartered in Aso Rock, Abuja and being run with the spoils of the depredation of our own communities and environment, and for them to share in the national cake; the people of Bayelsa are (or ought to be) more concerned about something more important – their future as closely interwoven with their environment, their environmentally-challenged communities. Another year is dawning, a change in the current dispensation is imminent; and then the people ask: when and whence cometh our deliverance? do we expect the same abandonment as of old or do we approach the year with a renewed hope of respite for our people and of environmental safety for us and our offspring?
“Environmental Justice”
1.22 Before proceeding to describe this unit, it is important to first look at the words “environment” and “justice” as independent words before amalgamating them.
1.23 “Environment” is from the root word, “environ” which literally means “surrounded” or “encircled”. The word “environment”, according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, is “the conditions that affect the behaviour and development of somebody/ something; the physical conditions that somebody/ something exists in”.
1.24 The apex Court of the land, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, in adopting a definition and thereby giving it judicial recognition in the case of A.G., Lagos State v. A.G., Federation had the following to say:
In the first place, one cannot fail to recognise the clear meaning of words like “environment” and”town planning” as used in some dictionaries, and other sources of definition. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 5th edn, page 387 defines “environment” as “the natural conditions, for example land, air and water, in which people, animals and plants live: measures to protect the environment.”
1.25 The question that is naturally thrown up in our minds by these definitions at this juncture is: what are we surrounded or encircled by? Whilst some of us may be quick to say riverine, estuarine and/or water which is in actual fact correct, I hope there will be some who would be more circumspect and conscientious in giving an answer because it may no longer be as it was in the beginning when, as is reported by the Holy Book , God saw that everything He made was good. I am hopeful that we shall all find the veridical state of what we are all encircled by in our communities, a state of affairs actuated largely by our very own Government and vitalised by our various community leaders, including us as inhabitants.
1.26 “Justice”, on the other hand, according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, is the fair treatment of people; the quality of being fair or reasonable; the legal system used to punish people who have committed crimes. The meaning as thrown up by Google, is a “just behaviour or treatment”. According to Merriam-Webster, it is “the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments”.
1.27 “Justice”, according to the learned Justices of the Court of Appeal in the case of Obajimi v. Adediji, means: “fair treatment”.
1.28 The appellate Court also adopted the definition of justice by the great philosopher Aristotle when it held in the case of U.C.H.B.M. v. Morakinyo thus: Aristotle defined justice as a concept of what is lawful, fair or equal. He classified justice into two, distributive and remedial justice. He defined distributive justice as:
“Injustice arises when equals are treated unequal and also when unequal are treated equally.”
To him, just action is a means between acting unjustly and being unjustly treated. The common saying is that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.
1.29 It is thus seen that justice is not an abstract thing or idea or concept; it is something that can be seen and practical, it is empirical in nature. Justice: though bodiless, is visible; though untouchable, is experienceable. It is something that can be seen if it is done.
1.30 Therefore, environmental justice, in very simple term, naturally means the maintenance or administration of what is just in the surroundings in which we live and operate. “Communities”
1.31 Community, according to the Black’s Law Dictionary, is “1. A neighborhood, vicinity, or locality. 2. A society or group of people with similar rights or interests. 3. Joint ownership, possession, or participation.
1.32 According to the Supreme Court, in adopting the dictionary meaning of the word, stated in the case of Salisu v. Odumade thus: “In the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, “community” is defined as all the people who live in a particular area, etc. when talked about as a group. In Chambers 20th Century Dictionary, New Edition, 1983 referred to in the plaintiffs/respondents’ brief, it is defined as people having common rights etc, a body of persons in the same locality.”
1.33 Therefore, “communities” in the context of this lecture refer to the group of people with similar interests and having commons rights. The similar interest and common right in this climate is the “environment” – that is, the conditions that affect our behaviour and development; the physical conditions that we live and exist in.
Preliminary Issues/Confounding Realities
1.34 Over the course of decades, the Niger Delta question has been framed by two primary issues: control of our economic resources and the responsibility of and for our environment. The underlying constant of these two arguments to the rationale mind reduces itself to a simple question of who actually is and who actually should be responsible for these important aspects of our natural life.
1.35 The economic argument of resource control evolves from administration to administration from those who believe we deserve a greater share of our resources to those who we feel we already have more than we are entitled.
The issue of our environment is one that sadly has remained consistent administration in administration out across every political season and it might seem 2023 will be no different.
1.36 What many of us may not understand is the intrinsic relationship and correlation of causation between the issues of resource control and the fortunes that have befallen our environment and our environmental rights as an aboriginal people.
1.37 To say that our longsuffering people yearn for justice on many fronts is to state the obvious. The continued degradation of our environment is now a seeming bequest of the Nigerian state and the oil companies who operate under their direction.
1.38 This presents a rather strange conundrum where the government is both regulator and violator all at once; a scenario that enforces a seeming fait accompli on the outcome of any seeming effort at reparation.
1.39 Recently, we were all witnesses to the shocking discoveries of miles and miles of “illegal pipelines leading out to sea” wherein our government recently made a big show of discovering across many of our communities.
That these dark assets are owned and operated by characters who lurk in the shadows that lead back to characters acting in the light is not a debate we will pursue today, what I seek to draw out of those unfortunate pictures; a shameless fiasco and celebration of state failure, is the unspoken ongoing damage to the environment that these incidents have inflicted and continue to inflict.
1.40 We are all witness to the many abandoned “refinery farms” showcased in those pictures; to imagine the continuous pounding to the ground water, natural fauna, fisheries, wildlife and the resultant damage to the local economies and sustainable living conditions of the people in those communities.
1.41 Yet our government in Abuja, security agencies, local governments, local leaders ostensibly tasked with the responsibility of safeguarding, have all stood by for many years complacent, complicit, and compliant. So as the topic of this discourse queries “What place for environmental justice in our communities”?
1.42 Where do the critical stakeholders situate environmental justice in the overall scheme of things? Where do the respective government authorities from the municipal, local government, state and Federal Governments truly place the importance of the environment; its beauty and purity, its unique almost therapeutic and medicinal aura, its significance as a thing to be cherished and protected; for if these stakeholders do not understand the intrinsic role of the environment, how can they be expected to protect it much less the individuals who are directly affected by it.
1.43 Improper, inadequate, occluding, or insufficient appreciation of the centrality of the environment to human existence, has impacted, albeit or majorly negatively the efforts to achieve consequential justice for it.
1.44 Validation of this position can be found, even in the several definitions of what constitutes the environment. Whilst we speak of and readily acknowledge tangibilities (my house, my car, my family); my environment is hardly a material component of the basket of baggage that humanity claims as sine qua non for his existence, yet, without the enveloping centrality of the environment, life as we know it (and man as we acknowledge) would not be.
1.45 My environment, therefore, I breathe. Yet such centrality is not of compelling obsession of man. The date 2023 has made mention of the environment largely in the non-acknowledgement of same.
1.46 The bottom-line is that only the people who bear the brunt of the effects of environmental degradation can adequately legislate and maintain any faithful implementation of such legislation. No mighty oil company with 100-ton drilling equipment will stand the mighty will of a lone Ijaw fisherwoman empowered by purpose and by law. This notion will form part of actionable recommendations that will form the highlights of this paper.
2.0 THE THEME
2.1 My understanding of what the theme of the lecture is and seeks to achieve is that as we all journey towards the 2023 general elections which will be ushering in new government at the centre, what is the plan or consideration for our people with respect to achieving justice for the bastardisation and defilement of our natural and virgin habitation precipitated and effectuated by the despoilation of our communities by the western entities to whom our raw materials mean more than our existence to enjoy the fullest of life as do the communities where they came from.
Is it still going to be same cry without succour, yearning without satisfaction, and expectation without fulfilment? The evil has continued till date, and, sadly, none of the presidential candidates is putting salvaging what is left of our communities on the front burner of their campaigns.
2.2 We cannot be crying for environmental justice if there was and has been no acute pain in our necks, in the necks of our people. The call for “environmental justice” naturally presupposes that there has been environmental injustice in our communities. It presupposes an unfair treatment from people who ought to administer fair treatment. It presupposes a failure on the part of those saddled with the responsibility of preventing our communities from environmental danger, damage and/or injury. This has led to uprising from various communities in the Niger Delta region and the formation of different pressure groups such as the Niger Delta Human and Environmental Rescue Organisation, Brothers Across Nigeria, Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, Environmental Rights Action, and, we must not fail to mention, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People headed by the late Ken Saro Wiwa and many others.
2.3 There has, indeed, been environmental injustice; and this dates back to the pre-independence era – the era of the British exploitation and plundering of the wealth and natural resources of the people whilst leaving trails of wretchedness, woe and desolation behind; and has continued unabated till date.
Brief Historical Articulation of the Environmental Ills
2.4 The yearning of the Ijaw nation for environmental justice did not start in this present climate and era; it started from the pre-independence era when oil exploration activities began which was in 1903 to when drilling and extraction began which led to the discovery of oil in commercial quantity in 1956
The agonies of our people increased when drilling activities were intensified leading to increase in oil production of about 5,100 barrels per day in 1958 and to over 2,000,000 barrels per day in the post independence era as these activities have carried along with them spills of millions of barrels and high volumes of gas flare.
2.5 Thence commenced the human bastardisation of our environment and debasement of our lives (whether through poor maintenance and negligence as the people will claim or criminal activity as the IoCs will claim) of our environment.
2.6 The Department of Petroleum Resources estimated that 1.89 million barrels of petroleum were spilled into the Niger Delta between 1976 and
1996 out of a total of 2.4 million barrels that spilled in 4,835 incidents. A
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report states that there
have been a total of 6,817 oil spills between 1976 and 2001; and that 69%
of these spills occurred off-shore, a quarter was in swamps and 6% spilled on land. As far back as 1997, the official estimates of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had it that approximately 2,300 cubic meters of oil are spilled in 300 separate incidents annually.
2.7 Meanwhile, World Bank had argued that the true quantity of petroleum spilled into the environment could be as much as ten times the officially claimed amount.
2.8 In November, 2021 , a spill was reported at the OML 29 which, according to the report issued by the local Firm operating the Lease, was from a nonproducing well head in its Santa Barbara South field in the Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State
The spill, which was estimated to be about two million barrels of crude , had continued unabated and led to commodious pollution of the rivers, waterways and farmlands in the Nembe Local Government area such that the Bayelsa State Government had feared might metastasise to other communities.
The Executive Governor of Bayelsa State was reported to have, upon visiting the site of the spill, stated thus: “Today happens to be a very dark day for me. What we have seen, I believe, is worse than what happened in the Gulf of Mexico.
In all my life, I have not seen such a magnitude of oil spillage.”