Pregnant women are developing strange allergies. Yet, health centres are ill-equipped to take care of their health needs
By Olukorede Yishau
Your Excellency, I feel compelled to write you as you get set to join other world leaders in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meetings. At the meetings, one of the issues that will crop up is climate change.
My last letter to you, if my memory has not failed me, was in May 2018. It has been over four years and some months since then, and my concerns are yet to be addressed. These concerns have serious impacts on climate change.
Pardon my lack of manners for not asking after Yusuf and his siblings, and Auty Aisha.
I am writing you because of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, that was so beautiful they called it Garden City. Now, the pollution of Rivers’ environment by black soot has robbed off on its beauty.
Regularly, the air is fouled by a dense smell. I understand this smell rudely greets residents as they step out of their homes. The smell is choking. It has been traced to a cocktail of diesel, kerosene and other hydrocarbon products. Those who have spoken or written about it say it is bad for respiration because the respiratory system is burdened by an elaborate and complex search for clean air in a fouled environment.
Often sir, cars and other valuables left outside are invaded by black particles. These particles make these valuables their homes when they become too heavy for the wind to bear.
Sir, it is believed that this soot comes from the activities of the hydrocarbon industries and the many illegal refineries in the creeks. This is a challenge that must be confronted headlong.
I need to say this sir, the soot is never comfortable staying outdoors. Any small opening is enough for it to invade bedrooms, living rooms and offices. You know like I do, that in our country where adequate supply of electricity is a major challenge, there is no way windows can remain permanently shut. Even in homes and offices where they can afford to power air conditioning systems through electricity generating sets, these particles force their way through the vents of the air conditioner and any other available opening.
With this situation, people easily go down with nasal infections and respiratory problems.
Sir, it has always not been this way. The first major case was reported a year and some months ago. Residents of Port Harcourt noticed black particles on exposed items, such as floors, cars, food items, clothes hung outside and so on. This soot, scientists have established, have harmful effects once they penetrate the lungs.
While I will not bother you with scientific jargons, I will point out the fact that the World Health Organisation’s guidelines on this soot show that residents of Port Harcourt are being killed softly.
I am sure you will wonder why I am writing you on a local matter; the reason is that the matter is beyond the Rivers State government. This is because the matter has been linked largely to the way the military indiscriminately pollute the air in trying to curb illegal oil refining. They simply just set fire on crude oil and release the fumes into the environment and eventually they settle on anything possible on their return journey. The people are the worst for it.
As you know sir, Governor Nyesom Wike cannot order the military to stop this practice. He can only advise. They take orders from you as the commander-in-chief.
This is the time for a decisive action to end this menace. Let it not be said that the Federal Government turned a deaf ear to the people’s cries.
The Federal Government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has a 55 per cent stake in the Joint Venture deals with the oil giants must also be involved in ensuring the partners do not pollute the air. The oil facilities must be protected to block the source of raw materials for the illegal refiners. This is where the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) comes in. Sir, so far, I think the DPR has failed to prevent the bad boys from stealing crude to refine or is there collusion?
Sir, another agency under your grip, which has not been able to help the people in their hour of need is NOSDRA.
Your Excellency, it will be unpatriotic of me to end this letter without pointing your attention to a belief in Rivers. Many residents believe that the increase in the activities of illegal refiners is not unconnected with the support they enjoy from security agents. Please look into this sir. The concern of many is that the state’s land and waterways are heavily policed by security agents. So, how do the bad boys seem to have their ways?
Sir, I need not remind you of Rivers’ importance in the creation of the wealth our country depends on. Please force all these agencies to end the soot killing the people slowly.
In many creeks, the people never see night. The multinationals operating in these areas have their flow stations so close to homes and send out gas flares throughout the day. So, the only way to differentiate between night and day is to check their wrist watches.
Sir, away from Rivers, let me also bring to your attention the fact that in many places in the Niger Delta, oil pipelines are not underground, they are in the open, and often they burst or are burst, and soils and existence are damaged in the process.
The people have shouted, protested and threatened violence over their fate, yet change has refused to come. It is as if the multinational also has another licence: to send them all to their early graves so that their leaders can have all the wealth for themselves, including the little they manage to spend on basic amenities. This environmental genocide, as some have called it, is having serious effects on the people. Strange diseases are killing the people. Pregnant women are developing strange allergies. Yet, health centres are ill-equipped to take care of their health needs. They have several people with aggravated asthma; there are increases in respiratory symptoms, such as coughing and difficult or painful breathing, chronic bronchitis and decreased lung function. Premature death is not uncommon.
The truth is, the oil majors are more interested in the oil than in the people’s well-being. They can die for all they care. Oil is more important than man; that seems to be their mantra.
Agriculture, which has the potential to help our country, has no breathing space in the Niger Delta. The soils are polluted and where they are not, the people are not properly motivated. Everybody is just waiting for handout.
Significantly, Brass, Forcados, Ogulagha and Bonny are a few of the Niger Delta settlements where Nigeria draws financial strength, yet they are only accessible by road. It took an offer by the Nigeria LNG Limited for the Bonny-Bodo road to be on the front-burner.
Don’t let me take more of your time, Sir. Please say me well to Auty Aisha and the kids. And safe trip to the city so great they call it twice: New York , New York.
All the best, Sir.
• Yishau is a newspaper columnist and author of ‘In the Name of Our Father’and’Vaults of Secrets’.