Opinion
Still On Ogoni Clean-Up
For over a decade or two, the Niger Delta environment, which has suffered pollution and environmental degradation occasioned by long years of petroleum exploration and production, has been in the news for planned clean-up and remediation of its polluted environment, both vegetation, lands, water, flora and fauna, air and means of livelihood, like fishing and farming, especially in the Ogoni areas like Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme.
Most of these communities have long experienced pollution and environmental degradation before the United Nations (UN), through its special agency, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), undertook a study of the affected communities and locations based on its findings made recommendations for a total clean-up of the areas by both the federal government and the major oil companies.
The environment is nature and man’s greatest resource, home to plants, animals – including birds and insects. The wetlands, water bodies, micro-organisms and microbes anywhere on the planet; nature is God’s greatest resource and gift.
To all intents and purpose, the world in the 21st century is going towards cleaner energy, cleaner fuels and cleaner environment to mitigate climate change. That’s why fossil fuel or hydrocarbons are gradually being phased out in many countries of the world as an energy source or provider. To that effect, the world in general and Nigeria in particular ought to toe this line and embrace the new paradigm shift.
Amidst exploration and production being carried out by all the major international oil companies (IOCs) for over six decades in the Niger Delta and the consequent environment and air/atmosphere being polluted and degraded, nothing has been done about it.
There has been gas flaring in the Niger Delta even though the federal government and IOCs have been setting targets to end gas flaring. This practice is one of the worst forms of degradation to our environment and health. It causes health hazards such as skin lesion; causes acid rain; pollutes the air and water as well as depletes the ozone layer.
Continuous exploration and production of crude oil in these communities over the years with obsolete equipment and network of pipelines across the producing communities and Niger Delta has caused some of these equipment, platforms and pipelines to corrode. And also, due to the effect of the vagaries of weather and the salinity and alkaline nature of the terrain, be it swamp, land or rivers. All these make it easy and possible for rupture or failure of these networks of pipelines, equipment and platforms which are begging for overhaul and possible replacement.
In modern times and in other climes, especially Europe, the Americas and Asia, etc, international best practices do not permit gas flaring of any sort. There’s zero tolerance for gas flaring due to its hazard to health and environment. Also, equipment, platforms and pipelines/facilities are tested routinely for integrity and replacement. Nowhere in the world do you see some of these flagrant and brazen abuses of the environment as noticed in the Niger Delta oil-producing areas.
The Ogoni clean-up which has lingered for some time, after series of postponements, has finally commenced and is ongoing. The federal government, through its agencies like HYPREP, NOSDRA and other international partners, is carrying out the campaign exercise which is described as one of the biggest and ambitious clean-up programmes in the world.
This onerous project and exercise entails reclamation process to restore the land, vegetation, water, sub-soil microbes and micro-organisms; as well as the polluted and contaminated underground water table.
For these communities and oil-producing areas and locations, most of their means of livelihood like farming, fishing, hunting and setting of traps to catch games have been destroyed due to these dastard practices and acts to the environment.
On that premise, the exercise should be detailed, thorough and effective; because the extent of damage and destruction is of gravest proportion, international best practice, standards should be applied to UN and UNEP requirements and quality. The affected communities will only see the injustice and damage to their environment, air, rivers, creeks and vegetation reversed when their environment is fully and truly restored to its original state and condition.
Experts and specialists in the environmental field have proffered solutions and recommendations as to how to curb this menace and avert future occurrence, since it is unacceptable, disgusting and very destructive to people, communities, livelihoods and the environment as a whole.
With this extent of harm and monumental damage done to the environment, occasioned by environmental degradation and pollution, making it almost impossible and very difficult to regain or restore green and cleaner environment in the affected communities, locations and most parts of the Niger Delta; both land, water, air/atmosphere and livelihoods; a perfect and thorough clean-up exercise must be carried out.
Going forward, The Federal Government, Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA), the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and other relevant regulatory bodies, should routinely conduct quality and integrity test on the IOCs’ operations and facilities; and vet not only these operations and facilities but also their contractors or third parties. Regulating and setting/maintaining standards must be in the purview of the environmental agency and the NNPC. When communities report cases or incidences of environmental pollution, prompt and immediate actions/investigations must be carried out and blame should be directed at the defaulting organisation to serve as a deterrent.
Lastly, international best practice, cleaner energy, cleaner fuels, cleaner environment should be applied as obtain in Norway, Finland, USA, Malaysia, Kuwait etc, particularly in mitigating climate change and the ozone layer depletion. Also, in a world that is becoming more complex and more interdependent coupled with globalisation, livelihoods, environmental rights and fundamental rights must be protected at all times.
By: Samson Ayooso
Ayooso wrote from Port Harcourt.
Since late Prof. Dora Akunyili’s tenure as the Director General of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the fight against fake, illegal and expired drugs seemed to be in limbo until the current raid by the agency. For over one-week NAFDAC has been in the news as it has taken the war to the door post of fake, unauthorised, expired medicine dealers across the country. From Ariaria Market, Aba to Bridgehead, Onitsha, Anambra State, to Idumota drug market, Lagos, the stories are the same. Warehouses are being raided, medicine shops are being closed, counterfeit and expired drugs are being destroyed and so on. The current Director General of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, must be commended for the reinvigorated effort towards ridding our society of poisons in the name of drugs.
Some of these drugs according to NAFDAC are expired, imported drugs which are repackaged and pushed into the markets. Some of the seized drugs were vaccines stored in dilapidated, unventilated rooms, sealed with iron sheets in highly unsanitary conditions. It is doubtful if there is any adult Nigerian that is not aware of the damage caused to the citizens and the country by fake and substandard drugs. How many times have we or someone we know taken malaria drugs, antibiotics or other medicines for a cure of an ailment and they were ineffective? How many people in the country have died because fake or relabelled expired drugs were administered to them? Experts have posited that fake, adulterated, substandard drugs fuel antimicrobial resistance, as substandard antibiotics fail to properly treat infections, leading to stronger and more resilient bacteria.
The proliferation of these harmful substances is indeed a crisis of national significance. It threatens public health, weakens trust in the healthcare system, and exacerbates Nigeria’s already fragile health sector. Local drug manufacturers who invest millions of Naira to produce genuine, quality drugs for the citizens are denied the fruits of their labour by criminal syndicates who take advantage of regulatory loopholes and weak enforcement to flood the market with dangerous substances, putting millions of lives at risk. So, by all means, they should not be spared. But the question that begs for an answer is, where were the government agencies when these fake and expired drugs entered the country and travelled to the states? Why were they not intercepted at the point of entry either via the ports or the land borders and the importers arrested and prosecuted?
According to Adeyeye, most of these poisonous drugs are brought into the country through the ports and the porous borders. Is there nothing that can be done to beef up security and checks against illegal drugs at the borders? Or is it a case of the personnel at the borders looking the other way when they must have been settled thereby allowing unhindered entry of fake and unauthorised products into the country? It is also worrisome why we have allowed drugs to be sold in the open markets in the country. For many years, the federal government has been coming up with policies to address the uncontrolled and undefined buying and selling of medicine with or without approval, all to no avail. Open drug markets continue to thrive, leading to abuse and counterfeiting.
A former National Chairman of the Association of Community Pharmacists, Mr Samuel Adekola, in a recent interview bared his mind on the issue of open drug market. He said, “We know that open drug markets are not the best for Nigeria because of how the drugs are sourced. The government has been coming up with policies to address it, but you know that nature abhors vacuum, so once there is no alternative, these markets crop up because people must use drugs. Policies of the government must support alternatives which will make the drug distribution process/system in Nigeria a regulated and sanitised one. The whole essence of this is to save society from fake and adulterated drugs because the burden of fake drugs on citizen’s health and the economy is huge. Today, 70 percent of deaths in the hospitals arise from drug misuse or fake drugs.”
Early in the week, the NAFDAC DG during a television interview announced that the Kano Coordinated Wholesale Centre for drug marketers has taken off and that that of Lagos, Aba, Onitsha and other places are in the pipeline. Hastened efforts in actualising this will go a long way in checking the menace of fake drugs. Also, in addition to Adeyeye’s request for more funding and more staff for the agency to help in manning the borders and prevent the infiltration of poisonous drugs into the country, there is the need for technology-driven solutions to the challenge. The adoption of digital tools, such as mobile verification codes on drug packaging, can help consumers verify the authenticity of their medications. Blockchain technology can also be explored to track and trace pharmaceutical products from manufacturers to end-users.
NAFDAC and other regulatory bodies should be empowered with adequate resources to crack down on counterfeiters. Policies that improve oversight, enhance drug registration processes, and promote stricter penalties for offenders are essential. The nation’s drug distribution policy which stipulates penalties for defaulters must be implemented. While Adeyeye’s proposed death penalty for fake drug peddlers may be too harsh, many years imprisonment without an option of fine will not be out of place. While commenting on the recent raids, the National Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria – Young Pharmacists Group, Tekena George showered some encomium on the NAFDAC DG, saying that beyond enforcement, her transformational policies promote local production of high-quality medicines in Nigeria, noting that by encouraging domestic manufacturing, she is not only reducing the country’s reliance on imported drugs but also strengthening the nation’s medicine security and economic resilience.
Indeed, over-reliance on imported drugs increases vulnerability to counterfeit products. Both federal and state governments should therefore encourage domestic pharmaceutical production, backed by strong quality control measures. This will ensure a safer drug supply chain. Nigeria should work closely with international agencies such as INTERPOL and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to dismantle transnational drug counterfeiting networks. Sharing intelligence and coordinating enforcement efforts will help disrupt the supply chain of fake drugs. Awareness campaigns are inevitable in dealing with the menace of fake drugs in our society. Many Nigerians remain unaware of the dangers of fake drugs. Government agencies, civil society groups, and healthcare professionals must therefore collaborate to educate the public on how to identify counterfeit drugs and report suspicious products.
Most importantly, the National Orientation Agency, religious and traditional leaders, parents, schools and other organisations must join hands in changing the “get rich at all cost” mentality of some Nigerians. As some people say, corruption, greed and selfishness are the root of all the problems in Nigeria. And unless these vices are dealt with all efforts at stemming fake drug distribution and other menace in the country will bear no positive result.
Calista Ezeaku
Early in Trump’s 45th Presidency, I wrote an article titled “Trump as Owha” and sent it to major newspapers in US and Nigeria. Unfortunately, only THISDAY and The Tide published it on February 15 and 20, 2017, respectively. This piece revisits the article, which likened Trump to a bellicose -machete-wielding masquerade called Owha . Numerous masquerades perform during the grand finale of the week-long burial rite of passage of Ogba people of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA), Rivers State, Nigeria. Each type comes in multiple, adorned in mask and costume while displaying a choreography that proclaims its individuality. The event attracts tourists to Omoku, the headquarters of ONELGA, for what is adjudged a variant of Mardi Gras without the erotism of the New Orleans event.
At the arena, people are usually in celebratory mood and the events go on smoothly until Owha enters and precipitates chaos by chasing any and every person with the intent of inflicting injury, hence it is put on a long leash with many able-bodied young men as handlers. When angered by the restraints from the handlers, Owha turns around, chases them and complete chaos ensues until it is brought under control and forced out of the arena. Thereafter, the festivities continue to a cheerful conclusion. As the 45th President, Trump demonstrated the Owha element but was perhaps restrained by the desire for a second term. Even at that, it was one contentious issue after another: Australia refugee deal, Mexico’s wall project and “bad hombres,” Germany euro accusations, putting Putin at par with Merkel, discriminatory travel ban that drew Americans to the streets and was challenged by the Judiciary; the word “ally” was redefined, alliances shaken to their roots, the fourth estate dubbed “the most dishonest people on earth.”and discordant tunes consistently emanated from the Oval Office such that Kathleen Parker referred to them as “the perilous absurdities emanating from the White House”.
Trump showed every sign of the Owha. Today, as the 47th President without the restraint of re-election, the Owha in Trump is manifesting its capacity to create chaos (CCC). Worrisomely, Trump seems not to realise the immense responsibilities incumbent on the US President. A day before his inauguration, Trump declared thus: “Starting from tomorrow, I will act with historical speed and fix every single crisis facing our country”. Following inauguration, he hurriedly appended “his signature on executive orders, memorandums and proclamations”, declassified many documents and fired twelve Inspectors General (IG). Jack Cocchiarella avers that “Trump is a disaster”. Like the Owha, Trump has fired shots on all fronts: Canada and Mexico, US’ Northern and Southern neighbours and signatories to the trilateral North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), have replied Trump on new tariffs in equal measure.
Immediately Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, the Sleeping Dragon woke up and “responded with lightning speed and retaliated in more than equal measure…No empty words, no drawn out negotiations; just swift decisive countermeasures” that affect the critical sector of US economy. For Bernie Sanders, the situation is “a dangerous unprecedented moment in American history” and calls out Americans to be “smart, organised and fight back [by building] a movement against political power”. Certainly, the allure that attracted Mary Ann Macleod to the US in 1930, is waining.The questions are: is Trump psychologically prepared for the enormous powers of Oval Office? If Trump manifests the full CCC of Owha, can Vice President Vance and the Cabinet of Billionaires invoke Section 4 of 25th Amendment? Can Congress effectively play the role of handlers of this Owha?
Most importantly, Can Trump be trusted with The Presidential Emergency Satchel? On the side of the Judiciary, District Judge John Coughenour, has set the pace by blocking Trump’s executive order curtailing the right to birthright citizenship referring to it as “blatantly unconstitutional” and urged the States of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon to prevent the administration from enforcing it. Can that bold afront be sustained across the US? All said, President Trump should submit to the psychologist’s chair same way President Eisenhower accepted being deprogrammed from his military psyche. Finally, what does Revelations (13:5) mean by “power was given unto him to continue forty and two months?” Does “continue” not mean another chance? Perhaps a second term? If so, does “forty-months” refer to a date with June 2028 or hide a deeper spiritual meaning? Whatever it is, Americans and their institutions should be “smart, organised and fight” to contain the excesses of the Owha in Oval Office.
Jason Osai.
Osai lectures in Rivers State University.
Valentine’s Day, February 14, is one of those occasions that evoke mixed reactions from different people. For some, it is a magical day filled with love, romance, and grand gestures. For others, it is an over-commercialised event that puts unnecessary pressure on relationships and individuals. Personally, I have a balanced perspective on Valentine’s Day—I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but I also recognise its drawbacks. At its core, Valentine’s Day is about celebrating love, which is a beautiful concept. Love, in its many forms—romantic, platonic, familial—is worth recognizing and cherishing. In a fast-paced world where people are constantly busy, having a designated day to express affection and appreciation for loved ones can be meaningful. It serves as a reminder to nurture relationships and make time for those who matter most. For many couples, it is an opportunity to rekindle romance, spend quality time together, and create cherished memories.
However, Valentine’s day celebration has left a sour taste in many marriages and relationships. On this day some years ago, my friend’s five-year-old marriage crashed due to irreconcilable differences between her and her husband which resulted from Valentine’s Day celebration. The man was alleged to have spent the “Lovers Day” in a hotel with another woman, an accusation he denied. There followed accusations and counter-accusations and a series of problems that culminated in divorce. Just like my friend, many people have ugly stories to tell about Valentine’s Day. Many couples have had fights on Valentine’s Day when one of them did not buy a nice enough gift or worse still forgets to buy a gift. Many people, especially the young ones have had to do all kinds of unspeakable things to raise money for the event. All these negative stories have made many wonder if the day is worth celebrating.
Valentine’s Day started out well. It is a very old and religious celebration centred around Saint Valentine. Stories have it that Emperor Claudius II of the Roman Empire decided that young men should be soldiers, so he outlawed marriage. Claudius handed down this decree believing that soldiers would be distracted and unable to concentrate on fighting if they were married or engaged. Valentine, a Catholic Priest, defied the emperor and secretly performed marriage ceremonies. He was thrown into prison and put to death on February 14. Valentine believed in the power of love. He identified with couples that were genuinely in love and paid the supreme prize for his love for others. Valentine’s Day was therefore set aside for the exchange of gifts with loved ones, friends, relatives and others.
Today the meaning of Valentine’s Day is gone because society rewrote it. With all the radio and television and social media hype the day is enjoying, as well as all the activities up in many cities for the event, it is obvious the real meaning of the day is being misused. Many have argued that various love activities on the night of Valentine’s Day are capable of luring youth into fornication, alcoholism and other social vices, and are big threats to the lives of the younger generation. As a matter of fact, many young people are taking advantage of this day to carry out all sorts of immoral acts. Many get pregnant, relationships are broken, many contact dreadful diseases like HIV/AIDS and the future of many is shattered. Valentine’s Day is certainly not meant to encourage people particularly the youth to engage in inappropriate sex and other forms of immorality. History did not tell us that St Valentine was a fornicator. So, it is absurd associating Valentine’s Day with sexual promiscuity.
Meanwhile, the emphasis on romance can make those who are single feel left out, as if their happiness is dependent on having a partner. In reality, love comes in many forms, and self-love is just as important as romantic relationships. Instead of seeing Valentine’s Day as a day only for couples, it can be an opportunity to celebrate love in a broader sense—spending time with loved ones, practising self-care, or simply appreciating life. I think for Valentine’s Day celebration to make more meaning in our lives as individuals and as a society, we must have to do things right. Let us use this day of love to celebrate all the people in our lives. This is what Valentine’s Day should really be like, seizing the opportunity to tell the people we love that they are special to us and actually making time to do something about it. It should be an opportunity to strengthen family ties and friendships rather than just focusing on romantic relationships.
The point of this day is not to indulge in immoral acts in the name of love or ruin your relationship over material things. The point of Valentine’s Day is, or at least should be, to appreciate one another. We are expected to use this date to pay tribute to love, this universal human value that transcends geographic, religious and cultural challenges. There is no doubt that when such selfless, true love is expressed to one another there will be peace in our families and the country in general, especially when neighbourly love is practised not only on Valentine’s Day but every day. Churches, Non-Governmental Organisations, states and federal ministries in charge of youth affairs are encouraged to emulate the former Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi, in Okojie who usually gathered youths on Valentine’s Day and taught them the essence of the day and also engaged them meaningfully. Youths need to be occupied with important, useful activities like charity work, visit to the needy. This will enable them to appreciate and love others and at the same time make them better citizens.
Valentine’s Day should be redefined beyond romantic relationships. Some organisations, schools and individuals use the occasion to engage in charity work, visiting orphanages, hospitals, and less privileged communities to spread love in a more impactful way. This is commendable as it highlights the importance of love in all its forms—romantic, familial, and humanitarian. Everything must be done to ensure that the purity of the society is not abused through Valentine’s Day celebration. We should also not forget that love is not about a single day; it is about a consistent effort and care we show all year round.
Calista Ezeaku
