NIGERIA: YEARS OF POLICING ERRORS By Emmanuel Onwubiko

A universal fact that has over time been acknowledged by even the die-hard supporters of the inefficient and corrupt status quo in Nigeria is that the Nigeria police has failed as a potent force for crime detection, prevention and combat. The raison d’être for establishing the Nigeria Police Force is for the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of the law and order, the protection of life and property and the due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged, and shall perform such military duties within and without Nigeria as may be required by them, under the authority of, this or any other Act, [ see Police Act].

But the policing capacity and skills of the operatives and officers of the Nigeria Police has continued to nosedive so much so that few years ago, a serving Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Chief Bola Ige, [SAN] was murdered by suspected assasins in his Ibadan, Oyo State Country home at a time his team of armed Police security guards and the State Security Service [SSS] reportedly left their guns at the residential premises to go to near-by restaurant to eat. These killers of the then Justice Minister as well as many other innocent precious lives wasted have yet to be arrested and prosecuted.

Sadly, successive Federal administrations have adopted weak, inefficient, compromised and incompetent approach to solving this dangerous national malaise of a failed policing institution in Nigeria. These Federal administrations have used the formation of committees upon committees to find solution to the problems afflicting the Nigeria Police Force and suggest strategies for actualizing effective police reforms. But the formation of committees by successive Nigerian governments have failed to produce the desired results. Great thinkers believe that setting up committees is same as running away from facing the problems and solving them squarely. Charles F. Kettering once stated that; " If you want to kill any idea in the World today, get a committee working on it".

In Nigeria, to add salt to injury, most of these presidential police reforms committee were substantially composed by much of the same persons who worked at the highest echelon of the Nigeria Police Force and used their privileged positions to ruin the policing institution so much so that the Nigeria police is not only one of the most indisciplined police outfits in the World, but as currently constituted, the policing institution has witnessed systemic collapse compelling the current administration to draft in the operatives of the Nigerian Army to handle assignments of internal security that constitutionally ought to be handled by the police.

The involvement of the military in internal security and maintenance of law and order has brought international opprobrium to the image of the Nigerian military that has come under considerable condemnation for human rights violations. But violence and crime have continued unabated.

Nigerians endure daily cocktails of crime prevention errors by operatives and the hierarchy of the Nigeria police Force which usually result in casualties that end up as aspects of the larger picture of body counts and crime statistics.       

Killings of innocent lives have become commonplace and people are sadly assuming that policing duty starts and end with body counts and meaningless official press statements by police public Relations officers confirming numbers of innocent persons gunned down, maimed or wantonly destroyed by armed members of the underworld who are increasingly becoming very daring, well trained, well armed with sophisticated weapons over and above those of the regular police. The climate of impunity which gives violent criminals the impression that you can commit any atrocity and get away with it in Nigeria has embolden and made these criminals very callous, heartless and vicious. The other day in Umuahia, Abia State, a baby just born was stolen from the labour room by kidnappers and the operatives of the Nigeria police are groping in the dark and unsure of how to deploy intelligence to uncover the gang responsible for this crime against humanity. The Nigeria Police does not have competent, efficient and functional intelligence gathering department even as the commonest law enforcement tool which are forensic laboratories are nowhere near any police station in Nigeria.

Sadly, the foot soldiers in the Nigeria police force who are deliberately poorly equipped, poorly trained and poorly remunerated by the over-fed political elite and the police hierarchy are often in the first line of fire when these criminals deploy their usually sophisticated fire power to the consternation of Nigerians who look up to the police to enforce law and order.

A careful observer would have noted that for many years now, the gross incompetence and absence of professionalism by the Nigeria police has put Nigeria in the world’s crime map of infamy as one of the most dangerous places to live. Only recently, a national daily reported that the United Kingdom border Agency has turned down several asylum requests by frightened Nigerians running away from the firing line of these armed terrorists in Northern Nigeria who have made several successful forays into Abuja, the nation’s political capital with devastating consequences to the precious lives and property of Nigerians and foreigners alike.

Painfully, decent members of the civilized World are daily insulted by the unintelligent and totally illogical media releases/statements that have emanated from the highest quarters of the Nigeria Police Force in their clever by half effort to conceal and explain away this monumental policing incompetence and fatal blunders that have collectively cost Nigeria high tolls in terms of the dimension of the bloody violence on precious lives by these depraved armed members of the underworld. Family members are wiped out intermittently in violence- prone flash points by armed bandits and the police primarily charged with the constitutional duty of maintenance of law and order are usually always caught napping. What a big shame?

The climax of all these policing blunders was the year 2011 June 16th terrorist attack of the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, few days after the then Inspector General of Police Mr. Hafiz Ringim had threatened to declare war on the Islamic insurgency group in the North. The bombing last year also of the United Nations House in Abuja is another show of shame that clearly demonstrated that the nation’s policing institution has systematically collapsed. Nigerian Government has now set aside a whooping N5 billion from the scarce public fund to rebuild this edifice which was wantonly destroyed because Nigeria has no proactive policing institution to nip crimes in the bud.

It took public outrage for President Goodluck Jonathan to wield the big stick and sack the immediate past Inspector General of police Mr. Hafix Ringim for these overwhelming collapse of the crime fighting mechanism of the Nigeria police Force.

If you think the change of guard at the highest echelon of the Nigeria police Force that brought in Mr. Mohammed Abubakar as the Inspector General of police would translate into change in crime prevention strategy then you must be among those who live in the high streets of ‘fools paradise’.

Do you ask why? Then consider the fact that only few weeks ago when four promising young Nigerian undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt were slaughtered in the most primitive savagery by members of the Aluu Community of Ikwerre local government Area of River State, few distance away from the police, the current Inspector General of police insulted our collective intelligence when he explained that his men were ‘chased away’ by stones wielding villagers of Aluu Community before these four young Nigerians met their untimely, painful and gruesome end and further violated with reckless abandon when the abominable dastardly criminal acts were recorded by video and uploaded on the internet for the World to watch.

Again the nation’s current Inspector General of police has insulted our collective intelligence when he was quoted as saying that the Nigeria Police Force cannot prosecute terrorists in police detention because the anti-terrorism law has not been signed. Oh what a country?

Is the Inspector General of police not aware of section 36, subsection (8) of the 1999 Constitution as amended?

This constitutional provision states that; “No person shall be held to be guilty of a criminal offence on account of any act or omission that did not, at the time it took place, constitute such an offence, and no penalty shall be imposed for any criminal offence heavier than the penalty in force at the time the offence was committed”.                 

Assuming without conceding that Nigeria does not have extant anti-terrorism laws, is the police Inspector General saying that persons arrested for suspected grave offence of mass killings of innocent Nigerians cannot validly be prosecuted  in the competent courts of law under extant laws that forbids murder which are clearly enshrined in our common laws and other legal statutes?

However, since the senate Committee on Information Chairman Senator  Enyinnaya Abaribe has corrected the erring police boss and pointed out that Nigeria has extant anti-terrorism laws, the Federal government through the office of the Federal Attorney General must take over the prosecution of all cases of terrorism so as to bring effective justice to these suspects that have now being held for several months without trial and deliver effective closures to the pains of all those who have lost their bread winners in the hands of these suspected terrorists.

The public show of ignorance of the existence of the anti-terrorism laws as displayed by the Inspector General of police is a clear demonstration of the fact that the policing institution is incompetent and cannot professionally handle serious criminal matters connected with terrorism.

Nigeria must get her acts together and practically reform the Nigeria police to give Nigerians effective and efficient policing institutions at the local, municipal, state and national levels.  The National Assembly will do us a whole lot of good if they use the opportunity of the ongoing constitutional alteration process to wholistically introduce provisions that would bring about effective, independent and well funded Local, Community, and state police similar to what obtains in virtually all developed climes.

It is only insane people that can keep experimenting with a dead policing institution that the current Nigeria police Force has become and still expect a different result from the systemic failures that have occurred.

* Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com.      

22/11/2012

Nigeria: Small business as key to youth employment By Emmanuel Onwubiko & Sylvia N. Okonkwo, esq

Those who know defined small businesses as companies that each employs less than 100 people. Researchers that work with http://www.evolveyourbiz.com/ are of the knowledgeable position that small businesses in the United States is key to job creation and indeed are credited for creating nearly fifty percent or more of the entire jobs in the United States economy. According to them, in the USA, small business employs over half of the nation's workforce.

Writing further on the importance of small business to the United States of America's economy, these group of thoroughbred researchers affirmed that though many people still think that new industrial giants are the most important factor in driving the economy, but the truth is that small businesses are actually the 'top dog'. "Where would half of the nation's actively working population find gainful employment opportunities without the formidable presence of the small businesses?"

Other researchers as well as the ones being referred above are of the opinion that entrepreneurs are the backbone of creativity and production because of the undeniable and scientifically verifiable fact that over 60% of all private sectors, non-farm jobs comes from small businesses and this salient fact informed the claim by experts that small businesses are critical to the United States economy. 

Back home in Nigeria, small scale or small medium enterprises are common means by which many are making a living in the country. Known as the most populous country in Africa with about 162.47 million people, Nigeria churns out graduates from tertiary institutions with little or no job waiting for them in the labour market. The National Bureau of Statistics said that over 50% of youth in Nigeria are jobless even as the World Bank by some estimates say 56% of Nigerian youth are jobless.

The MO IBRAHIM Foundation established by the Sudanese-born but United Kingdom-based investor- Dr. MO Ibrahim has in the 2012 report on the future of the African youth painted graphic and grim picture that the educational system in much of the African countries including Nigeria are not structured in such a model as to produce graduands who are comprehensively groomed with the twenty first century compliant skills to become creative and imaginative entrepreneurs.

 MO Ibrahim canvassed urgent measures in the area of providing good governance models that are workable so that quality education, health and opportunities for gainful employments are created for the youth to enable them compete with their counterparts around the globe. According to MO Ibrahim foundation, most youth in Africa including Nigeria with the highest population of black people in the World, are endangered by realities not unconnected to governance. This report revealed that the median age of African leaders is three times the median age of African population; Africa's current educational levels are lower than China's and India's; Secondary school achievement has regressed, as nearly nine million primary school age Children are out of school in Nigeria with only2/3 of students progressing from primary to secondary education.

MO Ibrahim Foundation also found out that job readiness is lacking in Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt while sectors that drive Gross Domestic Products growth do not create the most jobs. To cap up these pathetic statistics, MO Ibrahim Foundation uncovered that Africa has the lowest share of Engineering graduates in the World and that West and Central Africa lags behind literally when compared to East, Southern and Northern Africa. These factors grossly discourages the growth of small businesses among Nigerian youth who in their millions roam the streets of Nigeria searching for the elusive white collar jobs rather than being encouraged and empowered to become investors and small business operators.

 Even with the constraints of lack of finance to start up successful small business enterprises, many Nigerian youth still turn to the establishment of small and medium enterprise to sustain themselves. However, many who do not have formal education but are business minded are finding their way into the small scale or small and medium enterprise. The Government and other policy makers must find ways of educationally and financially empowering the millions of Nigerian youth who are already involved in small businesses and also encourage others to join this noble enterprise of running small businesses. 

A small scale or small or medium enterprises in Nigeria could range from manufacturing plastic sealed water, popularly known as “Pure water”, to leasing or renting an office space for wholesale, retail or social or consultancy services.    

Indeed, small and medium scale business/Enterprises (SMEs) anywhere in the world serve as a very potent force for job creation, poverty alleviation and overall healthy economic growth, and in the case of Nigeria, a thriving small business sector holds the key to ending the vicious cycle of violence, terrorism and youth restiveness.

The positive development in this regard is that the government departments, especially at the federal level, are neither relenting nor giving up their bid to revamp and invigorate the fortunes of SMEs as to enable them play the expected role in Nigeria’s economic growth and development but the commitment to make sure that the right persons benefit from the various schemes already in place in Nigeria is grossly lacking due to nepotism, greed, corruption and absence of good governance which are some of the salient constraints pointed out in the MO Ibrahim's report as being responsible for the backwardness of the Nigerian youth.

On the part of the Nigerian government, officials are of the view that different steps are being taken to address and redress these anomalies with a view to making the youth successful owners of small businesses. This, according to these Nigerian government officials, is evidenced by the government’s recent innovative job creation mechanisms as well as the mandate given to the Bank of Industry (BOI) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the facilitation of the Banker’s Committee's Institutionalization of the Small and Medium Industry, Equity Investment Scheme (SMIEIS). But these elitist measures have not trickled down to the millions of jobless Nigerian youth.

The enormity of the crisis of youth unemployment is however not being properly confronted with the necessary tools to reduce the scourge by encouraging the youth to become successful small scale business owners through the implementation of a variety of tax incentives and benefits including workable welfare schemes to enable unemployed youth meet up with payment of some important bills and also participate in the administration of small businesses as owners and consumers. Till date some foreigners are actively involved in the setting up and running of small businesses such as supermarket retail outlets, restaurants and bakeries. It is only in Nigeria that such things are encouraged when the local youth are roaming the streets jobless and government is looking the other way and allowing all manner of unqualified and unskilled persons from foreign jurisdictions to invade the Nigerian local markets. The Federal Ministries of Labour/productivity and Internal affairs must be reorganized to guide against abuses of expatriate quota that has become pervasive in Nigeria.

Still on the issue of small businesses, President Goodluck Jonathan recently introduced the YOUTH ENTERPRISE WITH INNOVATION IN NIGERIA [YOUWIN] which is a joint initiative of the Federal ministries of Finance; youth affairs, Women affairs and Communication Technology. The programme is to encourage and support ambitious and creative enterprising young men and women to develop and implement business ideas for job creation. Government officials say the initiative if properly implemented is envisaged to last for a three year period in which the second cycle would be completed in 2013[September] and that between 80,000 to 320,000 new jobs will be created at the cost of N10 billion.

If you ask us, we will simply see this modest effort by the current administration as 'mere tokenism' because only recently the entire country was inundated with information that few members of the criminal petroleum importation gangs with active patronage of some influential government officials cornered nearly N1 Trillion of tax payers money in fictitious fuel subsidy claims and that the Central Bank of Nigeria and the relevant government agencies including the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency [PPPRA], the federal ministry of Finance[before arrival of Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala as minister] and the office of the Accountant General of the Federation authorized these dubious payments to these cartel that collected huge payments for services and supplies of products that were never made. Why then is the Federal Government dedicating only N10 billion that can barely scratch the surface to tackle such a monumental national security threat posed by youth unemployment even when leakages and willful corruption by Government officials have depleted billions of tax payers fund through the collusion and active participation of rogue government officials who still hold influential positions in today's corridors of power? 

Government is hereby implored to broaden the scope of the youth enterprise with innovation in Nigeria project so as to create millions of small business owners among millions of unemployed Nigerian youth because the issue of joblessness among the youth is a serious national emergency that if not tackled by all stakeholders could spell doom for our nation in the nearest future. 

Federal Agencies such as the INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FUND [ITF], the National Directorate of Employment must be properly funded so that they can also expand the scope of some of their ongoing youth job creation initiatives. The ITF is one of the few agencies of the Federal Government that have carved a niche for themselves for actually implementing their mandates. The ITF is in the process of training thousands of unemployed Nigerian youth in skill and vocational sectors to become self employed. Such patriotic, creative, productive and good project needs to be given bigger budgets and realistically/pragmatically and transparently used to train and empower the unemployed Nigerian youth to become successful small business owners. 

The Business day of 14th February 2012, reported that the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) disbursed N2.8 Million for four unemployed graduates in Cross River State under its Enterprise Creation Fund (ECF) for small and medium Enterprises. Edem Duke, the Coordinator of the Directorate in the state disclosed in Calabar that the loan was to enable each of the beneficiaries who received N700,000 to start their own business. What can this little effort do in ameliorating the dangerous trend of youth unemployment?

The NDE office in Cross River State explained thus; “We expect that the young  graduate will use the money to set up their business, run them prudently in line with the training given, and pay back the money on time”. They were given moratorium of six months on the loan repayment and are expected to complete the repayment in two years. Again, 100 unemployed youths in the state were undergoing training which was tagged as unemployed Rural Youths Centered on hair dressing fashion designing, carpentry, Electrical Installation, welding and metal fabrication.

Recently, Director General of the National Directorate of Employment, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, launched some new job creation Schemes aimed at supporting the cashless economy programme of government. It floated the QIK-QIK and Easy-BIZ Business ownership schemes all designed to create employment opportunities for Nigerian graduates in the cashless economy platform.

He stated that micro-business concerns created by the NDE have enjoyed the privilege of exposure to some of the best world-class business platforms. "NDE beneficiaries are regular participants/Exhibitors at the three major international trade fairs in Nigeria namely, Kaduna, Enugu and Lagos International Trade Fairs. The cost of participation in these International business gatherings which may be beyond the economic muscles of the young NDE supported entrepreneurs is made easy by the directorate, it buys pavilion and allows it’s beneficiaries to exhibit their goods and services therein at no cost to them".

These facts if verifiable is commendable but again should be expanded to cover more unemployed youth because youth unemployment is a big national calamity.

Through the establishment of manpower development support schemes, and their involvement in the training and retraining of entrepreneurs, Small and medium business have provided pool of potential entrepreneurs and business people who are well equipped to start and successfully manage industries whether small or large, not only in Nigeria, but worldwide. Successful business people in Nigeria like the Aliko Dangotes, the Alex Ibrus, Mike Adenugas, Illodigwes and the Orji Kalus started as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES), before the growth of their various businesses into Conglomerates. These big businesses that commenced as small businesses are today big players in the job creation market.

Small business, according to economists, will reduce the dependence in government and large firms on salaries employment. It will stimulate rural development and the achievement of a meaningful level of broad economic and rural development, which will reduce the migration from rural to urban centers, once infrastructural facilities are provided like access to good road, communication facilities like telephone, postal services, provision of electricity and water expansion schemes. In this regard, the second tier of Government and even the third tier which are the States and Local Government structures must wake up and create the enabling environment devoid of corruption and multiple taxations for small businesses to grow in their areas of jurisdiction.                  

Small businesses also ensures that the dignity of labor  and human dignity as enshrined in relevant provisions of the Constitution of Nigeria in chapters two and four, would have been uplifted.  Small businesses, in the thinking of some economists creates what they branded as the spirit of “ME TOO”, I can do it attitude. 

Successful small business ownership by the youth will infuse in them the passion and the psychological joy in working for themselves and seeing their businesses grow and mature to conglomerates and derive joy in being sources of employment to other Nigerians. Anyone watching Aliko Dangote; Mike Adenuga, Cosmas Okoli; Orji Kalu can see happy people who have worked so hard to start up small businesses that have today grown into conglomerates that have created gainful employment opportunities to millions of Nigerians in the construction, transport, media, manufacturing and telecommunications sectors of the Nigerian economy.

No gain saying that small businesses will upgrade the social status of every Nigerian Youth, by showcasing them as very successful entrepreneurs and operators of small scale industries.

It is our considered opinion that for  Nigeria to attain greater heights as a great economy, it should make herself Small medium enterprise (SMEs) driven economy that is adequately supported by the needed Fund in addition, the government should encourage the creation of more micro-Finance banks that are well supported and regulated to render necessary financial supports to the right prospective beneficiaries with workable business blueprints to drive the Nigerian economy and create sustainable jobs for the youth.

We think that entrepreneurship will teach the Nigerian Youths essence of business, which is finding a human need and filing it. A healthy society then can be created as the entrepreneurs go to work.

The Individual Nigerian Youth will learn to have status that are legitimate and functional. “This is the secret of learning to float while all boats capsize”, so says the wise aphorism.

+Emmanuel Onwubiko & Miss. Sylvia N. Okonkwo, esq writes from Human Rights Writers' Association of Nigeria, Head office in Abuja. http://www.huriwa.blogspot.com/.

20/11/2012

THE NECESSITY FOR A STRONGER NOSDRA By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Tuesday 13th November 2012 will linger for a long time in the memory of all the real lovers of the environment in Nigeria and for all those who have rightly shown their displeasure at the reckless abandon with which multinational crude oil exploration companies in the Crude Oil rich Niger Delta Region abuse our pristine environment through crude oil spillages and gas flares. On this day, the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology currently headed by the immediate past Governor of Kwara State Dr. Bukola Saraki, a medical doctor, summoned the courage to host the first ever stakeholders national forum and public hearing on a proposal to amend the enabling Act setting up the National Oil spill Detection and Response Agency [NOSDRA] with the aim of further empowering the body to combat these wanton destruction of the environment by these serial abusers. Incidentally, it was the same Dr. Bukola Saraki who vigorously campaigned for the probe of the huge petroleum subsidy claims that the Executive Arm of Government has wasted in the last one year which heralded the setting up of the Federal House of Representatives committee on the disappearance of huge public fund and also the Presidential probe panel set up by the Federal Ministry of Finance which uncovered that nearly N1 trillion Naira were stolen from the national treasury by some crude petroleum importers who claimed several tons of public fund for products they never supplied or intended to supply.

 

When therefore we received the invitation to attend this historic public hearing on strategies for further strengthening NOSDRA from the Senate Committee headed by this same Dr. Saraki, we in the civil society community in Abuja ad around the country decided to participated actively just as the HUMAN Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), a registered civil society group with well over one thousand members drawn from all parts of the country endorsed the move by the senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and by extension the National Assembly, to amend the enabling Act setting up the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (Establishment Act) of 2006 to reflect the realities of our time and to empower the body to protect our environment. The Transparency Center Network, another registered anti-graft Non-Governmental Organization also submitted well researched paper endorsing the move by the Senate to further give more legal teeth to NOSDRA to not only bark at the serial abusers of the Nigerian environment but to bite them with the viciousness that would compel a change of heart on their operational modalities to comply with international best practices and respect the environmental rights of their host communities.

 

Our decision to so participate actively was guided by our awareness that crude oil spill has consistently occupied the front burner as the most disturbing environmental problem in the oil rich but heavily neglected Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Once we were informed of this proposed amendment, we spent the better part of last week asking some senior high school students if they are conversant with the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency [NOSDRA] and majority of our respondents said they have heard about the activities of this agency charged with the duty of policing oil spill in Nigeria but they also wondered why oil pollution has continued making it necessary for some fishermen from the crude oil producing community in Niger Delta to proceed to a Dutch Court room to challenge Shell Petroleum for damaging their environment and livelihood through oil spills. 

 

This Government agency according to these respondents needs to more actively carry out advocacy activities on their key mandates because of the indisputable fact that crude oil spill is a major environmental issue afflicting most oil bearing communities. The respondents supported the decision to amend the enabling Act to give more powers and functions to the agency.

 

The Nigerian federal government in line with global best practices has established the National oil spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) under the National oil spill Detection and Response Agency (establishment) Act of 2006 to handle the critical environmental consequences of oil spill and to enforce relevant laws guiding against oil spillage in the oil producing communities. 

 

As human Rights practitioners we are of the considered position that the President Goodluck Jonathan administration is therefore expected to be in the vanguard of the advocacy for the adequate funding and comprehensive legal empowerment of NOSDRA so that these disturbing cases of oil spills in the oil producing communities are effectively tackled.

 

We have independently verified from different documented sources that since its establishment, the body has effectively discharged the fundamental mandates embodied in the enabling Act which are to among others establish a viable national operational organization that ensures a safe, timely, effective and appropriate response to major or disastrous oil pollution; Identify high-risk areas as well as priority areas for protection and clean up and establish the mechanism to monitor and assist or where expedient direct the response, including the capacity to mobilize the necessary resources to save lives, protect threatened environment, and clean up to the best practical extent of the impacted site.

 

Government is statutorily obliged by section 20 of the constitution to protect the environment from oil spill. Section 20 of the Constitution provides that “The State SHALL protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air, and land, forest and wild life of Nigeria”. 

 

Conversely, the international convention on civil liability for oil pollution Damage (1992) and the international oil pollution compensation funds convention (IOPC), [1992] are major global legal framework that specifically prescribes measures on how to ensure environment that is relatively free of oil spill.

Article one of the general provisions of the International Convention on oil pollution, preparedness, Response and co-operation of 1990 states that “parties undertake, individually or jointly, to take all appropriate measures in accordance with the provision of this convention and the Annex thereto to prepare for and respond to an oil pollution incident”.

But another lingering question is whether the National Assembly in compliance with section 12 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (of 1999 as amended) domesticated this very important international convention.

 

Senator I. S. Martyns Yellowe one time chairman of the Senate committee on the environment, wrote thus; “Domestication of these conventions is a sine qua non for Nigeria in its capacity of a leading oil producing and oil transporting country to avail her of direct access to huge compensations from the international oil pollution compensation Fund in case of damages caused by spillages from oil tankers”.

Several years after Senator Martyns-Yellowe made the above comment, it is unclear if the Nigerian Government has indeed domesticated the two global anti-oil spill conventions. If this has not been done then this is a better time to so domesticate this international body of law to safeguard our environment the more. 

 

To therefore contemplate any measure outside of strengthening NOSDRA charged with the onerous duty of protecting the environment from oil spill is a complete anti-climax from the general expectation of the good people of Nigeria. Nigerian Government must give NOSDRA the legal teeth to more effectively combat oil spill and to carry out media campaign in the same way that such agencies like National Agency for Food and Drug Regulation and control [NAFDAC] always do because of enhanced financial lifeline. What the Senate has decided to do by amending the enabling Act is a step in the right direction and posterity will forever remain appreciative of this noble and patriotic step.

 

After extensively perusing the draft Bill for an Act to amend the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, HURIWA hereby supports the move to further strengthen the powers given to this agency to combat the unprecedented rate of oil pollution in Nigeria.

 

As stakeholders in the organized civil society community in Nigeria in the last two decades, we are aware that over the years the international maritime organization (Imo) and the United Nations Environmental Programme have been active in promoting regional agreements, aimed at the developing countries ability to deal with a major marine pollution emergency. 

 

We know also that the international convention on oil pollution preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC Convention) in general terms requires governments and industry to work together to promote active regional agreements aimed at the developing countries ability to deal with major marine pollution emergency.

Writing under the general theme of oil spill management in developing nations, Moller and Santer suggest that there is a widespread preoccupation with specialized equipment, it is often forgotten that successful oil spill response is primarily dependent on a realistic attitude and basic organization. 

 

What is clear from the above statement by those experts is that the establishment of the National Oil Pollution Management Agency in Nigeria as Contemplated in the proposed amendment of the enabling Act setting up NOSDRA is imperative and is indeed an idea whose time has come. There are three quick comments we made on the proposed bill which we have endorsed and these observations are that the proposed re-designation of the name from National Oil Spill detection and Response Agency to National Oil Pollution Management Agency is very scientific and all encompassing and therefore should be given positive consideration.

 

Secondly, We acknowledge the beauty of the new sub-section 2 which is an amendment of section 1 of the principal Act to now read as follows;“There is established an Agency to be known as the National Oil Pollution Management Agency with the responsibility to prevent, detect, minimize and respond to all oil Spillages and pollution as well as gas flaring and leakages and other hazardous and obnoxious substances in the petroleum sector, coordinate private sector participation in oil pollution management, have access to oil spillage liability Trust Fund as set up by law” and thirdly In section 8(d) we are of the opinion that the word ‘God’ be substituted with the term “natural means” because our members believe that God is infinitely good and therefore cannot cause harm to the environment that is the work of His hands. It should be reframed thus; (“d) “for any onshore facility and/or a deep-water port not more than N15, 000,000,000 provided that a party shall not be held liable in damage for damages if the responsible party shows the spill was caused solely by an act of (Nature) not (God), an Act of war, or an act or omission of a third party”. 

 

We support section 30 of the proposed amendment and hereby urge the senate and the National Assembly to give Nigerians a strong, independent and corrupt free anti-oil spill management agency that would be the pride of the nation. But a fundamental lacuna in the new bill is the non-mention of the role of the civil society and the media in creating awareness on oil spills.

 

Civil society organizations and the media ought to be provided for in the proposed Bill as a way of bringing the larger society and giving ownership of the process to the Nigerian public. The new agency must be empowered and endowed with the resources to wage aggressive media and advocacy campaign on crude oil pollutions.

 

Transparency Center Network headed by Umar Farouk also told the Senate panel that there is a strong sentiment in favour of strengthening the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency Act as a means of enhancing its efficiency and ability to effectively sanction offenders. This would require an amendment to several sections of the Agency Act (No. 15 of 2006) oil Spill, Recovery, Clean up, Remediation and Damage Assessment Regulations, 2011. Firstly there is need to amend the title of the Agency to be redesigned as the National Oil Pollution Management Agency.

 

Oil Spill in Nigeria particularly in the Oil Producing Communities is constant like several Spills across the World. Sadly, in our own case International Oil Exploration companies that deliberately caused Oil Spill with impunity are neither criminalized nor indemnified. Therefore, it is imperative for the Amendment Act being proposed to address and accommodate the need for outright criminalization of spill related negligence being perpetuated by the Oil companies deliberately. Transparency Centre Network, is in specific terms aligning with the proposed amendment. Punishment should be use as a tool of deterrence in whatever form to discourage abuses by oil multinationals during production both on shore and off shore or other sundry drilling related services in the Sector.

 

Oil Spill in Nigeria was dated back to 1958 when crude Oil was discovered in commercial quantity in the ancient community of Oloibiri in the Present Niger Delta Region. People in the region are professional fishermen and women. However, the tide of events began to change when oil was discovered in the region. At the initial stage, the community dwellers heaved a sigh of relief as they saw crude oil discovery in the region as gateway to Eldorado. 

 

Instead of economic relief, however, it was economic hardship as the per capital nose-dived with reported cases of water and air pollution, economic degradation, geometric rate of Unemployment, erosion, environment pollution, to mention but a few.

The unyielding posture of the oil producing companies in the past was one of the factors responsible for the proposed amendment being canvassed to ensure compliance with protocols of best practices and entranced standards accepted internationally. The companies should be compelled by law and be held liable for any form of oil spill recorded in any part of the Country.

The law should emphasize the substance of spill in every location, rather than technicalities as many cases being undermined by the oil companies on the latter ground. 

 

Clearly, there is a preponderance of support for NOSDRA to be empowered to fight these multinational oil companies to respect human rights and environmental rights provisions in their operations in line with global best practices. Senator Saraki and his fellow legislators must not allow the blackmail and/or inducement from the rich oil companies to fail to achieve this historic assignment and give Nigeria a stronger, vibrant and proactive NOSDRA to police oil spills and save our environment.

 

 

* Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, blogs @www.huriwa.blogspot.com.

 

14/11/2012