I have just read President Buhari's self-congratulatory message that "This is a landmark moment for Nigeria" etc. about the Bill amending the Deep Offshore (and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract) Act
There's a dearth of details for the general public, sympathisers and well-wishers. Sometimes it's a matter of, "the devil is in the details" , so, exactly how does this amended bill benefit the long-suffering Niger Delta people on whose land Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decided to bury the precious oil deposits on which the whole nation now depends?
How does the amended bill improve their lot?
How much of the oil revenues has the government earmarked for fighting environmental degradation and compensating the Delta people?
As an entirely hypothetical but equitable exercise, in 1981 Senator Francis Ellah attempted to introduce and pass a revenue allocation bill , arguing that since Rivers State provided 56% of Nigeria's total revenue for the nineteen states which then comprised the Federal Republic, in order to obtain a fair revenue allocation that's due to Rivers State, Rivers State could be subdivided into 13 ( thirteen) smaller states thus bringing the number of Federal states to a grand total of 32 states, each state thus receiving a fair share of revenue allocation.
Of course, some slight adjustments have been made since then, but not enough is being done to counter the on-going environmental genocide.
On Wednesday, 30 October 2019 21:57:45 UTC+1, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:
How is President Buhari reacting to this? Should the Delta people be happy with their president?
We keep on hearing about Boko Haram, that apparently their terrorism has not yet reached a genocidal level / genocidal proportions – and the Boko Haram terrorism could be partly eased by providing the terrorists with some worthwhile alternatives, such as more education and gainful employment);we also hear that the war against corruption is ostensibly at the top of Brer Buhari's agenda, but it seems that they ( the Buhari administration) are still sitting on their hands with regard to the Environmental genocide in Nigeria - in the Niger Delta which provides 70% of Nigeria's total revenue ( according to today's BBC Focus on Africa)
The BBC news footage is enough to make you sick in the stomach. The extent of the environmental degradation is such that those areas are a health hazard, unliveable, not fit for human habitation. And you know that the Delta people are water people and depend on fishing for their livelihood. Surely, the people of the Niger Delta deserve better?
On Wednesday, 30 October 2019 19:17:56 UTC+1, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:The Archbishop of York warns of "environmental genocide" in oil-rich Nigeria
From the very beginning until now, nothing has changed. It's a crying shame. Kalabari Brother Mujahid Dukubo-Asari and others have cried but precious little has happened. We all agree that the good people of the Nigerian Delta have suffered long enough and it's more than about time that something drastic is done to reverse the environmental degradation that is killing good people and depriving them of their livelihood and their wealth, protesting which Ken Saro-Wiwa paid with his life.
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