Group calls for disincentive to stop gas flaring
An env i ronment a l group, Environmental Rights Action/friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/ FOEN), has urged the Federal Government to put in place adequate disincentive measures geared towards stopping gas flaring by oil companies in Nigeria.
Godwin Uyi Ojo, executive director of the group, made the call in a press briefing in Benin City, titled, “Environmental Governance: Double Standards in Oil Sector Management in Nigeria.”
Ojo said payment of fines for gas flared in addition to payment in monetary terms of the value of the actual volume of gas flared remain disincentives for the oil industry to continue to indulge in the illegal acts.
Fines are merely imputed as operational costs and not payment from profits to the oil companies, he said.
While noting that the new gas flaring law recently passed by the National Assembly prohibits gas flaring in any new petroleum project
on commissioning, noted that gas flaring was outlawed in Nigeria decades ago, but the Federal Government through the office of Minister of Petroleum wielded so much power, such that putting a complete stop to it had been continuously postponed.
He also urged the Federal Government to put in place contingency plan of action to bring the oil companies to account by ensuring the clean up of decades of pollution of the environment within the next two years.
He also wants the government to declare Niger Delta as ecological disaster zone as well as environmental emergency.
He explained that despite the ongoing petroleum sector reforms, the oil sector lacked transparency and remained mainly characterised by massive environmental degradation and human rights violations.
He said Shell, Chevron, Total, ENI/ Agip as well as several multinational and local oil companies had been implicated.
President, Nigeria-malaysia Business Council, Michael Aderohunmu, says Nigeria must articulate new growth story around mining, agribusiness value chain development to create jobs, reduce costs of living and take the economy to the future through planning, partnership, technical cooperation for a changing agro- allied industry and profitability.
Aderohunmu made the observation at an event tagged ‘Nigeria open for business’, which took place in Malaysia, convened with support by the Malaysia External Trade & Development Corporation (MATRADE).
Discussions at the meeting focused on flow of trade and investment between Nigeria and Malaysia.
The president of the council emphasised on the need for Nigeria to articulate the priority area as formulated in Government Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
He further noted, “To move forward and to remain
relevant, Nigeria must take cognisance of the world’s key trade and investment trends- trade war between the US and China, Brexit and the European economy, etcand build strategy around it.”
He added that the new agribusiness value chain development with Malaysia is a mutually beneficial strategy that offers tremendous opportunity for growth.
Malaysia is one of the world’s top trading nations. Some Malaysian government executives, who spoke on the sidelines of the meeting, said they saw trade and investment as a game changer in agricultural and mining sectors.
An expert on trade and investment, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “With emphasis on the Nigeria-malaysia Trade Corridor, and taken into consideration that the world economy is market-driven, may take away from the meeting is how Nigeria can ride the tide, by adding value through processing of our primary products, creating jobs and reducing costs of living of Nigerians.”