Bennett Oghifo
Environmental rights advocates have raised fresh concerns over what they describe as mounting ecological disasters in the Niger Delta, warning that decades of oil and gas exploitation have left the region littered with environmental hazards that continue to threaten lives, livelihoods and ecosystems.
The alarm was sounded by an environmental activist and Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, during the Correspondents’ Week of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Rivers State Council, where he delivered an address on the theme, “The Imperatives of Comprehensive Cleanup of the Niger Delta Environment, Role of the Media.”
Bassey described the Niger Delta as one of the most environmentally devastated regions in the world, blaming the crisis on nearly seven decades of crude oil and gas extraction, weak regulation and the failure of both government and multinational oil companies to adequately address environmental damage.
Tracing the origins of Nigeria’s petroleum industry, he noted that the entire country was designated as a single oil bloc under Shell D’Arcy during the colonial era. According to him, the industry was established primarily to serve colonial interests, creating a legacy of exploitation that paid little attention to the welfare of host communities or environmental sustainability.
He argued that this pattern has persisted in the post-colonial era, resulting in widespread environmental degradation across the Niger Delta and other oil-producing areas.
According to Bassey, oil-producing territories have effectively become sacrifice zones where environmental protection is subordinated to profit. He warned that continued expansion of fossil fuel extraction across Africa threatens ecologically sensitive regions, including the Niger Delta, the Saloum Delta in Senegal, the Okavango Delta in Namibia, the Virunga region in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda’s Lake Albert basin.
He said the Niger Delta remains the most alarming example, citing estimates that the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez-scale oil spill occurs annually in the region, releasing approximately 260,000 barrels of crude oil into the environment every year.
The environmental advocate noted that several landmark studies have documented the devastating consequences of oil operations in the region. Among them is the Niger Delta Environmental Survey conducted between 1991 and 1997, which reportedly confirmed extensive soil and water contamination, biodiversity loss and worsening poverty linked to oil extraction activities.
He also referenced the United Nations Environment Programme’s Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland, published in 2011, which recommended the decommissioning of obsolete oil infrastructure and comprehensive environmental risk assessments of abandoned facilities.
Another significant study, An Environmental Genocide: Counting the Human and Environmental Cost of Oil in Bayelsa, released by the Bayelsa State Oil and Environment Commission in 2023, documented widespread environmental destruction and recommended the establishment of an environmental recovery agency alongside a $12 billion restoration fund over a 12-year period.
According to Bassey, more recent findings have revealed disturbing public health implications. He cited a 2024 report by Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, which found traces of 15 petroleum hydrocarbons in the bodies of women tested in Otuabagi community.
The environmentalist expressed concern that numerous abandoned oil facilities across the region remain undecommissioned despite legal requirements mandating their safe removal. These include ageing wellheads, pipelines, manifolds and flow stations that continue to pose risks to groundwater, farmland and air quality.
He described such facilities as “environmental time bombs” that are already causing damage rather than merely posing future threats.
Among the incidents highlighted was the 2021 blowout at Aiteo’s Santa Barbara Well-1 in Nembe, Bayelsa State, which burned for 39 days and released significant volumes of hydrocarbons into surrounding ecosystems.
Bassey also pointed to the Ororo-1 oil well off the coast of Ondo State, where a fire triggered by a blowout in 2020 has reportedly continued for more than six years without being extinguished. He criticised regulatory authorities and responsible companies for failing to take decisive action despite the environmental dangers posed by the prolonged inferno.
Similarly, he referenced an oil well fire at Alakiri in Rivers State, which has continued since 2024, as well as reports from Bille community where gas bubbles have emerged from rivers, farmlands and water sources, creating fears of sudden outbreaks of fire.
“These incidents are taking place in broad daylight and demonstrate the dangers associated with poorly maintained and abandoned oil infrastructure,” he said.
Beyond environmental destruction, Bassey linked extractive activities to broader social and human rights concerns, arguing that pollution has undermined access to clean water, food security and public health across the region.
He also criticised what he described as efforts by oil companies to influence public perception regarding the causes of pollution. According to him, equipment failures are frequently blamed on community sabotage even in cases where investigations indicate otherwise.
The environmental advocate therefore urged journalists to intensify investigative reporting on ecological issues, stressing that the media has a crucial role in exposing environmental crimes and amplifying the voices of affected communities.
“The thing polluters dread most is having their harmful activities exposed,” he said, adding that journalists must resist attempts to manipulate public narratives surrounding environmental degradation.
Bassey further called for an urgent environmental and health audit of the entire Niger Delta, immediate cleanup of polluted sites and restoration of damaged ecosystems. He advocated the decommissioning of abandoned facilities, an end to routine gas flaring, and accountability for decades of environmental and human rights violations.
Echoing resolutions reached at the Fifth Niger Delta Alternatives Convergence, he demanded the declaration of a State of Environmental Emergency in the Niger Delta.
According to him, the future of the region should no longer be defined by ecological sacrifice but by justice, restoration and sustainable development driven by the aspirations of its people.
He maintained that with life expectancy in some parts of the region reportedly as low as 41 years, government and industry stakeholders can no longer afford to delay action.
“The time to act is now,” Bassey declared, warning that relief materials and temporary interventions would remain inadequate as long as communities continue to live amid pollution, contamination and environmental insecurity.
