Gas, Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling...
Some days the news here seems like so much hot air. Literally. In the Guardian Nigeria today, two stories struck me.
First, I read that the Oil companies have persuaded the Federal Govt to extend the final deadline on gas flaring to December this year (it was supposed to come into effect at the start of 2008). So another 12 months of polluted air and bright night skies down in the Delta then..
Meanwhile, we are told that the Independent Power Plants (IPPs) that OBJ signed off on via billions of dollars of contracts have not come on stream as planned because of the lack of gas supply. The Forcados-Lagos gas pipe for one has been blown up several times by thugs.
So, we have gas being wasted into the air, destroying lungs, the environment, hope. Nearby, we have power stations that don't work because there is no gas. Am I missing something?
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13 comments:
J, I think I am missing something too. It just doesn’t make sense.
The Niger Delta again, Jeremy? Abeg make we hear word! Please, these (the people of the Delta) are people best known for forming gangs and kidnapping others - they deserve to be gassed. (Excuse the pun)
Nigeria has produced bright people - Achebe (Igbo), A Nobel winner (Yoruba), Pulitzer winner (Yoruba), etc. The only thing the Delta has produced has been ... er ... kidnappers. Oh yeah, and oil.
The oil companies are right to flare off gas - it's very cheap to do so in a country without a reliable pipeline network, or an industrial base to consume it, or a market for home consumption of gas, and most importantly, in a place like the Niger Delta, packed with criminals of all sorts. Polluting the air in the Delta is really not a big deal, the people of the Delta asked for it, by going against the oil companies on the one hand and turning out in millions to welcome Alameyesigha on the other.
What have the oil companies done wrong? In an effort to lift the people of the Delta out of the cesspool of filth, illiteracy and poverty in which they've sunk themselves, the oil companies give out scholarships to indigenes of the Delta. (Not to mention the Federal Government's generous affirmative action policies that more or less guaranteees that these thugs are given a free ride to Federal Universities in Nigeria) But of course many of these scholarships go unclaimed - the youth in the Delta are too busy plotting their next kidnap-gig to actually buckle down and produce anybody worthy of note, or even to secure places in University.
How I miss my dear General Sani - he would have pulled a Chemical Ali on those thugs in the Delta.
Rubbish!
Nna Jeremy, I thought I was the only one who wonders about this thing.
Its quite sad.
Nimmo
Now you are getting me aggravated...
Anonymous, it is precisely because of people like you that the majority of our countrymen remain stalled in poverty and deprivation. It makes me sick to hear a supposedly educated, (and therefore presumably enlightened), Nigerian person, refer to other fellow Nigerians as "the people of the Delta", as if those are Nigerians whose citizenship is of a classs that is lower than your own. Mr Soyinka's Nobel prize brought glory to the whole of Nigeria, not just the Yorubas. Chinua Achebe is renowned worldwide as a Nigerian writer, not an Igbo writer. Your post is an absolute disgrace, and there is not likely to be an intelligent Nigerian who will disagree with me.
I am not surprised that you're too cowardly to tell us what your name is. I am filled with consternation and dismay, and ashamed that a person like you should hold a Nigerian passport. It is unthinkable that one Nigerian should publicly declare to the whole world, that another group of Nigerians deserve to be gassed. Your post is appalling, and in extremely bad taste.
Ah!
I have only just read the anonymous comment. It’s hard for me to respond to his assertions or not to. Every thing anon is saying seems purely subjective. Anon thinks people living in the Niger Delta should be gassed.
Anon says that “The oil companies are right to flare off gas - it's very cheap to do so…”
Apparently because it’s cheap makes it right for them to right? A dictator was right to commit mass murder and plunder the economy because it was easy for him to? (I will resist all temptations to name you appropriately for making such a nonsensical argument)
I find your line of reasoning absurd: The people of the Niger delta asked for it by welcoming Alamaesigha in their number? What has that got to do with anything?
I agree that the people of the Niger Delta are responsible mostly for what is going on now…
The major misfortune of the Niger Delta is the failure of its present leaders and those of it’s recent past.
Here are some things to consider:
They were conveniently ignored during the decades of Scholarships Abroad from FG (believe me, there were a multitude of school cert holders who were willing but who had to make do with little jobs in Lagos). The culture of Looking out for your tribal brother didn’t help the idea of federalism.
What I am trying to say is that the level of illiteracy in the Niger delta hasn’t been entirely without cause. Try to think
Here is really the question I want to ask: Is it the responsibility of the Niger Delta citizens to negotiate with oil companies issues about pollution, environmental regulations?
Does the government not owe that duty of care? Isn’t it the government’s duty to insist on cleaner technology? If the Niger delta is expected to take care of itself in this sense, shouldn’t it as well be self governing?
I know fully well that The Federal Government will rather have the oil companies pay the fat penalty for not meeting up to standard, which also is cheaper for the company which would rather not invest in costly cleaner technology.
Lastly:
There are no affirmation actions or “free rides” to Federal universities for people of the Niger delta. No such things exist.
Scholarships are being claimed and used. And the universities there are flooded with students, as badly maintained as they may be.
I wish we had time for facts, numbers, so we are more empirical instead of all the unnecessary emotion.
I am not denying the senselessness of the Niger delta politician( thieves all of them). Or that illiteracy is rife and poverty too. Nice breeding ground for crime, gangs etc
Niger delta people need to get off their lazy asses and stop crying victim.
Yar’adua needs to know what he is doing.
And you need to try to understand first. W all the need to ask the right questions before we can get right answers. Else we ll all end up with wayward results.
Plus Ken Saro-Wiwa was something of a literary gaint and intellectual. Many young people of the Niger Delta will join that list. You watch and see.
anon 5.05pm, let me get this straight - some people are starving and you think it is ok to just flare (waste) gas?
oh and ps, the price of cooking gas has gone up. Apparently some of it is imported from Cotonou.
Anon. 7:57 - I believe it is great to flare gas in the Niger Delta because:
1) There isn't an industrial base in Nigeria to consume this gas
2) The oil companies have been reluctant to end the flares because they do (perhaps did) not want to sink any more money into a project which may be blown up by the 'youths' (rebels) in the Niger Delta.
3) The people in the worst-affected areas can easily be relocated - China did this with the Three Gorges Dam.
4) Flaring gas is not a biggie, because the people of the Niger Delta are of little use to anybody anyway.
They have undoubtedly been ignored by the Federal Government, but only a bunch of animals will believe that killing innocent civilians, bringing terror to the streets of Port Harcourt, etc is a solution to the abject poverty they have somehow managed to find themselves in. Every part of Nigeria claims to have been ignored by the Feds, yet you don't see people in Onitsha, Kano or Ibadan chopping off heads or kidnapping their grandmothers in the name of 'freedom-fighting'. The Federal Government, the International Community and the multinational oil companies have united to gang-rape the Niger Delta, and the people there asked for it. They deserve all they will get! And when they succeed in getting their breakaway republic, I'd love to see ExxonMobil and Shell just dancing in glee as they proceed with the gang-rape again!
P.S: To the person who tried to sugegst that there isn't affirmative action for the people of the Niger Delta, please call up any official from any Federal University in Nigeria, and you'll soon realize that these people are essentially being given an easy ride, and are denying other bright people places in University. Go ahead, make that call!
i am so completely unsurprised by the extension of the flaring deadline that it fails even to get me angry. at the risk of saying 'i told you so'; two years ago i heard a british junior energy minister at chatham house institute of international affairs, london, say that since the oilcos had voluntarily committed to phasing-out flaring by end-07, it made sense to support them in that rather than try anything like making them do it by pressuring them from this end (god forbid xtra expenditure on new gas capturing infrastructure in the delta should dent their profitability or leverage to rip off british consumers). Given the Nigerian government's close co-ownership relationship with shell and its' getting used to the extra income from flaring penatly fines, there's no point raising this in Abuja. if you want to make a difference on this issue, the thing to do is raise parliamentary questions in the UK/EU. As regards anon, i guess that's a tongue-in-cheek wind-up to get the ball rolling, abi? No-one could serious miss the late General, not even the pimps' union of India. even if so, having just given a school lesson on late KSW, i would have to administer a big e-slapping for the 'no deltans of note' comment.
i am so completely unsurprised by the extension of the flaring deadline that it fails even to get me angry. at the risk of saying 'i told you so'; two years ago i heard a british junior energy minister at chatham house institute of international affairs, london, say that since the oilcos had voluntarily committed to phasing-out flaring by end-07, it made sense to support them in that rather than try anything like making them do it by pressuring them from this end (god forbid xtra expenditure on new gas capturing infrastructure in the delta should dent their profitability or leverage to rip off british consumers). Given the Nigerian government's close co-ownership relationship with shell and its' getting used to the extra income from flaring penatly fines, there's no point raising this in Abuja. if you want to make a difference on this issue, the thing to do is raise parliamentary questions in the UK/EU. As regards anon, i guess that's a tongue-in-cheek wind-up to get the ball rolling, abi? No-one could serious miss the late General, not even the pimps' union of India. even if so, having just given a school lesson on late KSW, i would have to administer a big e-slapping for the 'no deltans of note' comment.
Are you missing something? - More than likely not.
The question should be aimed at the ministry of energy, and infra-structure, and all other concerned bodies. Why in this day and age can they not bring about meaningful, appropriate and lasting solution? Why all this "tom foolery"? Why can't they harness the natural resources properly? When will they "get their finger out...?"
haha, its amazing to here this from a nigerian apon or atom watever nigerians are nigerians if you insult or say anything bad about other people or tribes in nigeria you are reffering to your self as well cous you also a nigerian a word is enogh to the wise.
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