By Alice Onukwugha
An environmental and gender rights advocate, Chief Constance Meju, has raised fresh alarm over what she described as the deep contamination of the Niger Delta food chain, warning that residents are already consuming oil through polluted rivers and seafood.
Meju spoke at a Dinner Night of the Correspondents’ Week organised by the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Port Harcourt, with support from NLNG, Renaissance Africa Energy Company and Kebetkache Women Development Centre, at the weekend.
She said years of poor oil spill response and inadequate remediation by international oil companies have left communities exposed to toxic environments, with little or no meaningful cleanup of impacted sites.
READ ALSO:
- Ecological Fund: Journalists urges to hold N/Delta governments accountable
- Tinubu’s APC Ticket: Nwifuru Says Victory Reflects Nigerians’ Confidence in President
“In the Niger Delta, there is no oil spill site that Shell has cleaned properly,” she said.
She contrasted Nigeria’s environmental response with global standards, citing high-level scrutiny forces stricter accountability and remediation efforts in other jurisdictions.
“When oil spill occurred in the US, after the site was cleaned up, President Obama visited the site and was dissatisfied. He told the operator to go back and clean the place. But here in the Niger Delta, oil spill sites are shabbily cleaned and most of them not cleaned at all,” she said.
Meju issued a stark warning about the health implications of prolonged pollution in oil-producing communities, insisting that contamination has already entered the food chain.
“If you eat fresh fish in this state, I want to tell you that you’re eating oil. If you eat shrimps and other seafoods, you have been eating crude oil,” she stated
Commenting on the theme of the week, “The imperatives of comprehensive cleanup of the Niger Delta environment: role of the Media”, the environmentalist stated that the situation of the Niger Delta reflects long-term environmental degradation that has altered marine ecosystems and threatens food safety across the region.
The activist also linked environmental destruction to worsening unemployment and social dependency in Niger Delta communities, particularly among young people.
“In the time past, as kids when we need money, we used to go and fish. But since the devastation, our youths are no longer working. There’s an entitlement,” she continued
She warned that the collapse of traditional livelihoods has created what she described as a “dangerous mentality” of dependency, stressing, “There’s a dangerous mentality for you to believe that people have to work for you.”
Meju called on journalists to take a more aggressive role in holding oil companies accountable, saying the media remains one of the few institutions with the power to influence both government and corporate behaviour.
“This is the best position to do the necessary advocacy. It is still part of the job. Because we are the ones they listen to. Anybody that is the most powerful in this country, he respects journalists. He fears journalists,” she stated
Earlier in his opening speech, Chairman of the Rivers State chapter of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mr. Amaechi Okonkwo, urged Journalists in the Niger Delta to hold state governments of the region accountable with regards to the Ecological Funds.
Okonkwo stated that while the international oil companies (IOCs) have been blamed for the underdevelopment of the region, the state governments have also failed to intentionally utilize the 13% derivation funds and as well, the ecological funds to develop the region.
He said: “We need to also reflect on the activities of our governments, regional government or state government. Let us remember that at some point in trying to manage the problem with oil pollution and the environment, the federal government created what is called Ecological Fund.
“Ecological Fund is just like the excess crude, the 13% derivation and so many others that I may not remember. All of these were intended to, on paper, cater to the need of the environment, especially those areas where oil is extracted so that they will use the fund to ameliorate the negative effects of the exploration and pollution when it occurs.
“But in Rivers State we cannot identify over the years, any project that is tied to the ecological fund. So it is with many of the other states.
“And so, as journalists in our editorials, in our special programs, I think time has come for us to begin to demand that those target funds will no longer be blown away, but that they will begin to be tied to the purposes for which they are created,” he said.
Okonkwo also submitted that while there is significant progress with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) Host Community Development Trust (HCDT), it is important for journalists to probe into the actual utilisation of such fund.
“Through the PIA there is the host community trust which is 3% of operational cost of oil. This one is for the communities. Let us begin to ask questions.
“How is this fund managed among the communities that bear the brunt of oil exploration? he said.
Okonkwo demanded that lawmakers at both the National and State assemblies of oil producing and bearing communities in the region channel their constituency projects towards the protection and remediation of the environment.
“The primaries that have just taken place, so many people have come up as legislators and they will represent so many areas and communities inclusive of the ones that experience pollution.
“Let us begin to demand from them, what they do with their consequences fund. Can they direct their constituency funds into ameliorating the issues of oil pollution in their immediate environment.
“Can they begin to demand for legislation that will demand responsive environmental practices by oil companies and even individuals in the community,” Okonkwo stressed.
He thanked the Chairman of the event, who is the executive director of Kabetkeche Women Development Centre, Dr. Okon Emem, Nigeria LNG, the NUJ leadership in Rivers State and all who contributed in making the week a success.
