President Buhari’s no-show in Boro, Rivers State, could not overshadow the importance of the events of Thursday, June 2nd.
A region that has borne the brunt of the prosperity of Nigeria, that has paid with the lives of its most illustrious sons, that has seen the lives of its inhabitants turned inside and out over the course of 50 years, can now begin to claim some kind of restitution.
It did not have to take this long. It did not have to come at the cost of so many lives and livelihoods, but the best time for the Ogoniland to be cleaned up was 30 years ago, and the next best time was yesterday. As indigene after indigene made their remarks, the significance of the event was not lost on any of them, nor on a nation that so often treats the lives of its citizens so casually.
To say that nothing has actually been achieved yet, is to fail to acknowledge events of decades ago. Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa and his fellow activists died trying to ensure justice for the Ogoni, and many others were scared into virtual silence and exile as a result of their brutal murders. The arrival of democracy did not bring any real dividends for oil producing areas, and out of the despair and deprivation emerged militancy.
What happened in Boro is the first step of a journey of a thousand miles. The first chapter in a book of atonement for the sins of crude oil. In order to close the book, in order to fully atone, there is the need to maintain vigilance long after the cameras and attention have moved on from the cleanup effort.
It will be 18 months before work starts, and the entire exercise is estimated to take 25 years, far beyond the reach of any democratically elected government or official. As such, they cannot be relied on to provide the impetus for the remediation of Ogoniland.
What is needed is a coalition of media and civil society groups who will hold the respective parties – NNPC, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Total and Agip – to their responsibilities, and ensure that any of the half dozen administrations who will assume office over the next three decades do the same.
Beyond the cleanup, other examples of environmental injustice, like gas flaring, must be brought to an end. There is also the need for a new social contract between the Nigerian state and the communities from which natural resources are extracted, one that priorities the communities instead of oil companies and local overlords.
The length of this exercise will render any attempts to politicize this cleanup effort useless. Alignment to temporary administrations that will be gone in 4 or 8 years will betray an inability to see beyond the present. Ogoniland was not destroyed in a day, and it will not be rebuilt in a day.
The road ahead is long, but if we work together and do our part, success will give hope that Nigeria has begun to prioritise its environment and its people above anything else. It is time to show that Nigerian lives matter.
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