Activist urges Nigerians to reject candidates without environmental plans

Environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey has urged Nigerians to deny electoral support to politicians without concrete plans to clean up polluted communities and restore damaged ecosystems, warning that the country’s emerging critical-minerals industry could repeat the environmental devastation caused by decades of oil extraction.

Mr Bassey, executive director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, said political candidates should be required to explain how they intend to address oil spills, gas flaring and environmental degradation before seeking votes.

“Any candidate that does not have concrete plans for the remediation and restoration of the deeply damaged environment should not be given a single vote by the electorate,” he said.

He spoke on 17 October at the eighth graduation ceremony and annual leadership lecture of the Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre/Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development Leadership School in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Delivering a lecture titled Leadership for Environmental Justice in the Niger Delta, Mr Bassey challenged political leaders to account for the consequences of resource extraction on communities whose livelihoods depend on their land and waterways.

He cited the persistent fire at the Ororo-1 oil well off Awoye community in Ondo State, gas eruptions in Bille community in Rivers State, and an uncontrolled crude oil fire at Oil Well 9 in the Ofiomina-Ama Alakiri community in Okrika, also in Rivers, as examples of environmental crises that should inform voters’ decisions.

The Ororo-1 well fire has continued for years, while residents of Bille have faced threats from toxic gas emissions, according to previous media investigations.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in June on the dangers posed by toxic gas leaks in Bille.

Mr Bassey’s remarks come on the heels of growing attention to Nigeria’s mineral resources following an agreement signed by Nigeria and the United States in September to attract American investment into the country’s estimated $700 billion mineral sector. The agreement is intended to encourage investment across the mining value chain.

The environmental activist warned that shifting from fossil fuels to minerals used in renewable energy technologies would not automatically produce a just energy transition if communities continued to lose their lands, livelihoods and access to natural resources.

“Changing the energy source without changing this underlying logic will not deliver justice,” he said, cautioning that mineral extraction could reproduce the same patterns of dispossession associated with the oil industry.

He explained that the proposed transition must be guided by environmental protection, community consent, public accountability and the equitable distribution of benefits.

Warning over mining

Mr Bassey said Nigeria’s pursuit of critical minerals raised concerns about community safety and the environmental consequences of mining, especially given the country’s history of pollution and weak accountability in resource extraction.

He recalled the lead-poisoning crisis connected to artisanal gold mining in Zamfara State, which killed hundreds of children in 2010, and referred to fatal mining-pit collapses in Plateau State.

He also cited the deaths of young mining suspects in custody in Niger State, arguing that the incidents reflected a leadership gap in the management of the country’s natural resources.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in September that at least 37 illegal mining suspects had died in detention in Niger State under controversial circumstances.

Mr Bassey warned that without responsible leadership, the pursuit of mineral wealth could expose more communities to environmental contamination, unsafe mining practices and the loss of livelihoods.

He said leaders must question whether communities had consented to extraction, whether legal requirements had been followed, what benefits residents would receive and how potential environmental damage would be prevented or remedied.

He also called for stronger checks on the Petroleum Industry Act, particularly its provisions for Host Communities Development Trusts.

Under the law, oil companies are required to contribute three per cent of their actual annual operating expenditure in the preceding financial year to the development of host communities.

However, Mr Bassey questioned the arrangement under which oil companies appoint members of the trusts’ governing boards and the provisions allowing funds to be used to repair petroleum infrastructure damaged by third parties.

He insisted that policies should be judged by their actual effects on communities rather than by the promises made when they were introduced.

Women, community leadership

Mr Bassey said environmental justice required leadership beyond elected officials and people in formal positions.

He identified women organising to protect their water sources, young people documenting oil spills, fishers demanding investigations and residents challenging pollution as examples of leadership in communities affected by environmental destruction.

He said women often bore the burden of environmental damage because of their roles in farming, fishing, collecting water, preparing food and caring for families, yet remained underrepresented in decisions about land, energy and natural resources.

He asked leadership institutions to equip women, young people and marginalised communities to participate meaningfully in decisions affecting their territories.

“True leadership listens before it speaks,” he said, adding that communities possessed knowledge and experience that should inform development decisions rather than being treated as passive recipients of government or corporate policies.

Mr Bassey also said development should be measured not by roads, buildings, public revenue, or economic growth, but by whether people can breathe clean air, drink safe water, feed themselves, and live without fear of environmental destruction.

“The Niger Delta does not need leaders who merely manage the consequences of injustice. It needs leaders who will work with communities to dismantle the conditions that produce it,” he said.

He asked the graduands to apply their training in public institutions and communities, stressing that leadership should be measured by the condition in which people, institutions and ecosystems are left.

He congratulated the graduating students and welcomed incoming students, urging them to prioritise accountability and public service over the pursuit of positions.