By Yetunde Philemon
For Daniel Kpoobari-Bani, his wife and their four children, a ruptured crude oil pipeline turned their home in B-Dere, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, into a place of uncertainty.
In May 2025, crude oil gushed from a pipeline near their home, forcing the family to flee as the spill spread into residential areas and farmland. According to a Premium Times investigation, crops including cassava, cocoyam, banana and plantain were damaged, while fears of contaminated well water deepened their distress.
For a family dependent on its immediate environment for food, water and income, the incident threatened more than property. It put their livelihood and sense of security at risk.
Their experience reflects the wider environmental challenges confronting communities in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta, where decades of pollution have damaged ecosystems, disrupted livelihoods and raised concerns about public health.
Data from the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) show that more than 9,890 oil spill incidents were recorded across Nigeria between 2015 and July 2025. Rivers State accounted for 4,184 incidents, while Bayelsa recorded 2,118.
The human cost of environmental hazards was further highlighted by the death of Joy Amos, a 29-year-old resident of Bille community in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State. She reportedly sustained severe burns in an explosion inside her room and died on September 22 after receiving treatment. The incident intensified concerns about reported gas seepage in the community and prompted calls for an investigation.
For farming families, pollution can destroy crops and income. For fishing communities, it can threaten access to aquatic resources. Contaminated wells can also leave households struggling to obtain safe drinking water.
A 2011 assessment by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found serious hydrocarbon contamination in parts of Ogoniland. In Nisisioken Ogale, benzene concentrations in well water exceeded the World Health Organisation guideline by more than 900 times. UNEP called for urgent protective measures and estimated that comprehensive environmental restoration could take 25 to 30 years.
The findings underline a troubling reality: environmental damage can persist long after an incident has been contained, leaving communities dependent on sustained clean-up, monitoring and restoration.
As Nigeria expands investments in renewable energy, green hydrogen, battery storage, critical minerals and other emerging technologies, environmental stakeholders are warning that the country must learn from its past.
Their concern is that a transition to cleaner energy will not necessarily deliver a fairer future if communities continue to bear environmental and social costs without meaningful participation in decisions affecting their lives.
For host communities, the energy transition is about more than reducing carbon emissions or installing renewable energy infrastructure. It is also about protecting water sources, preserving farmland, sustaining businesses, creating jobs and ensuring that development improves living conditions.
These concerns informed a two-day multi-stakeholder policy lab organised by the CLEEN Foundation, with support from Heinrich Böll Stiftung, in Port Harcourt. The meeting focused on strengthening Nigeria’s Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) framework to support a future-ready and just energy transition.
At its conclusion, 25 organisations representing government institutions, regulatory agencies, civil society, traditional institutions, women’s and youth groups, academia and host communities issued a 12-point communiqué calling for urgent reforms.
Their central demand was clear: communities must be treated as partners in development, not passive recipients of decisions made elsewhere.
From approval to accountability
The stakeholders want environmental assessment to extend beyond obtaining permits and approving reports. They are calling for safeguards to be monitored throughout a project’s lifecycle, from planning and construction to operation, closure and environmental restoration.
Speaking at the engagement, the Programme Director of the CLEEN Foundation, Dr Salaudeen Hashim, said Nigeria was pursuing new development opportunities while relying on an environmental assessment law enacted in 1992.
He argued that the framework had not kept pace with climate change, cumulative environmental impacts, biodiversity loss, emerging technologies and the social dimensions of a just energy transition.
“The issue is therefore not that Nigeria has no environmental assessment framework; rather, the framework has not evolved sufficiently to address climate change, cumulative impacts, biodiversity, emerging technologies and the social dimensions of a just energy transition,” Hashim said.
The consequences are particularly serious for communities that lack access to technical information or the resources to interpret complex environmental reports.
Even where consultation meetings are held, residents may have little influence over the final decisions. Hashim stressed that inviting people to a meeting does not necessarily mean their concerns have been considered.
A resident worried about an industrial facility contaminating a nearby river, for example, should be able to raise concern, receive a clear response and see appropriate safeguards incorporated into the project.
The communiqué therefore calls for public participation from the earliest planning stages through implementation, monitoring and project closure.
It also recommends making environmental assessment reports, monitoring data, compliance records and regulatory decisions publicly accessible through digital platforms. Such transparency, the stakeholders argue, would enable residents to understand potential risks and hold developers and regulators accountable.
Fair benefits for host communities
Environmental protection is only part of the challenge. Communities hosting major projects also want a fair share of the economic benefits.
Investments often raise expectations of jobs, better roads, healthcare, education and improved living standards. But these promises can remain unfulfilled when commitments are vague or difficult to enforce.
The stakeholders are calling for stronger Community Development Agreements, transparent benefit-sharing arrangements and accessible grievance mechanisms that allow affected people to raise complaints without intimidation.
The aim is to ensure that communities providing land and resources do not shoulder the environmental costs while others capture the benefits.
Hashim said responsible environmental management and investor confidence should reinforce each other.
“Investors need certainty, and communities need confidence that development will not leave them carrying the environmental and social costs while others capture the benefits,” he said.
The stakeholders also want dedicated assessment guidelines for renewable energy infrastructure, battery energy storage systems, green hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, critical minerals and potential future nuclear energy projects. They recommend specialised training for regulators to assess the risks associated with these technologies.
Women, young people, persons with disabilities, indigenous populations and other vulnerable groups must also have meaningful opportunities to influence decisions affecting their lives.
Lessons from the Niger Delta
The communiqué identifies weak environmental oversight, inadequate enforcement and limited community participation as factors contributing to prolonged pollution, ecosystem degradation and social conflict in the Niger Delta.
The stakeholders want policymakers to address these failures before expanding investment into new energy sectors.
Their recommendations include stronger environmental institutions, adequate funding and equipment for regulatory agencies, better coordination among government bodies, independent environmental audits, community-based monitoring and meaningful sanctions for developers who violate approved environmental management plans.
Hashim said improvements to monitoring, compliance and enforcement should begin alongside legislative reform.
“A modern law without credible enforcement simply creates better rules on paper,” he said.
He called for a shift from an approval-driven system to one based on accountability, where environmental approval marks the beginning not the end of regulatory oversight.
The organisations represented at the policy lab included the Rivers State Ministry of Environment, Rivers State Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), University of Port Harcourt, traditional institutions and host communities.
Other participants included Green Leaf Advocacy and Empowerment Center, Rights Advocacy and Development Centre (RADEC), Environmental Defenders Network, Rainbow Watch and Development Centre, Hope for Tomorrow Initiative, Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative, Women’s Forum for Sustainable Green Development, Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre, SDN, Social Action, OLEGH Centre for Community Development, Kallop Centre, Community Conciliation and Development Initiative, Voices for Change, Media Awareness and Justice Initiative (MAJI), Guardian and Goi Community.
The stakeholders are urging the Federal Government, National Assembly, regulatory agencies, industry players, development partners and civil society organisations to implement the proposed reforms without delay.
For families such as Daniel Kpoobari-Bani’s, the success of these measures will be judged not by the number of policies adopted but by whether their water is safe, their farmland remains productive and their livelihoods are protected.
Nigeria’s energy transition presents an opportunity to pursue development without repeating the environmental mistakes of the past. But that opportunity will only be realised if communities have a meaningful voice, environmental safeguards are enforced and the benefits of investment are shared fairly.
A just transition must do more than change how energy is produced. It must also protect the people whose lives and livelihoods are affected by that change.