Urgent Need To Implement The Environmental Impact Assessment (eia) For The Nnpc/npdc Headquarters Project On Airport/ Ogba Road, Benin City.
The Hon Minister of Petroleum Resources, Secretarial Building, Abuja. Cc: Group Managing Director, NNPC, The Senate President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, The Speaker, House of Representatives, Abuja.
Dear Madam/Sir,
URGENT NEED TO IMPLEMENT THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) FOR THE NNPC/NPDC HEADQUARTERS PROJECT ON AIRPORT/ OGBA ROAD, BENIN CITY. 8th March 2015. We (members and trustees of the Niger Delta Oil and Gas Producing Communities Network NDOGPCN; Benin Development Union BeDU; and Edo Unity League E.UL.) are constrained to draw the attention of the relevant authorities to the brewing restiveness in respect of the violation of the EIA provisions for the new NNPC/NPDC HQ Project. Such major projects are mandatorily required to put before stakeholders the detailed report of EIA studies for evaluation and inputs. As we write you, we are considering legal and other result-oriented means to achieve this objective, because, we are aware that series of letters of this nature directly connected to the subject matter have been written to your good self, and others have been written through the Managing Director of the NPDC, which were obviously treated with ignominy.
It may interest madam Minister to note that we were one of the signatories that endorsed the open letter to Mr. President - Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR, (published as full page advertorials in Vanguard and Thisday Newspapers of Wednesday 5th March 2015), wherein we humbly requested for the immediate and unconditional sack of the NPDC Managing Director for his seeming incompetence, high handedness, truancy and seldom presence on his duty post, flagrant disdain to productive staff, contractors and host community groups; and above all, his continuous distortion of protocol for the RELEASE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT ON THE NPDC HEADQUARTERS PROJECT, apparently because his tribesmen will not benefit since it is NOT an Igbo community. We have it on good authority that unless you (The Hon. Minister) or Mr. President instructs him to respect the NPDC host communities, and contractors, he will continue to carry on until we carry out our threat of a fourteen days 'militant procession' around the Company, and by the grace of God and our ancestors, we shall emback on it exactly two weeks after your receipt of this letter, if his attitude remains uncouth and antithetical to the wheel of progress of the Company our host communities.
It is inconceivable that two (2) years into the execution of the phase I of the project at the cost of 20Billion Naira, which is nearing completion, an Environmental Impact Assessment on the project is yet to be publish or implemented. This goes against the norm requiring that Environmental Impact Values based on detailed studies and public comments on the potential impacts, are generated before the commencement of such project.
By definition, an EIA is the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments being made. In the present situation, it is obvious that the cart has been placed before the horse, which negates the grand norm in such a major sector as the Oil and Gas industry.
The EIA protocols cover any major changes in land use or projects located in environmentally or ecologically sensitive areas, as in the Ogba Zoological Garden & Nature Park, which is adjacent to the project. In what currently appears as a full throttle to completing the phase 1 project without an EIA, the communities in the support zone, which includes Ogba, Oko and Irhirhi, as well as other stakeholders, have become restive and would pose some embarrassment in the way of the completion and commissioning of the project. We are aware that a certain consultant had collected data for the EIA but so far nothing has been published. In the light of the relevant circumstances, it is imperative that the attention of the NNPC/NPDC management be drawn to the urgent need to measure up to international best practices that requires an EIA to be implemented well ahead of the commencement, or in this case, the completion of the project, as our people are running out of patience and the "the centre cannot hold" in the event of a compelling reaction. We wish to thank you most sincerely for your kindly intercession.
Dr. Oboma Isaiah Esq. Secretary, Board of Trustees, Edo Unity League, #9, 1st Uneuru Lane, off 1st East Circular Road, Benin City.