Every now and then, mass death occurs at an oil site, fuel tanker site, or a mine. The frequent news of mass deaths is looking like a new normal. Environmental activists and organisations have taken a note of this.
One of the organisations, The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre Nigeria (YEAC-Nigeria), led by Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface as Executive Director, has raised a red flag, saying as the 2027 general elections draw near, it is important for citizens to intensify their demands on the political elite, especially on issues neglected by the political class which, unknowingly to them, threaten the fabric, progress, and sustainability of Nigeria’s nascent democracy.
In a long review sent on in the week in Port Harcourt, Fyneface said apart from the dozens who died in Rumuekpe in 2021 at illegal refinery site, over 100 who lost their lives in illegal refining activities in the Ohaji/Egbema-ONELGA axis along the Rivers/Imo States boundary in 2022, and over 35, including pregnant women, who died in Ibaa community in Emohua LGA, Rivers State on October 2, 2023 (to mention but a few), in less than three weeks in September 2026 alone, Nigeria has lost over 74 citizens to alleged illegal petroleum resource tapping in Rivers State and the arrest, detention and death in an NSCDC facility in Minna over alleged involvement in illegal mining activities in Niger State.
He decried lack of adequate concern for such deaths by either government or facility owners. ‘Yet the solutions to these problems have been proposed and are readily available to them for implementation but neglected by the political class.
‘The spontaneous protest over the death of 37 citizens in Niger State showed at least that the people are pained, even if they died following involvement in alleged illegal mining. On the other hand, the bottom-top silence over the alleged death of no fewer than 37 citizens in Rivers State showed otherwise. The subsequent denial of their deaths, the unbroken silence, hiding of the incident and the threats to the life of one of those who tried to alert authorities so that steps could be taken to forestall future deaths, is a sign that some sections of society have lost sanity, absolutely so.’
He mentioned what he termed organized threats to YEAC-Nigeria for reporting the incident as the only form of response on the Okrika matter.
Fyneface seemed pained that YEAC-Nigeria was an environmental guarantor to $1.25bn loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with which the company built the facility. He said the threats were a violation of the rights of a corporate citizen but a threat to civil society, freedom of speech, expression, association and community development.
The statement noted that threats were not new to YEAC-Nigeria because of its experience in B-Dere Community in Gokana LGA in 2022 where YEAC-Nigeria was asked not to advocate in the community anymore.
He said the incident led to his kidnap and the scuttling of the Solar Mini-Grid Electricity Facilities for Communities Without Electricity (CWE).
He said his organisation looked forward to more communities in the Niger Delta telling YEAC-Nigeria not to advocate for them or report incidents in their communities, saying it is only to cover up organised criminal activities going on.
The letter noted that YEAC-Nigeria could report back to the IFC about inability to continue to guarantee the loans and activities in the area because ‘Our movements have been restricted around the facility, its operational areas and environs.’
PACORDI:
He recalled how on July 16, 2020, the late President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja-FCT launched the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI) to transform and integrate illegal miners in parts of northern and western Nigeria into the national economy.
‘Eight days later, on Friday, July 24, 2020, the Executive Director of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, in a radio telephone interview recommended the establishment of a corresponding initiative for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta to be called the Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI).’
He recalled how his proposal eventually attracted a $3,500 grant to YEAC-Nigeria by Nnimmo Bassey from Global Greengrants Fund (GGF), USA, for the new initiative among other project activities. He said Bassey subsequently presented the PACORDI proposal to the FG through various engagements, including at the National Assembly on October 12, 2020, etc.
He stated: ‘With these two initiatives for illegal miners and artisanal refiners in the North, West and South on the table, one wonders what the FG is still waiting for to fully activate them and save the lives of citizens interested in the solid minerals, mining, oil and gas sectors.’
He said Nigeria’s democracy runs in a reverse mode, never making the people the focal point. ‘Solutions provided by the people should have been speedily reviewed and considered for implementation, not perennially ignored while citizens continue to die in their numbers – especially now that crude oil itself will soon be phased out as energy transition efforts intensify.
Why PACORDI, modular refineries must kick in, fast
‘Be reminded that the Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones. Coal did not phase out in Nigeria because we ran out of coal in Enugu and other parts of the country. In the same vein, crude oil, which the government has refused to put policies in place to utilize safely to save citizens’ lives by transitioning illegal refiners to legal refining, will someday remain in the soil like stone and coal as the world moves away from it.’
Moreover, he went on, Nigeria has adopted gas as its energy transition fuel and solar electricity is spreading like wildfire despite the slow pace of thermal and wind energy adoptions in Nigeria. ‘Thus, we need to utilise our crude now that it is still relatively useful by allowing all those willing to participate, including the artisanal refiners, under both PACORDI and modular refineries with environmental best practices ensured and guaranteed.’
YEAC-Nigeria said the lives of citizens must be important to the government at all levels. ‘The death of a citizen, no matter the circumstances or how poor the citizen is, must be taken as seriously as the death of a very important person in the class of a Council Chairman, Governor, or President, because that citizen is also a potential Chairman, Governor or President tomorrow if the survival circumstances of today did not take his or her life.’
The executive coordinator insisted that the oil companies have failed in their efforts to protect their pipelines and must accept responsibility when third-party interference occurs. ‘Also, the government must accept that it has failed through its conventional security formations to protect the nation’s natural resources, having handed over the task to civilians under private security arrangements to do what all the country’s security operatives combined could not do – protect the pipelines.’
This failure has been judicially established in cases in the UK against Nigerian oil firms, saying pleading vandalism or sabotage has been rejected by courts.
He said this judicial precedence means that any oil related firm whose facility was liable in the Okrika incident can be sued in their foreign headquarters on fundamentals such as failure to secure its hazardous by-product (Crack C5) under duty of care; negligent distribution and lack of control over off-takers leading to illegal mining/tapping, storage in residential houses/areas and deaths including those associated with fire incidents; and failure to warn and failure to prevent foreseeable misuse.
‘Now that this failure has been established and civilian-led proposals to protect the pipelines have relatively worked better, why should government not consider other people-driven proposals aimed at permanently addressing these problems through alternative livelihood opportunities including PAGMI, PACORDI and modular refineries?’, the statement queried.
He argued that the success of private security companies in addressing problems that government security agencies could not solve indicates that more solutions to the problems in the country, especially in the oil and gas sector, lie with the people.
YEAC-Nigeria, he noted, has made several proposals which ought to have curbed oil vandalism, but nothing was done about them. ‘Many government workers do not go to work but earn salaries, and many who do, do nothing serious whole day but busy themselves with office gossip, pressing phones, and focusing on immediate gratification.
‘In a democracy, government must be participatory with listening ears and effective feedback mechanisms because its ownership is of the people, its process of attaining power and functioning is by the people, and the purpose of its existence is for the benefit and service to the people.’
Thus, he stated, for democracy to thrive, citizens need economic inclusion and alternatives to organised crime. ‘When survival depends on organised criminality, democratic values such as civic responsibility and respect for the rule of law are eroded and evaporated.
‘In a country as endowed as Nigeria, and in a democracy for that matter, government policy or policy failures must not graduate from citizens dying for oil to the state systematically killing citizens by looking away as part of ways of providing natural resource governance, product security and pipeline protection – just to ensure oil flows sustainably and earns foreign exchange to be shared among all 36 states, 774 LGAs and the federal government from FAAC every 30 days in Abuja, FCT.’
He said Nigeria belongs to all. ‘It is not one man’s or a few men’s estate. We must join hands to make it work and better. The time to do so is now! A stitch in time saves nine.’