I stumbled onto a picture making the rounds on social media a few days ago and I realized that I am probably among a handful of Nigerians who have been oblivious about the Portharcourt (PH) soot issue. To be fair I have heard about it a couple of times (mostly on social media) but often casually. That picture was shocking and the fact that everyone I asked about it knew it was Portharcourt immediately was even more horrifying. I don’t live in Portharcourt hence I wondered if it wasn’t as bad as it looked or could it be that the residents of Portharcourt do not fully understand the ticking time bomb they are sitting on. The Portharcourt skyline has literally been replaced by soot! This is the air they breathe and the water they drink. Our dear garden city.The thought of it alone makes me shudder. Or am I whinging more than the pinched here? I hope so.
It is now public knowledge that this soot is the gaseous effluent from illegal oil refining by ‘bunkerers’ in the creeks. In this issue, the trouble with Nigeria is truly reflected. To borrow from the late sage, Achebe’s words, the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership (The trouble with Nigeria, 1983). For as long as the residents are allowed to breathe in toxic gaseous hydrocarbons and go about their daily activities as normal, then I think the leadership/government has failed. The government’s first duty is the protection of the lives and properties of it’s citizens. This is a war waged by the illegal refiners with the bullets being toxic chemicals dispersed into the atmosphere. It is that heinous. I wonder what else qualifies as a crime against humanity what with new born babies having to endure this.
Make no mistake about it, there is a public health and environmental emergency going on in Portharcourt. The fact that the residents have not been evacuated yet worries me. Am I an alarmist? Again, I hope so. But forgive me, I also recently saw a video (which I do not have the permission to share) of a baby whose nostrils were wiped with a cotton bud only to extract a chunk of soot. How is this even tenable? The reason PH has not been evacuated yet is because people are not dropping dead on the streets. In April 1986 when the city of Chernobyl woke up to the pollution of their atmosphere after a nuclear reactor exploded, people were dying on the spot and the city was immediately evacuated. But give it 10 years. When the lung and nasopharyngeal cancers start manifesting, maybe we will regret not doing enough now. In fact, I suppose the congenital birth defects have already begun. Unfortunately our ‘non-existent’ medical records system cannot verify this.
Apparently there is a campaign against the soot ongoing but it is my honest opinion that it is not loud and vicious enough. I think this matter has passed the stage of advocacy. It now demands serious action. Civil societies and professional groups should be protesting or even striking. What is the Nigerian Medical Association in the state doing? This does not call for an increase in hazard allowance. The patients should be protected too.
Thankfully governor Nyesom Wike has recently ordered his local government chairmen to fish out the perpetrators or face the sack. I hope this works but I am not optimistic. Issues like this are often complex and require a root-cause analysis approach to solve. While I encourage the ‘stick’ approach governor Wike has chosen, I also believe this must go hand-in-hand with offering the carrot. Why are people illegally refining oil in the first place? Could they be supported in anyway to legitimize their activities? Could they be absorbed under modular refineries? At the root of all this is money (poverty and unemployment). And of course greed. This is a war the government just has to win even if it costs them a foot. Bending back to save the people of Portharcourt wouldn’t hurt so much. Ego aside. Of course I am not naive not to know that people in high places (perhaps even in governor Wike’s government) are most likely involved in these activities. The government really faces an uphill task. In the meantime, the alarmist me still believes PH should be evacuated.
Alpha Chiemezie Madu
January 20, 2022
Nigeria as a whole needs saving ,from ourselves as much as our leaders.
Yes, I agree that the ruling persons need to “fish out” these oil bunker’s who are illegally refining petroleum, however, we would be naive to believe the ruling persons do not already know who runs these illegal business , or are not even partaking in the profits.
I would imagine the illegal refineries are large scale enough to cause such large and devastating effect on the climate of Portharcourt, so, instead of the government hiding behind one finger, and placing bounties on the head of the perpetrators, why not simply follow the smoke literally and put them to justice?
We need saving from ourselves as well, because these persons who have a bounty on their head for illegal oil refining are people’s brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers as the case may be. They are ordinary people who have chosen to put the lives of millions of their fellow country men in danger for their own profit.
I would imagine their children and family also breathe in this polluted air as much as themselves.
Sadly , as you rightly pointed out, the devastating health outcomes might take months or decades to materialise, but by then, it would be too late for everyone caught in the unfortunate web.