This year’s World Environment Day, commemorated last week on June 5, came with the timely theme, “Beat Air Pollution”. With Nigeria being the top in Africa and the 10th in the world in air-pollution ranking, it was a day we would have used to whip up a national campaign against air pollution, instead of the usual lackadaisical plant-a-tree show we put up for the annual WED.
But whether we were ready for it or not, in its usual fashion of beating us black and blue, the Grim Reaper himself, Mr. Air Pollution, came calling just a few days after the World Environment Day.
It happened on June 10, in Umuomumu Mbieri, Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State. It was reported that a newly married couple hosted their wedding guests from neighbouring Anambra State in their home after the wedding ceremony. Due to power outage, the jolly family and friends ran their generator overnight inside the kitchen with all doors and windows locked.
When the next day dawned, 10 of the guests were found dead while 20 others were rushed to hospitals, having inhaled excess carbon monoxide that emanated from the generator’s exhaust system. It was a dark day for many families.
Of course, there have been many accidents like this happening all over the country because of our peculiar power problems. Yet, there are much more non-sudden deaths from many other air pollution incidents around the country. These ones are sneaky, deadly and final. By distributing carcinogens to unsuspecting citizens, they internally clutch the organs in cancerous grips until the citizen drops – dead.
There are the gas flaring multinational oil companies that turn the creeks of the Niger Delta into hell homes; and the polluting coal-mining firms in the crouching mountains of Kogi State who have swallowed entire villages with carbon. There are also the fresh air-stealing steel smelting factories of Ogun, near Lagos, whose idea of corporate social responsibility is drilling a borehole that produces as much poisonous water as their factor spews. All these businesses are running eco-killer concerns without regard to international best practices. They use our land and our people, make money, and run away, while leaving death in the air.
This is how Nigerians are wasted, one by one. On a daily basis. But the most appalling part of the story is that we are aware of the major sources of the pollution, yet, we do little or nothing to tackle them head-on. And the leaders we elected to galvanise us into action, and ensure the right things are done for our own good, play with our lives. They prefer to be “settled” by polluters and then stand aside and watch them kill Nigerians.
The steel factories of Ogun State are a case in point. Residents of the communities where the companies are situated have been crying out for more than a decade now, but nothing seems to have been done. If it were to be in a country with a government that loves its people, these polluting firms would have been given strident and stringent marching orders.
These Nigerians have been treated as if they are second class citizens in their own country while foreigners pollute their environment and go scot-free. Whenever the steel companies begin recycling operations, dark, thick and choking smoke – indicative of chemical – takes over the entire atmosphere. It crushes any whiff of fresh air and clouds whole communities to a zero-visibility status; thus forcing the villagers to shut their windows, doors and temporarily abandon their own domains for safety.
Just last week, residents of Ipetero and Ewu-Oruku communities in Shagamu South Local Government of Ogun State took to the street crying for help in what they described as “instalment killing” of their folk and teens by “the deadly activities” of an Indian-owned metal recycling company, Monarch Steel Limited.
Leading the protest, spokesman for the two communities, Pastor Rufus Noel, had explained to journalists that though the communities took their complaints to the government several years ago, nothing had been done to alleviate their predicament as the culprits continued to pollute with impunity.
“In 2015, we went to the South-West regional office of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency in Ibadan, Oyo State, to lodge complaints. The agency invited Monarch Steel Company Limited and also came for inspection. They asked us to list what we wanted. On top of it was stoppage of pollution of our environment, plus schools, health centres, water and construction of good road networks by the company. Afterwards, the agency promised to ensure that the company is pressured to compliance.
“But from that time till now, the case has not been revisited again. What we realised was that officials of NESREA only come to the company to collect envelops and go back.
“Painfully, this is the reason why the company has refused to give us attention. In fact, the management has told us practically that there is nothing we can do to them. That we can go to hell if we like, that nobody, not even the government can do anything for them,” he lamented.
I was once personally involved in the campaign of another Ogun community, Ogijo. In this place, even clothes one hangs in the wardrobe are not free from the particulate matter emanating from the polluting chimneys of the steel firms. In the case of Ajose in Ogijo, the culprit was also another Indian-owned steel production company, African Foundries.
However, it must be stated that the abysmal pollution would have been seriously controlled if these companies installed the required abatement technologies in their factories. But in Nigeria, there has been no serious regulatory force strong enough to mandate them to compulsorily comply with this internationally recognised environmental best practice.
And, to my horror, when I visited the National Assembly, I discovered that the so-called Honourable Members were not eager to take up the matter. In fact, I realised that they already knew the polluting companies, having met them in the course of their oversight duties!
To make matters worse, the agency that is supposed to ensure a pollution-free Nigeria, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, does not have functional equipment to efficiently carry out its operations. In 2009, as part requirements for robust compliance duties, NESREA bought two mobile air monitoring equipment. One was positioned in Port Harcourt and the second one in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, but up till date, they are not functioning due to calibration problem. It seemed the technicians that ordered for it forgot to ensure it was adequately equipped with calibration components. But the worst part is that after a decade of its purchase, it is still packed, covered in dust on the agency’s premises.
In the final analysis, we should all be concerned about how air pollution is traumatising our polity, because air pollution can travel long distances, sometimes across continents on international weather patterns. Nobody is safe from the polluting human activities spewing out a range of substances including carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ground-level ozone, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, hydrocarbons, and lead – all of which are harmful to human health.
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