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The President of the African School of Governance, Professor Kingsley Moghalu, has condemned the recent report that $1 billion earmarked for Ogoni Land clean-up was not used for the exercise.
The former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) noted that the process of awarding the contract to contractors was fraught with corruption.
In a statement on Friday, while reacting to the Associated Press (AP) report on a leaked United Nations Environment Programme report on the Ogoni Land Oil Spill Clean Up.
Professor Moghalu said the report damaged the country’s image. He decried that the people of Ogoni continued to be affected in all sectors by the pollution of their land while politicians and contractors looted money supposed to be used for the clean-up.
He called on the federal government to commence an investigation into the report and ensure perpetrators are held to account for the funds.
“Associated Press (AP) report on a leaked United Nations Environment Programme report showing that despite $1 billion in funding, Nigeria’s Ogoni oil spill cleanup is not happening is an ode to governance failure and the environmental tragedy crude oil has been for Nigeria’s Niger Delta.
“Purported “clean-up” companies selected by the Hydrocarbons Pollution and Remediation Project (HYPREP), the Nigeria Government agency with responsibility for this critical task, have no relevant experience, are owned by politicians, sent soil samples to labs that don’t have the equipment for the required tests, and have blocked auditors from doing their work according to the leaked report.
“This is damaging. There must be accountability. When will the poverty-stricken, environmentally polluted Niger Delta breathe from the “blessing” of crude oil instead of their sorrows becoming a “job for the boys”? Moghalu said.
