Gas Flaring: 450 Rise Against Oil Firms

Gas Flaring: 450 Rise Against Oil Firms, Back Niger Delta Say It Damages Environment, Promote Hunger

AROUND 450 participating organisations and individuals at a two-day national conference on the Politics of Hunger in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, at the weekend rose against the oil and gas companies operating in the Niger Delta, claimg that their activities hamper food production in the country.

AkanimoReports says participants at the conference who were drawn from non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, researchers, academia, students, the media, government agencies, and farmers from across the country, and Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa and Norway called on the Federal Government to stop gas flaring immediateky in the country.

According to them, oil and other extractive activities, are causing serious damages to the environment through pollution which destroys soil fertility, also contribute immensely to hunger.

According to AkanimoReports, the conference which was organised by Environmental Rights Action (ERA), a foremost environmetal advocacy group in Nigeria,insisted that government and her agencies should begin to exercise their power to regulate the oil and other extractive industry activities to ensure an end to environmental degradation.

''Gas flaring, which is part of the crimes of the oil industry against the environment and the Nigerian people, must be stopped without further delay'', the Abuja conference said.

>From their robust, participatory and fruitful deliberations, the conference observed that hunger is not only the absence of food but more critically the lack of access to food, pointing out that although the language of hunger is universal, what is not really universal is the question of why people are hungry especially in Africa which has become the face of hunger and poverty in the world whereas she was a net food exporter in the 1960s.

According to them, hunger and poverty are scourges ravaging Nigeria and other African countries. ''Millions of Nigerians and Africans go to bed hungry every day, while many die on daily basis of hunger;;, the conference said, adding, though Nigeria and other African countries have great potentials to feed their people and be self-sufficient in food production, the agricultural sector has continued to suffer neglect in the hands of successive governments.

Participants with radical views also claimed that capitalism and neo-colonialism have been identified as part of the structural causes of poverty and hunger in Africa.

They also stressed that rather than proffer genuine and sustainable solutions to the scourge of poverty and hunger, leaders have allegedly chosen to play politics with the hunger that has continued to ravage the continent.

''Such politics lead to mindless waste of our collective resources and the destruction of the small scale farming systems. Hunger is used as a political tool to manipulate people and societies'', they said, pointing out that with good, responsible and committed leadership, Africa can become self-sufficient in food production rather than looking up to the neo-colonialists and their allies for Genetically Modified food aids.

Continuing, the conference said through land grabbing agenda local farmers are dispossessed of land meant for small scale agriculture. ''This has impacted negatively on food production for local consumption and has become a big threat to food security'', the conference said, arguing that if land grabbing is not stopped, it will not only make it impossible for future generation to get access to land, the loss of species and diversity through mono cropping but will also lead to deeper conflicts as a result of land scarcity.

Adding, they said, ''if urgent steps are not taken to encourage or motivate young persons to go into farming, Nigeria may face serious food crisis in the coming decades.Production of GMOs is not only a threat to biosafety, it also poses great danger to biodiversity which is at the base of sustainability of life''.

Arising from the foregoing, participants resolved and recommended as follows:

* Good, responsible and committed government is one of the strategic tools that Africa must have and deploy in order to free itself from the constraints that presently obstruct and threaten to strangulate it.

* There should be massive awareness campaigns at the grassroots to educate the local people on the dangers of ceding their land to anybody for cultivation of Agro-fuels because of its negative consequences. This can be achieved through the creation and membership of platforms such as the Nigeria Food Sovereignty Coalition– a movement of Nigerian citizens to ensure that Nigeria and Africa will sustainably guarantee her Food sovereignty.

* The Nigerian Government and her agencies should begin to exercise its power to regulate the oil and other extractive industry activities to ensure an end to environmental degradation. Gas flaring, which is part of the crimes of the oil industry against the environment and the Nigerian people, must be stopped without further delay.

* Nigeria and other African countries should give massive support to small scale farmers as one of the critical ways to ensure food security and elimination of hunger in the country and continent.

* Nigerian and African youths should be encouraged and given all necessary support to see farming as an attractive and viable venture, rather than a sector for frustrated old persons as it can contribute in addressing youth unemployment.

* Every land taken away from local people for the purpose of agro-fuels should be returned to them.

* Any act of land grabbing is criminal and those involved should be prosecuted.

* Government should provide support to small scale farmers and ecological agriculture not dependent on toxic chemicals, technology and such other inputs.

* The Nigerian Biosafety bill pending before the National Assembly should be fully opened for public scrutiny and inputs.

* Specific interventions should be undertaken to create awareness about the adverse effects of GMOs

* Government and other agencies should create agric-based capacity building programmes to target women and other vulnerable groups who suffer most from the adverse effects of GMOs and other harmful agricultural practices.

* Research and scientific institutions should tailor their research towards promoting indigenous systems of knowledge and production as opposed to technologies which promote corporate capture.

The resolution of the conference was endorsed by the participating groups and the Executive Director of ERA, Nnimmo Bassey. ENDS

ENDS

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