Uyo, Nigeria – September 9 – Policy Alert, alongside 24 other civil society organisations, has expressed deep concern over the Nigerian government’s silence in response to a damning report by United Nations experts accusing multinational oil companies of divesting from the Niger Delta without addressing decades of environmental devastation.
The UN experts had written to Shell, Eni, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies, as well as their host governments in the UK, USA, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, highlighting how repeated oil spills have violated fundamental rights, including the rights to life, health, safe water, food, housing, and a clean and sustainable environment. While some companies and host governments have issued responses, the Nigerian government is yet to make any public statement.
Oil multinationals have operated in Nigeria since the 1950s, extracting billions in profits while leaving behind widespread pollution. Experts estimate that repairing the damage could cost at least $12 billion in just one Niger Delta state. Yet, companies are now offloading their assets to local firms—raising concerns that the clean-up burden is being shifted away from those who caused the damage.
Despite a $1 billion government-backed clean-up programme launched in 2018, progress has been minimal, with fresh oil spills continuing to devastate communities in Ogoniland and beyond.
Hence this silence from the Nigerian Government is not just disappointing but also very dangerous,” the coalition said in a joint statement. “It signals either a profound disregard for the rights of Nigerian citizens or complicity in their continued suffering.”
The 25 organisations, including Policy Alert, are calling on the federal government to:
- Publicly disclose the terms and conditions of all oil company divestments.
- Reveal funding allocations for environmental remediation and compare them with independent cost estimates.
- Establish and enforce clear standards for environmental restoration.
- Ensure full compensation and meaningful participation of affected communities.
- Halt the reopening or licensing of oil wells in the Niger Delta until comprehensive clean-up and restitution have been completed.
The groups stressed that remediation of the Niger Delta cannot wait and that with the UN’s intervention, Nigerians are better positioned to hold oil companies to account but the silence of the Nigerian government, undermines its human rights obligations and signals weakness in holding polluters accountable.
Therefore, Policy Alert and 25 other CSOs urge President Bola Tinubu to break the silence and act decisively, prioritizing justice and ensuring international standards are applied to clean-up efforts, because failure to act would deepen suffering and dishonour Nigeria’s human rights commitments.
Policy Alert further emphasised that Nigeria’s failure to respond undermines its human rights commitments and emboldens polluters because the world is watching and the people are waiting.
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