Group Calls for Alternative Employment to Curb Artisinal Refining

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC) has charged the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to provide alternative employment for youths engaged in artisanal refining activities in Ogoniland.

This is call is coming as the world celebrates Environment Day which is celebrated on June 5 all around the globe

The Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Mr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, said the call was imperative in order to forestall the re-pollution of Ogoniland so that the ongoing Ogoni clean-up project will not be an exercise in futility.

Mr Fyneface said out of the reported $366 million already received by HYPREP from the Joint Venture partners, the sum of $10 million should be budgeted solely for alternative livelihoods for youths such as scholarships, training and skills development for modular refineries, clean-up processes as well as for employment in multinational companies.

He called on youths in Rivers State, Niger Delta and the country at large, who are involved in artisanal refining activities to stop, embrace modular refineries, renewable energy, and other alternative livelihood opportunities and channel their energy towards environmental sustainability actions.

“HYPREP should use the $10 million budgeted in the UNEP Report on Ogoni (2011) as stated on Table 53, page 227 and serial number 10 of the Report which is currently in HYPREP coffer by virtue of the $360 million communicated as so far received from Joint Venture partners to prepare and provide Alternative Employment to those in Artisanal Refining to prevent re-pollution during and after the cleanup.

“Some of the ways of providing the alternatives would include youth training for skilled participation in the Cleanup project and processes; preparing artisanal refiners in Ogoni communities for Modular Refineries; skills development and acquisition for employability in the NLNG Train-7 Project and educational scholarships within and outside the country among others.

“The Environmentalist also called on HYPREP contractors handling the Ogoni cleanup exercise and water projects to speed up the processes and ensure that the best technology, global best practices and standards are adopted in performing their statutory duties in the area.”

This he said, “would fast-track the restoration of the Ogoni environment in a timely manner for the traditional livelihoods of the people including farming and fishing activities destroyed by decades of crude oil pollution to thrive again.”