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Our people cannot sleep
without having soot
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00:00:06,856 --> 00:00:08,691
as a thing to worry.
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It's terrible.
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It's actually terrible.
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You wake up in the morning
to black particles.
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Everyone you meet in Port Harcourt
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has stories about what
they call black soot
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caused by the manufacturing
and consumption
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of these fuel products in
the illegal refineries.
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00:00:28,890 --> 00:00:31,350
This black soot has been
falling from the sky
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in a region key to Nigeria's
economy for about five years.
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Oil theft known as bunkering
and the refining of its spoils
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00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:41,700
is worsening the damage from decades
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of fossil fuel exploitation,
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creating one of the world's
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most severe ecological disasters.
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The illegal oil bunkering is a sabotage
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to the economy of the nation.
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It's very dangerous to
the health of our people
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and we cannot sit down
and see our people dying.
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Our sacred forests, our homes
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have to give way to oil wells
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and no one gets much benefit.
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But stealing and refining oil
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is a major source of income
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in a country where wages are meager
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and more than half of working age adults
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are either unemployed or under employed.
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Many believe that efforts
to stop the illegal trade
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will be in vain and that
the health of the people
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of the Niger Delta will
continue to suffer.
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Imagine a resident of Port Harcourt
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who inhales this soot
every second in 24 hours,
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seven days a week, 30 days in a month
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and for years now.
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We are dying slowly but surely
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and our lifespan is reducing every day.
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Half a century
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00:02:00,771 --> 00:02:02,880
after prospecting began in Nigeria,
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00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:06,573
Shell and BP struck crude in 1956.
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♪ We've been waiting to sell
in bridge Nigeria is spring ♪
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In 1960, when the country declared
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independence from the British empire,
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citizens were hopeful that
their newfound resource
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00:02:16,330 --> 00:02:18,280
would bring prosperity to their nation,
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but the years following would be volatile,
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giving away to civil war and a
succession of military coups.
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00:02:26,750 --> 00:02:28,940
Nevertheless, Nigeria established itself
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as a major oil exporter,
but this came at a price.
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There have been many, many years
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in the last 40 or 50 years
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where oil sales have
accounted for more than 90%
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of Nigeria's export earnings
and when oil has contributed
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00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:49,830
well over 50% of government income,
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all this easy money from oil and gas
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00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:54,900
meant that the government neglected
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other areas of the economy
that should have been key
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00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:01,160
to Nigeria's development,
such as agriculture,
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00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:03,483
basic manufacturing, and mining.
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00:03:11,070 --> 00:03:12,470
Aside from oil companies
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and a privileged few Nigerians
in business and politics,
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the country as a whole
has seen minimal benefits
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from being Africa's biggest petro state.
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00:03:22,550 --> 00:03:25,380
One only has to visit the Niger Delta
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to see the extent to
which the wealth generated
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by the deposits there has
not been shared equally.
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It's a region in which most people live
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in really quite impoverished conditions.
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00:03:37,850 --> 00:03:41,370
There isn't much in way of employment
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and you will not find anyone
who lives in the Delta
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who thinks that their
people have got a fair deal
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out of 60 something
years of oil production.
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We drink this river water.
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Then if you don't have
money, you drink this water.
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00:04:00,610 --> 00:04:03,549
Then if you have money, you
buy the water and drink.
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00:04:03,549 --> 00:04:07,580
In the '90s, in a area called Ogoniland,
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00:04:07,580 --> 00:04:11,160
a very charismatic activist
called en Saro-wiwa
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00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:15,920
launched a campaign against
Shell's operations in the area,
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accusing it of causing immense levels
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of environmental degradation.
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These demonstrations
caused Shell's operations
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to shut down and exit the area,
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but the activists were met
with swift and violent action
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at the hands of Nigeria's
then-military dictatorship.
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00:04:36,210 --> 00:04:38,450
Ledum Mitee is a lawyer, activist,
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and survivor of that tumultuous era.
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Ken and this other of my
colleagues were executed.
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00:04:44,950 --> 00:04:49,070
I stood trial with Ken and I was lucky
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00:04:49,070 --> 00:04:51,923
that I was found not guilty and released.
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00:04:53,700 --> 00:04:56,440
The fate of ken Saro-wiwa and his comrades
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00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,710
laid the path for a violent
backlash in the 2000s
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where militants who preferred
to call themselves agitators
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00:05:03,010 --> 00:05:06,120
blew up pipelines, attacked
oil and gas facilities,
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00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:07,663
and kidnapped employees.
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00:05:08,500 --> 00:05:10,007
Most times, people I ask them,
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00:05:10,007 --> 00:05:13,140
"Why are they resorting
to armed struggle?"
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And the people ask me, "Why shouldn't I?
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You guys went no- violently
are you were killed.
99
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So we are not gonna wait to be killed
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00:05:21,070 --> 00:05:22,967
before we carry the arms."
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00:05:22,967 --> 00:05:25,660
And that's how militants,
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they took over the rest of the region.
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People were angry because
they were not getting
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what they thought were their just rewards
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from the oil from their land
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and they decided to sabotage
the pipelines and all that.
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00:05:47,270 --> 00:05:49,520
We met with a former militant leader,
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a former agitator leader who
goes by the nomme de guerre
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of Osama Bin Laden.
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That name because of what
we used to blow the pipe
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and do all those things.
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00:06:00,110 --> 00:06:01,813
That was our bush name.
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We are suffering.
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You will see charcoal everywhere.
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See this thing?
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I can see the stain on the clothes.
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Our objective that time is that
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they cannot collect our oil
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without making our place okay for us.
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Do you see?
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If they're getting the oil from us,
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they should make our place fine.
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The Ogoniland native is one of the leaders
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in a loose coalition of
heavily armed militias
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00:06:36,980 --> 00:06:39,550
that carried out a campaign,
which at its height,
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00:06:39,550 --> 00:06:43,610
reduced Nigeria's oil
production by up to 40%.
127
00:06:43,610 --> 00:06:47,227
This violence became so
bad in the late 2000s
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and was having such a negative impact
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00:06:49,730 --> 00:06:52,570
on Nigeria's daily oil output
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00:06:52,570 --> 00:06:57,250
that the then president
offered the main leaders
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and their men an amnesty program.
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The leaders got properties
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00:07:02,420 --> 00:07:05,090
and lucrative business
opportunities for disarming
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00:07:05,090 --> 00:07:08,100
and their men got monthly stipends
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00:07:08,100 --> 00:07:10,293
which they still receive to this day.
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00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:15,955
Now he prefers to present
himself as a peacemaker.
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00:07:17,755 --> 00:07:20,813
This will encourage me to do more
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00:07:20,813 --> 00:07:24,108
and make sure that the Ogoni people,
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all the place have peace, thank you.
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00:07:27,837 --> 00:07:31,857
If we lay down our arms,
they will empower us.
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00:07:31,857 --> 00:07:34,483
They will find job for our boys.
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00:07:35,450 --> 00:07:40,383
Then they will make sure that
the environment here is okay.
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00:07:43,493 --> 00:07:46,450
But the environment is anything but okay
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00:07:46,450 --> 00:07:48,830
and many of the jobs
that have been created
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are in the black market.
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00:07:51,090 --> 00:07:52,140
Much of the crude oil
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that is stolen from pipelines
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makes its way to illegal refineries
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that are situated deep in the creeks
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00:08:00,090 --> 00:08:02,310
and deep in the forests
of the Niger Delta,
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far from the prying
eyes of the government.
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00:08:04,950 --> 00:08:05,880
It's at these sites
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00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:08,320
where the entire industry
of illegal refining,
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00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:09,930
which is commonly known in the Delta
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as kpo fire takes place.
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The products that they produce
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00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:19,480
in these refining sites
are sold to traders
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who go and sell these products
throughout the Niger Delta
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and throughout the wider country.
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The government currently estimates
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that up to 150,000 barrels
of oil are stolen every day
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equivalent to about 10%
of official production.
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Some industry figures estimate the scale
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of the theft is even greater.
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So what we are seeing today
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is the flip side of the same militancy
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instead of breaking pipelines,
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just to spite the government
and the oil companies,
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we break pipelines to make money
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through illegal refining.
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The tapping of pipelines, stealing of oil,
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00:09:01,410 --> 00:09:03,530
and the emissions from
the refining process
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have added another complication
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00:09:05,220 --> 00:09:08,630
to the region's environmental
crisis and as expected,
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it's affecting the health and wellbeing
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of local inhabitants.
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00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:17,250
We first observed these
medical refining issues
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that culminated into the
appearance of the soot
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in Port Harcourt and its metropolis
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sometime in 2017 when it
became very much visible
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and since then we've been
having issues with respiration,
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issues with the heart,
issues with the liver,
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issues with the kidneys of residents
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of Port Harcourt and its environments.
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The complaints are valuable.
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They're not static.
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They are just too many.
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And this is what we inhale every day.
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If we bathe our body, it's charcoal.
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00:09:47,420 --> 00:09:49,870
If we step on the ground,
everywhere is charcoal.
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00:09:50,830 --> 00:09:53,000
This issue of black soot is not new.
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It's been around for a couple of years,
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but the governor told
us that he was obliged
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to launch his war against illegal refining
195
00:10:00,970 --> 00:10:03,943
because the problem had become so bad.
196
00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:08,910
What we did was from our own vigilante
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to monitor what is going on.
198
00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:16,874
I cannot tell you here authoritatively
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00:10:16,874 --> 00:10:20,053
that we have completely stopped.
200
00:10:20,890 --> 00:10:24,280
I can say that we have been able
201
00:10:25,553 --> 00:10:30,553
to reduce the level of
these illegal activities.
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00:10:31,570 --> 00:10:34,603
If identify a site, I'll destroy it.
203
00:10:44,830 --> 00:10:46,400
Since launching his crusade,
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the governor's task force
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00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:49,450
claimed to have found and destroyed
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00:10:49,450 --> 00:10:52,190
at least 480 of the so-called ovens
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00:10:52,190 --> 00:10:54,410
used for cooking the crude oil.
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00:10:54,410 --> 00:10:58,140
The governor declared a
total war on illegal refinery
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to keep the people of Rivers State alive.
210
00:11:00,340 --> 00:11:01,800
You can't drink from the water.
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00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:04,080
You can't do anything from this place
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00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:07,310
because of these activities
of illegal oil refineries.
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00:11:07,310 --> 00:11:08,143
This is the route.
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00:11:08,143 --> 00:11:10,330
They bring in their speed boats here.
215
00:11:10,330 --> 00:11:13,110
On drums and barrels?
Yes, in barrels.
216
00:11:13,110 --> 00:11:16,253
You can smell oil.
Crude, yes, it's crude.
217
00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:20,517
All our rivers here are gone.
218
00:11:20,517 --> 00:11:22,870
The environment is messed up.
219
00:11:22,870 --> 00:11:24,429
We have published names.
220
00:11:24,429 --> 00:11:26,890
We have also conducting
house to house arrest.
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00:11:26,890 --> 00:11:29,010
When we visited a site
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00:11:29,010 --> 00:11:31,940
which had recently been
dismantled and destroyed
223
00:11:31,940 --> 00:11:34,720
by the local government,
it really gave us a sense
224
00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:37,947
of the size of this industry
in this very small area.
225
00:11:37,947 --> 00:11:41,467
If we don't destroy the
heart of the activity.
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00:11:41,467 --> 00:11:44,810
which is the illegal refining centers,
227
00:11:44,810 --> 00:11:46,613
then the crude will be cooked,
228
00:11:46,613 --> 00:11:48,179
the soot will still be in the air,
229
00:11:48,179 --> 00:11:51,010
and you just be scratching the surface.
230
00:11:51,010 --> 00:11:53,070
We have done what the
governor has told us to do
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00:11:53,070 --> 00:11:56,490
and it has yielded huge amount of results.
232
00:11:56,490 --> 00:11:59,090
That was one small area in River State.
233
00:11:59,090 --> 00:12:01,470
So if there was that
many ovens just there,
234
00:12:01,470 --> 00:12:04,210
it gives an impression of
how many might be elsewhere
235
00:12:04,210 --> 00:12:05,393
throughout the Delta.
236
00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:18,310
Fyneface Dumnamene is a local activist
237
00:12:18,310 --> 00:12:20,940
who spent years fighting
for environmental justice
238
00:12:20,940 --> 00:12:22,790
for the residents of the River State.
239
00:12:24,340 --> 00:12:27,170
The entire Niger Delta
is the most polluted part
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00:12:27,170 --> 00:12:30,310
of the earth anywhere in the world.
241
00:12:30,310 --> 00:12:33,980
This community has been
massively polluted by hydrocarbon
242
00:12:34,870 --> 00:12:37,743
from the activities of
multinational oil companies.
243
00:12:39,130 --> 00:12:42,100
The people of Ogoni are dying
as a result of pollution.
244
00:12:42,100 --> 00:12:44,340
If you test an average Ogoni man,
245
00:12:44,340 --> 00:12:47,380
you will see that he or she has
been polluted in their lungs
246
00:12:47,380 --> 00:12:49,570
because of what they inhale every day
247
00:12:49,570 --> 00:12:51,720
in the polluted
environment that they live.
248
00:12:53,070 --> 00:12:56,330
In Niger Delta, we have
well over 40 million people.
249
00:12:56,330 --> 00:12:58,060
23 million of these are young people
250
00:12:58,060 --> 00:13:00,470
and a lot of these will
have a lesser percentage
251
00:13:00,470 --> 00:13:02,113
that are gainfully engaged.
252
00:13:03,130 --> 00:13:06,230
The youth of the Niger Delta have waited
253
00:13:06,230 --> 00:13:09,160
for the oil companies to
provide jobs for them.
254
00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:10,900
They are not getting the jobs.
255
00:13:10,900 --> 00:13:12,840
When they go to them to
seek for opportunities
256
00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:15,390
to be able to be employed,
they are not getting it.
257
00:13:22,580 --> 00:13:24,510
Fred Barikpoa says he's been involved
258
00:13:24,510 --> 00:13:27,680
in the black market of
oil refining since 2016,
259
00:13:27,680 --> 00:13:31,030
but has had to stop due
to the recent crackdown.
260
00:13:31,030 --> 00:13:33,550
His cousin Favour said
she used to sell the fuel
261
00:13:33,550 --> 00:13:35,340
and suffers from multiple ailments
262
00:13:35,340 --> 00:13:38,160
that she blames on inhaling oil fumes.
263
00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:41,407
We don't have any means of livelihood.
264
00:13:41,407 --> 00:13:42,707
We don't have any support.
265
00:13:43,990 --> 00:13:46,670
Since we don't have any other means,
266
00:13:46,670 --> 00:13:49,320
we don't have any other
choice than to risk our lives
267
00:13:51,837 --> 00:13:54,931
and all of my friends are
going into the business more
268
00:13:54,931 --> 00:13:57,210
and the business is killing
a lot of people more.
269
00:13:57,210 --> 00:14:00,653
If you get to the mortuary,
you see what we are saying,
270
00:14:01,510 --> 00:14:03,134
but since we don't have any option,
271
00:14:03,134 --> 00:14:04,953
we are going into the
business that is killing us.
272
00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:13,790
You can see my sister,
Favour, they are suffering
273
00:14:13,790 --> 00:14:17,128
because I have no option
than to go for the business
274
00:14:17,128 --> 00:14:19,461
for her to sustain a little.
275
00:14:21,112 --> 00:14:25,678
When this thing started,
I cannot stand it.
276
00:14:25,678 --> 00:14:28,195
I cannot do anything in here.
277
00:14:28,195 --> 00:14:33,059
So I am praying, pleading
for the government.
278
00:14:33,059 --> 00:14:36,600
They should do something about it.
279
00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:38,483
When I saw the woman,
she's having Anasarca.
280
00:14:38,483 --> 00:14:41,240
That means that generalized body swelling.
281
00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:42,890
There has been oil spills there before?
282
00:14:42,890 --> 00:14:44,020
Everywhere.
Everywhere?
283
00:14:44,020 --> 00:14:46,952
A lot of these kpo fire thing?
284
00:14:46,952 --> 00:14:48,200
It's everywhere.
285
00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:49,920
It's all everywhere.
286
00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:52,580
If you look at the woman,
she could hardly breathe.
287
00:14:52,580 --> 00:14:53,720
She couldn't walk
288
00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:58,523
because her heart is failing.
Congestive cardiac failure.
289
00:14:59,380 --> 00:15:02,570
She has the classical
features of almost all,
290
00:15:02,570 --> 00:15:06,210
all the major complications
of the soot is manifest.
291
00:15:06,210 --> 00:15:10,380
We want to check your heart,
your liver, and your kidney.
292
00:15:15,944 --> 00:15:19,690
Help me and get me out of this
trouble and this sickness.
293
00:15:24,322 --> 00:15:27,406
I still want to live.
294
00:15:27,406 --> 00:15:29,928
I have children to take care of.
295
00:15:29,928 --> 00:15:34,928
I have family to take care of.
296
00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:51,460
The life span of residents
of Port Harcourt,
297
00:15:51,460 --> 00:15:54,250
it is reducing and it will keep reducing
298
00:15:54,250 --> 00:15:56,510
far as long as we still breathe in
299
00:15:56,510 --> 00:15:59,770
this polluted air occasioned by the soot.
300
00:16:03,107 --> 00:16:05,190
According to Amnesty International,
301
00:16:05,190 --> 00:16:08,220
hundreds of oil spills occur
in the Niger Delta every year
302
00:16:08,220 --> 00:16:10,980
and they are rarely properly cleaned up.
303
00:16:10,980 --> 00:16:13,540
While most go unnoticed
by the outside world,
304
00:16:13,540 --> 00:16:16,163
two recent incidents did
capture public attention.
305
00:16:18,330 --> 00:16:22,010
In November 2021, a well
exploded, spewing oil and gas
306
00:16:22,010 --> 00:16:24,370
into the surrounding
rivers and mangrove swamps
307
00:16:24,370 --> 00:16:26,120
for almost 40 days.
308
00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:28,593
A meaningful cleanup
has yet to take place.
309
00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:33,560
A few months later,
310
00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:36,880
a storage tanker blew up
just off Nigeria's coast.
311
00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:38,170
The environment ministry says
312
00:16:38,170 --> 00:16:40,563
it was holding up to
60,000 barrels of oil.
313
00:16:41,460 --> 00:16:44,820
The environment has been
irredeemably damaged
314
00:16:45,730 --> 00:16:47,340
and yet nothing is happening.
315
00:16:47,340 --> 00:16:48,730
Nobody has been held to account.
316
00:16:48,730 --> 00:16:50,910
No government official has been sacked.
317
00:16:50,910 --> 00:16:53,230
No action has been taken with respect to,
318
00:16:53,230 --> 00:16:54,860
you know, holding people accountable
319
00:16:54,860 --> 00:16:58,387
for failure to take care
of their responsibilities.
320
00:17:00,648 --> 00:17:03,870
In 2010, the United
Nations Environment Program
321
00:17:03,870 --> 00:17:06,829
produced a report about oil
spills' environmental damage
322
00:17:06,829 --> 00:17:10,259
in the Ogoniland, recommending
a five-year cleanup project
323
00:17:10,260 --> 00:17:12,530
estimated to cost one billion dollars
324
00:17:12,530 --> 00:17:14,483
and funded primarily by Shell.
325
00:17:15,740 --> 00:17:16,660
A government agency
326
00:17:16,660 --> 00:17:19,410
called the Hydrocarbon
Pollution Remediation Project
327
00:17:19,410 --> 00:17:22,450
or HYPREP has been put in
charge of the cleanup effort
328
00:17:22,450 --> 00:17:25,263
and awarded its first contracts in 2018.
329
00:17:26,310 --> 00:17:29,270
While HYPREP does publish
regular activity updates,
330
00:17:29,270 --> 00:17:31,280
Ogoniland residents claim not to have seen
331
00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:33,313
substantial progress as of yet.
332
00:17:35,360 --> 00:17:37,030
12 years later, there's a lot of concern
333
00:17:37,030 --> 00:17:38,520
about the progress of the project
334
00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:40,830
and activist groups, environmental groups
335
00:17:40,830 --> 00:17:43,390
accused the people managing the project
336
00:17:43,390 --> 00:17:46,690
of not operating in a
particularly transparent way.
337
00:17:46,690 --> 00:17:51,530
We had a lot of hope and
some sense of satisfaction
338
00:17:51,530 --> 00:17:53,833
that at least we have achieved something,
339
00:17:54,950 --> 00:17:58,350
but several years after, I'm afraid that
340
00:17:58,350 --> 00:18:00,283
I cannot say that there's a cleanup.
341
00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:04,370
They haven't even finished
cleaning up the sites
342
00:18:04,370 --> 00:18:09,370
that were classified as simple
and are yet to even give out
343
00:18:09,510 --> 00:18:14,210
the contracts to clean up the
areas categorized as complex.
344
00:18:14,210 --> 00:18:15,360
HYPREP did not respond
345
00:18:15,360 --> 00:18:17,143
to several requests for comment.
346
00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:19,910
Not much have been achieved in Ogoni
347
00:18:19,910 --> 00:18:21,920
that was supposed to serve as a model
348
00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:23,640
for other parts of the Niger Delta
349
00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:25,420
and I think they need to go
back to the drawing board
350
00:18:25,420 --> 00:18:28,190
and be able to carry out the
environmental remediation
351
00:18:28,190 --> 00:18:30,748
of Ogoni and then extend it
to other parts of River States
352
00:18:30,748 --> 00:18:31,940
and other parts of the Niger Delta
353
00:18:31,940 --> 00:18:33,950
because if they keep
delaying this process,
354
00:18:33,950 --> 00:18:37,620
the lifespan of an average
Ogoni Rivers man and Delta man
355
00:18:37,620 --> 00:18:39,580
will continue to reduce because we live
356
00:18:39,580 --> 00:18:42,343
in polluted environment
every day of our lives.
26763
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