Environmental History of Nigeria 101
Introduction The environmental history of Nigeria unfortunately is not a story filled with the rich biodiverse tropical rainforests of the Niger Delta or the cascading rich vegetation of the Sahel savanna but rather one …
Decolonize our Waters
there isn’t much life under water coated by layers of crude oil and contaminated to outlandish levels above safe limits.…
Halting Ecological Crimes in Africa
The understanding of the Earth as a living entity and not a dead thing warns that rapacious exploitation that disrupts her regenerative powers are acts of cruelty or Ecocide.…
Decolonizing Our Energy Future
The point is that although 1.5C is given as the best-case scenario in the Paris Agreement, catastrophic impacts of extreme climate events are already being experienced with temperature rise below that threshold. Droughts…
For Justice and Dignity
We have just had elections in Nigeria and by 29th May 2023 new persons will step into the saddle of political leadership. Considering the nature of our political system where the major parties are indistinguishable …
The Unsustainability of Extractivism
Extractivism lies at the base of the climate and food crises. It is propelled by a complex of mentalities and power differentials that are basically self-reinforcing in practice, underwriting and rationalizing socio-ecol…
COP27, the Loss and the Damage at Injury Time
The recently concluded COP27 at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, did not rise beyond the low bars set by previous editions. Except for Loss and Damage, the answer to the question as to what was gained at the COP is blowing in the…
Real Climate Solutions Exist
The ravages of climate change on Africa and other vulnerable territories are by now clear to all who care to pay attention except those in sheer denial. Extreme weather events like the reoccurring flooding episodes in th…
Oil Theft Pollutes Our Nation
We have heard sordid tales and seen utterly despoiled environments, but the official declaration that a 4 kilometres pipeline was built in the ocean and illegally operated for 9 years through an offshore platform without…
Seeing Red with the Blue Economy
Without a plan, and a redefinition of development and progress, we may end up in a cemetery of junk technologies and bequeath to our children stranded assets in equally stranded communities. A mindless implementation of …
Not an African COP
Calling COP27 that will be held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, an African COP is simply a tale that has a tail aimed at presenting the false notion that this is an opportunity to solve the ravages of climate change on the co…
The Ikarama Paradox
There are communities in the Niger Delta that would compete to have the dubious notoriety of being the oil spills capital of the world due to the regularity of oil spill incidents they experience. Ikarama community in Ye…
Fiddling while the Planet Burns
The third report to emerge from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the span of eight months has again exposed the folly of humankind on its addiction to dirty energy sources. The report clearly shows…
Oil, Rot and Divestment
The current drive by oil companies such as Shell and ExxonMobil to divest from onshore and shallow water oil fields or even to leave completely brings up very serious issues. If oil companies drilled the Niger Delta with…
Reject Seed Colonialism in Africa
It has often been said that one of the ways to colonize a people is by dismantling or subverting their culture. This pathway is also effective for building dependency and disrupting the systems that organically secures t…
