ABUJA — FORMER Minister of Environment, Dr. Ime Okopido has called for the setting up of an agency like the scrapped Federal Environmental Protection Agency to monitor the strict compliance of non-flaring of gas by the oil companies by 2008.
In an interview in Abuja, Dr. Okopido said unless such an agency was set up the oil companies especially Shell Petroleum Development Company would never comply with the policy. “We still need an agency to implement the policies.
“We still need an agency like FEPA by whatever name to implement the policies of the Ministry. Some body needs to watch the oil companies to ensure that they comply with environmental standard. Even when they said flaring would stop in 2008, if no body is able to follow Shell, in particular, by 2010, they will still be flaring because it is cheaper for them to flare than for them to create petrochemical industries to employ Nigerians” he said. Dr Okopido said the Ministry of Environment is incapacitated in monitoring the compliance of the oil companies with non-flare policy because the ministry only formulates policies. “In Nigeria, we have about 850-kilometre coastline.
How is the offshore production of oil going to affect food security? The fish and all products which people in the coastal area depend on would be affected if we do not manage the coastal area well.
Then we come into the issue of gas flaring. It has ceased from being just an environmental issue to economic issue. By the time we came in the flaring in the country was about eighty percent. By the grace of God, by the time I left office we were able to bring down gas flaring to about twenty five percent. It was phenomenal.
“For the milestone we were able to set in four years, a lot was done on paper. A lot of standard was set. Dr. Adegoroye of FEPA did a fantastic job. FEPA is to implement policies created by the Ministry of Environment. The president had a good reason to scrap FEPA but do not forget that the law setting it up has not been repealed by the national assembly. I hope that one day they would set up another agency like that to monitor our environment” he said. Dr. Okopido said apart from monitoring the compliance by the oil companies with the non- flaring of gas, the agency would also monitor the various ports in the country to ensure that endangered specie of animals are not smuggled through the country’s ports abroad. “The security agencies are not properly trained to detect these things. Such an agency would have staff who are specially trained in these areas of detecting endangered specie of animals and they would save the country’s endangered specie that are being smuggled out to foreign lands, “ he stated.
