There is a serious transfer talks going on within the Manchester United camp and Neymar’s agent over a possible £173 million move deal.
Neymar
If the deal falls through, it means that the Brazil captain and Barcelona striker will receive a mind-boggling £416,000-a-week wage with a move to Manchester United.
Manchester United’s strong interest in Neymar, according to reports in Catalonia, has set “alarm bells ringing” at Barcelona.
José Mourinho wants to bring in a huge name in the summer as he tries to bring the Red Devils back among the elites of world football.
Reports say United have met with Neymar’s representatives and are ready to offer the Brazilian the staggering a £416,000-a-week contact.
The 20-time English champion would offer him a better “financial and football opportunity” than is available to him at Barcelona – and pay the £175 million buy-out clause.
At 25, Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior is considered the next major superstar in the game, but knows he will always be in Lionel Messi’s shadow at the Nou Camp.
Chelsea, meanwhile, is also interested in signing Neymar, but will not entertain paying the release clause.
Holland has sacked head coach Danny Blind after 20 months in charge, due to poor results.
Danny Blind
Saturday’s 2-0 defeat in Sofia was Holland’s second in their opening five games in the World Cup qualifying group A and left the country in fourth place in the pool, already six points behind leaders France, who beat Luxembourg 3-1 and three points behind second-placed Sweden.
Danny Blind won seven and lost seven of his 17 games in charge since taking over in 2015, but was unable to lead the team to Euro 2016.
The Dutch FA said recent results left the team “with difficulty qualifying for the World Cup in Russia.”
Fred Grim, Holland Under-21 coach, will take charge as interim coach when Holland faces Italy on Tuesday in Amsterdam.
Blind said it was “a pity” his stint in charge of the national team had come to such a sorry end.
The Federal Ministry of Environment (FMoE) has been asked to closely monitor developments at the Adaptation Fund to ensure that Nigeria benefits maximally from the financial resources provided by the fund.
Participants at a Post-COP 22 Stakeholders Consultative meeting for the Analysis of the Outcomes of the Negotions organised by the Federal Ministry of Environment. In centre is Director, Depatment of Climate Change, Dr. Peter Tarfa (9th from right) and Vice Chancellor, Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba
The Adaptation Fund is an international fund that finances projects and programs aimed at helping developing countries to adapt to the harmful effects of climate change. It is set up under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The charge formed part of resolutions by participants at a daylong post-COP22 Stakeholders Consultative Meeting held recently in Abuja at the instance of the FMoE and Surez Global Resources Limited.
COP22 implies the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC. The two-week event held lat November in Marrakech, Morocco.
Participants also expressed the need to strengthen the climate finance unit already in place to become a functional structure for climate finance in the country and also to pursue the Green Bonds and other initiatives to a logical conclusion.
They agreed to set up a technical committee to look at the various issues raised and make inputs into the expected submissions by parties before April 1, 2017; and forward nominations of experts to participate in the activities of the established ad hoc technical expert group on response measures, through the coordinators of the regional groups and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) Chairs.
The forum, which signosts fresh effort by the nation to ascertain her obligations under the new global agreement in Paris and effective strategies for Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) targets, agreed that Nigeria should submit proposal to the Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme (RPSP) towards the preparation of its long overdue Technology Need Assessments (TNA).
The discussions, anchored by the Director, Department of Climate Change (DCC), Dr. Peter Tarfa, focused on the activities and outcomes of COP22 and role Nigeria played at the global conference. It likewise analysed the implications and opportunities presented by the implementation of the Paris Agreement, as well as role of the relevant stakeholders in fulfilling Nigeria’s obligation.
Dignitaries at the event, which included the Chairmen of the Climate Change Committees in the National Assembly, representative of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment, senior officials of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media, also agreed to review the nation’s Gender and Climate Change Action to make it more robust to incorporate many of the issues that the country is expected to address as it communicates with the Convention.
They recommended for a co-ordinated national approach to COPs, such as a robust leadership to head the delegation – the need for President/Minister to attend; early notification to be sent to various stakeholders; identify core negotiators/designated negotiators and adequate budgetary allocation for participants.
The participants also sought for designations of clear roles and responsibilities; enhance synergy with MDAs, States and Federal Government; need to facilitate knowledge fare before conferences within MDAs.
They also agreed for a research conference to support Climate Change negotiations to be hosted in Abakaliki through a robust preparatory/planning committee; research on sustainable low carbon development pathways, especially on key mitigation measures mentioned in Nigeria’s INDC.
Stakeholders further called for Nigeria to develop a Gender and Climate Change Action for the COPs, adding that relevant knowledge should be equipped in the issues of loss and damage, developments and transfer of technologies, gender and climate change action and capacity building.
However, to ensure consistency of delegates participation to COP meetings; they agreed that the ministry should pursue early accreditation to ensure readiness; setting up a desk Unit within DCC for COP activities to enhance information sharing.
The death toll as a result of the meningitis epidemic in Sokoto State has now risen to 21.
Sokoto State Health Commissioner, Dr. Balarabe Kakale
The state Health Commissioner, Dr. Balarabe Kakale, confirmed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Sokoto on Sunday, March 26 2017.
Kakale gave an update on the state of high alert declared by the Ministry since March 20.
The deaths were recorded in the seven local governments of Kebbe, Bodinga, Rabah, Wamakko, Gada, Dange/Shuni and Tureta, mostly affected by the meningitis outbreak.
Kakale said: “The state government had since Monday deployed no fewer than 15 medical teams, comprising of over 150 medical personnel. They were deployed across the 23 local governments of the state, fully equipped with ambulances and provided with free drugs, as well as medicament.
“The emergency response teams were conducting house to house search, definition and management, both at home and the hospitals. They had so far treated no fewer than 330 mixed cases of severe malaria and meningitis across the seven top-hit local governments.
“Out of the 330 cases, 40 were confirmed in the laboratories to be cases of meningitis, out of which 14 fatalities were recorded. These 14 deaths excluded the seven deaths earlier recorded in parts of Gada of Gada Local Government Area.”
Kakale further noted that thousands of other cases were treated at the Primary Health Centres in the local governments.
The commissioner said there were some “imported cases” from Koko in Kebbi State, which compounded the epidemic.
He also lamented that traditional belief in witchcraft was making fighting the disease difficult, with some families refusing to take their suspected patients to the hospitals.
He said: “You will see suspected cases having symptoms of meningitis like vomiting, high fever, headache and steepness of the neck, but they will not be conveyed to the health facilities. The people of the state should disregard rumours of witchcraft and take all suspected persons to the hospitals early.
“Keeping them at home will only make the disease worse and cause transmission to other members of the family. The residents should also reduce the number of those to take care of confirmed patients, avoid sleeping in overcrowded rooms, as well as ensure personal and environmental hygiene.”
The West African English speaking nation of Ghana on Thursday, March 23, 2017 deposited its instrument of accession, thereby becoming the 40th Party to the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana
This comes just a day after the Government of Honduras on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 ratified the Convention, thus emerging its 39th Party.
Just last month, Liechtenstein and Togo endorsed the global treaty. While the Government of Liechtenstein on February 1, 2017 deposited its instrument of accession, the Togolese Government two days later followed suit on February 3, 2017.
Liechtenstein and Togo are respectively the 37th and 38th parties to ratify the Convention.
Costa Rica on January 19, 2017 became the 36th Party to the Minamata Convention when it deposited its instrument of accession to that effect.
A minimum of 50 nations are required to ratify the Minamata Convention to make it legally binding, and enabling the holding of the First Conference of the Parties (COP1) to the Minamata Convention on Mercury. This has however been scheduled to take place in the week of 25 September 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty aimed at protecting human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury, was agreed at the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in Geneva, Switzerland on Saturday, 19 January 2013 – some four years ago.
Nigeria is one of the 128 signatories to the global treaty, but she is yet to ratify it. There are indications that Nigeria will soon ratify the global treaty.
Major highlights of the Minamata Convention include a ban on new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, the phase out and phase down of mercury use in a number of products and processes, control measures on emissions to air and on releases to land and water, and the regulation of the informal sector of artisanal and small-scale gold mining. The Convention also addresses interim storage of mercury and its disposal once it becomes waste, sites contaminated by mercury as well as health issues.
It is believed Nigeria is currently facing a daunting socio-economic condition, one characterised by insurgency and economic recession.
Under-the-bridge in Obalende. The World Sleep Day aims to promote sleep disorders prevention and management
But experts believe these challenges may worsen, if urgent measures are not taken to address one of the offshoots of the unsavoury development: sleep deprivation. Researchers say that in the desperate bid to eke out a living, sleeping hours are fast reducing among the citizenry.
They observe that sound sleep, which appears to be eluding many Nigerians, is necessary for the overall normal functioning of the body, albeit physically, mentally and emotionally.
“Science, investigating why we need to sleep, doesn’t have all the answers yet but it has been recognised that sleep is important in restorative function in our metabolism, memory function and so many other functions in the system,” says Dr. Adeoye Adefemi in a lecture delivered to mark this year’s World Sleep Day which was celebrated on Friday, March 17.
World Sleep Day (observed Friday of the second full week of March) is an annual event organised by the World Sleep Day Committee of the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) since 2008. It is aimed to celebrate the benefits of good and healthy sleep and to draw society attention to the burden of sleep problems and their medicine, education and social aspects. It also aims to promote sleep disorders prevention and management.
Dr. Adefemi, who is of the Clinical Fellowship Sleep Medicine, University of Toronto in Canada, explains further why sleep is important: “During sleep, we also conserve energy. All of us woke up this morning, we have engaged in different activities and we have been burning energy. By evening, we are tired and we need to rest in order to rejuvenate and have a good next-day. So without sleep we will not have sufficient energy the following day. We also know that with sleep our body build new cells that we utilise as different parts of the body are built up during sleep .Growth hormones are released and other hormones that help us to be able to repair internal damages in our body that we are not aware of. It also helps to boost our immunity.”
Unfortunately, many Lagos residents say that, given the challenging conditions they find themselves, enjoying long hours of sleep is second in their agenda, which has made them vulnerable to different health challenges.
At 5 am on Tuesday, March, 20 2017, we paid a visit to under-the-bridge in Obalende on the Lagos Island, where no fewer than 100 able-bodied young men call a bedroom. It is where they settle for the night everyday after close of work.
By 6:30 am, some are awake to continue the usual hustling and bustling in Lagos while some others are still deep in sleep.
We were privileged to speak with one of them that woke much later.
He narrates why he and others chose to sleep in the open, saying: “Country is hard and it is worse in this Lagos. Things are very expensive. We can hardly save enough to feed let alone rent accommodation that costs many thousands of Naira.”
When asked why he was still sleeping up till past 6 am, he replies: “You see this Obalende, people do business till late after midnight. So we that sleep here, we wait until most of the business people have closed to give us space to sleep. Sometimes we sleep around 3 am, or even 4 am. It can be earlier or later depending on when there is space. So, at the end, we might be sleeping about three to four hours. When it rains heavily, everywhere is usually waterlogged such that many of us do not sleep at all.”
In the course of this investigation, many people were seen by the road side and median taking a nap as nature comes calling, and that is all the sleep they can get in a whole day.
It was gathered that although sleeping rough in the open is a perennial feature of Lagos, the practice has increased in recent times due to the hash economy.
Apart from people sleeping under the bridges, it is reported that the hardship has forced many workers including civil servants to sleep in their offices in order to save cost.
These office sleepers have to wait till late at night to settle down for some hours of sleep.
People who can afford to rent houses say they rarely enjoy good sleep because of the stress of waking very early for work and spending many hours in traffic due to the notorious Lagos gridlock.
A civil servant, Segun Harstrup, who lives in the Ijesha area but works in Ikoyi, travels many kilometres to work and back home. According to him, inadequate sleep is his greatest challenge.
“Sometimes, I get home around around 11pm and, by 3 am, I am awake again, dreesing up and ready to go to work. That is why you see many Lagosians looking tired, some sleeping in cars and many others sluggish at their places of work. Also, the aggressive nature of many people in the city can be as a result of lack of sleep. I tell you, if a brain test is to be conducted on all Lagosians, you will see that many are getting insane due to stress and lack of sleep.”
Also commenting on the impact of lack of sleep, a female worker says, “Sleep is very important. As you sleep, you forget your worries for a little while. You put a little full stop to all the bustling and hustling of life. The energy you use during the day, you regain it when you sleep. Sleep is something that we just take for granted. No, it is good and golden. Try those who don’t sleep and you will understand that being able to sleep is golden.”
Speaking during this year’s World Sleep Day, with theme “Sound sleep, sound health”, the sleep expert Dr. Adefemi advises Lagos residents and indeed Nigerians to try hard to observe the recommended eight hours daily sleep to function optimally. He however adds that the recommended amount of sleep varies with individuals.
“An adult needs an average of eight hours of sleep every day, which is what is recomended as being good enough. But in Lagos I doubt how many people really enjoy eight hours of sleep.
However, what is important is when you wake up: how do you feel? If you feel tired, you feel like continuing the sleep, when you get to work you are still feeling sleepy and you are not able to function, then there is a problem and you need help.”
“Generally there are four stages in sleep. But we can divide these four stages into two – what we call the rapid eye movement and then non-rapid eye movement sleep. Rapid eye movement simply means that during that particular stage of sleep, our eye balls roll and that actually is the time we dream and remember our dreams more. So we start from stage one, stage two, stage three and then the rapid eye movement stage. The stages one and two are light stage where we can easily be aroused whereas the stage three is the deeper stage of sleep. It is important that we pass through all these stages of sleep for us to have a good and quality sleep.
“We we are limited to stages one and two, then we wake up feeling regret how we spend so much time in bed but not feeling rested. For us to enjoy good quality sleep, we look at what is the duration of sleep, we look at what is the continuity of the sleep during the night and we look at the depth of the sleep. So looking at the duration, there are figures. There is no normal amount of sleep needed by anybody. What we have is average in this population. So we see that Mr. A sleeps for nine hours and Mr. B sleeps for seven hours. It doesn’t mean that there is an abnormality per say. What is important is that the number of hours you derive from sleep, you feel refreshed when you wake up in the morning and you are able to perform your activities during the next day.”
Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF, in his welcome words) at the Media Training on Biosafety (themed: “Promoting Biosafety in Nigeria”) held in Benin City, Edo State on Friday, March 24 2017, laments that the many myths around modern agricultural biotechnology are being peddled regularly by the industry promoting genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their team players in public offices
Nnimmo Bassey at the Media Training on Biosafety in Benin City, Edo State. He says research has shown that GMOs do not necessarily yield higher than normal crops
The key myths by which citizens are sold the idea of GMOs as being desirable include that they provide the most assured way of feeding the burgeoning population of hungry mouths in the world. The planks on which this highly seductive myth has been erected are quite flimsy. Research has shown that GMOs do not necessarily yield higher than normal crops, making the talk of producing more food by using GMOs simply fatuous. Secondly, over one third of food currently produced in the world today simply gets wasted, while most of the GMOs currently grown in the world end up as animal feed.
The need to interrogate our biosafety has become very pertinent because of the many myths around modern agricultural biotechnology. These myths are being peddled regularly by the industry promoting GMOs and their team players in public offices. A major plank on which biosafety, and perhaps biosecurity, rests is the precautionary principle. This principle, or approach, is a safeguard against the permission or introduction of products or elements into the environment where there is no scientific consensus that such an introduction would be safe or would not have an adverse impact. In other words, the precautionary principle helps to disallow the use of citizens as guinea pigs in experimental release of products that could harm them. The argument that there is a risk in everything is hollow and an acceptance of that as an excuse to expose citizens to harm is inhuman.
In this engagement on biosafety we hope to share information on the issues of biosafety and GMOs in Nigeria and Africa. The aim is that media practitioners would be able to sift the facts from the myths, and by so doing help the public to require a sense of responsibility from our biosafety regulators, research institutions, political forces and commercial interests behind the risky genetic engineering approach to food production.
The key myths by which citizens are sold the idea of GMOs as being desirable include that they provide the most assured way of feeding the burgeoning population of hungry mouths in the world. The planks on which this highly seductive myth has been erected are quite flimsy. Research has shown that GMOs do not necessarily yield higher than normal crops, making the talk of producing more food by using GMOs simply fatuous. Secondly, over one third of food currently produced in the world today simply gets wasted, while most of the GMOs currently grown in the world end up as animal feed.
Another argument used to sell GMOs is that they require the use of less chemical in terms of pesticides and herbicides because the crops can be engineered to withstand herbicides or to act as pesticides themselves. The emergence of what have been termed super weeds and superbugs have dented that claim as farmers have had to sometimes apply stronger doses of herbicides and pesticides on farms where such weeds or pests emerge. In any case, the herbicide known as Roundup/glyphosate to which crops engineered by Monsanto are resistant, has been said to be a ‘possible’ source for cancer.
Evidence is now mounting that there has been collusion by biotech companies and regulators in the USA to conceal the fact that glyphosate is indeed a probable human carcinogen. One Environmental Protection Agency official, Marion Copely, in a 2013 email stating the following ways in which glyphosate can cause cancer:
Endocrine disruption
Free radical formation and inhibition of free radical-scavenging enzymes
Genotoxicity – which is key in cancer onset
Inhibition of certain DNA repairing enzymes
Inhibiting the absorption of essential nutrients
Renal and pancreatic damage that may lead to cancer
Destruction of gut bacteria and suppression of the immune system
The official (who has cancer and passed on in 2014) added, “Any one of these mechanisms alone listed can cause tumors, but glyphosate causes all of them simultaneously. It is essentially certain that glyphosate causes cancer. With all of the evidence listed above, the CARC category should be changed to ‘probable human carcinogen.’”
A report published yesterday by Global 2000 shows that, between 2012 and 2016, biotech companies sponsored a series of review articles asserting that glyphosate and its commercial formulations are not injurious to health. The Global 2000 report, “buying Science” reveals that the industry-sponsored reviews of glyphosate’s carcinogenicity and genotoxicity (ability to damage DNA) have serious scientific flaws, including assigning greater weight to unpolished studies than peer-reviewed ones.
The papers are said to also have introduced irrelevant data in violation of standard guidelines for the evaluation of cancer studies in rodents. Moreover, the reviews also consistently assign greater weight to unpublished industry studies than to studies that were peer-reviewed and published in scientific journals.
The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) on May 1, 2016 approved for Monsanto/NABDA to introduce genetically engineered maize varieties that would depend on this cancer-causing weed killer. Responding to objections to the permits and the obnoxious chemical, Monsanto issued a press response claiming that the chemical would not offer any cause for worry if farmers apply them strictly according to the guidelines or labels on the packets. We note that overwhelming evidence show serious health impacts of agro-chemicals on persons working on farms planted with GMOs or living in close proximity to such farms.
We invite journalists to interrogate the fact that GMOs are grown as mono-cultures and consider what this would mean to our agricultural system which is anchored on mix-cropping that promotes diversity and resilience. It also pays for us to look at the woeful performance of GMO cotton in Burkina Faso where the crop is being phased out and the remarkable failure in Makhathini Flats in South Africa where it was showcased as a grand success for small scale farmers in the late 1990s. We should point out that it is the same failed GMO cotton that has been halted in Burkina Faso that has been permitted to be commercially released into Nigeria.
You will hear in this programme how our regulatory agency works in cohort with GMO promoters and where official GMO promoters are interlocked with Monsanto, as for example in the GMO maize application and approval. As one ancient philosopher said, we simply have to believe the evidence of our “eyes” before we jump unto the GMO bandwagon in the pretext that we are doing science, claiming that all is well, when there are deep wells of doubts concerning the technology.
As we speak, GMO products are already on our market shelves. And a plethora of field trails of others are ongoing, including that of GMO beans that may be introduced into the Nigerian markets by 2019, according to the promoters. HOMEF and other critical observers have scrutinised the NBMA Act of 2015 and found critical clauses in it that makes its capacity to protect our environment and health very questionable. We have also proposed how this situation can be remedied: either a total repeal of the act or a drastic review of the questionable provisions.
We should be concerned about what we eat. And we should not be forced to eat what we do not want to eat.
The Government of Honduras on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 deposited its instrument of accession, thereby becoming the 39th future Party to the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez
Just last month, Liechtenstein and Togo endorsed the global treaty. While the Government of Liechtenstein on February 1, 2017 deposited its instrument of accession, the Togolese Government two days later followed suit on February 3, 2017.
Liechtenstein and Togo are respectively the 37th and 38th parties to ratify the Convention.
Costa Rica on 19 January, 2017 became the 36th Future Party to the Minamata Convention when it deposited its instrument of accession to that effect.
A minimum of 50 nations are required to ratify the Minamata Convention to make it legally binding.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty aimed at protecting human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury, was agreed at the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in Geneva, Switzerland on Saturday, 19 January 2013 – some four years ago.
Nigeria is one of the 128 signatories to the global treaty, but she is yet to ratify it. There are indications that Nigeria will soon ratify the global treaty.
Major highlights of the Minamata Convention include a ban on new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, the phase out and phase down of mercury use in a number of products and processes, control measures on emissions to air and on releases to land and water, and the regulation of the informal sector of artisanal and small-scale gold mining. The Convention also addresses interim storage of mercury and its disposal once it becomes waste, sites contaminated by mercury as well as health issues.
US president, Donald Trump, on Friday, March 24, 2017 approved a federal permit applied for by TransCanada to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. The decision comes after Trump signed an executive memorandum urging the State Department to approve the pipeline, which is proposed to run from Canada through Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska.
The Keystone XL Pipeline
Environment watchdog group, 350.org, has however condemned the development, saying that the project will negatively impact the environment.
According to the group, it is planning to support resistance along the pipeline route, mobilise millions of Americans to send in comments and petitions against the project, push politicians during the April recess and beyond to come out against Keystone XL, and use the fight against the pipeline to fire up resistance to other fossil fuel projects across the country.
350.org co-founder, Bill McKibben, says: “When this fight began, the danger Keystone posed to the climate was clear. Since then we’ve had the three hottest years ever measured on our planet. That clearly means little to Donald Trump, but it means a lot to the millions of us who will continue to gather in resistance to an overheated future.”
Executive Director, May Boeve, adds: “This decision is far from the final word on Keystone XL. The same communities who defeated this pipeline before – Indigenous leaders, landowners, farmers, and grassroots activists – are ready to fight again. Trump and his industry-run administration are making a dangerous, expensive mistake bringing back Keystone.
“This is bigger than one pipeline – we will continue to put people and our climate before the fossil fuel industry’s greed, and build the renewable energy future we need.”
350.org Stop-it-at-the-Source campaigner, Clayton Thomas-Muller, states: “While US politics have changed in the past few months, some things haven’t: Keystone XL is still a climate disaster, it is still opposed by Indigenous peoples from Alberta to Nebraska to the Gulf of Mexico, and it still will be fought tooth and nail. Any politician siding with the fossil fuel industry on Keystone, be they named Trudeau or Trump, is in for one hell of a fight.”
A leading oil spill expert, previously employed by Shell Nigeria, has alleged that Shell is trying to conceal data on the potential health effects of its oil spills on the Bodo community in the Niger Delta.
Aftermath of oil spill in Bodo. Photo: Leigh Day
Kay Holtzmann, who was previously employed by Shell to conduct the clean-up of the Bodo community in the Niger Delta, wrote a letter to the current chairman of the Bodo Mediation Initiative, which is sponsored by the Dutch Government and tasked with ensuring the clean-up of the Bodo Community to international standards.
A copy of the letter from Mr Holtzmann was also sent to Shell, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Eric Solheim, and the Dutch Ambassador.
In the letter, Mr Holzman states that an analysis of the environment was conducted by the clean-up project in August 2015 of the Bodo creek against the “fierce opposition” of Shell Nigeria.
Mr Holtzman says in the letter: “The results from the laboratory were astonishingly high, actually the soil in the mangroves is literally soaked with hydrocarbons. Whoever is walking in the creeks cannot avoid contact with toxic substances. Although the locals are accustomed to their environment they are exposed to hazards and especially negative long term effects on their health are unpredictable.”
He claims that the results suggest the need for a “medical mass screening of the Bodo people” following their exposure to the highly dangerous hydrocarbons through bathing and drinking contaminated water.
He adds that he has requested permission from Shell Nigeria to publish the data which he believes is of public interest, but that, according to Mr Holtzmann, they have flatly refused.
He makes clear in the letter that it is his view that Shell Nigeria is behaving “irresponsibly” and has “no right to conceal important data”, however unpleasant.
Law firm Leigh Day, who secured £55 million in compensation for residents of the Bodo Community in 2015, was sent a copy of the letter and wrote to Shell on behalf of the community on January 30, 2017, seeking urgent clarification and disclosure of the data.
In addition, Leigh Day requested that Shell put in place the necessary health screening measures forthwith. No response to that letter has been received, the firm adds.
Daniel Leader, Partner at Leigh Day who is representing the Bodo Community, said: “The Bodo Community was subjected to two devastating oil spills due to faults on Shell’s pipelines in 2008. These spills led to the largest loss of mangrove habitat in the history of oil spills and ruined Bodo’s environment and way of life.
“Leigh Day has been pushing for the clean-up of Bodo, health screening of the population and testing of the water supply since 2011 – all to no avail. This letter shows that even those who were employed by Shell are deeply concerned by their behaviour and their lack of transparency. Shell must act now.”
Leigh Day represents the Bodo Community in the Niger Delta, a rural coastal settlement consisting of 31,000 people who live in 35 villages. Most of its inhabitants are subsistence fishermen and farmers.
In 2008, two oil spills from Shell’s pipelines devastated the environment surrounding the community of Bodo, in Gokana Local Government Area, Rivers State, Nigeria. The volume of oil spill was estimated by experts to have been in excess of 500,000 barrels. The oil caused what is believed to be the largest loss of mangrove habitat ever caused by an oil spill.
In 2011, Shell admitted liability for the spills but initially only offered the Community £4,000 in compensation. The compensation claims on behalf of the Community were eventually settled for £55 million in 2015.
Until the 2008 spills Bodo was a relatively prosperous town based on fishing. According to the claimants’ lawyers, the spills have destroyed the fishing industry. They claim Shell failed to speedily compensate the people of Bodo and delayed and prevaricated for years in the face of overwhelming evidence. However, the clean-up of the 2008 oil spills has still not commenced.
The United Nations, Amnesty International and the Nigerian government have all expressed reservations with Shell’s environmental record in the region.
The United Nations Environment Programme’s Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland 2011 appears to back up these findings. It surveyed pipelines and visited all oil spill sites, including the Bodo creek. It found Hydrocarbon contamination in water in some sites to be 1,000 times higher than permitted under Nigerian drinking water standards and recommended a comprehensive clean-up of Ogoniland.
However, six years after the UNEP report, no action seems to have been taken, apparently leaving the communities with the option of seeking justice in foreign courts.
