The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) Act 2015 is not compliant with the Cartagena Protocol to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, the Global Prolife Alliance (GPA) has said.
Rufus Ebegba, Director-General and CEO of the the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA). Photo credit: climatereporters.com
The Owerri, Imo state-based group made the submission against the backdrop of its opposition to the NBMA’s issuance of permits for the development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the country.
The permits include:
Permit for Commercial release/Placing on Market of Cotton (MON 15985) genetically modified for lepidopteran insect pest resistance” with Permit No: NBMA/CM/IM/001;
Permit for Confined Field Trial (CFT) of maize (NK603 and MON 89034 x NK603) genetically modified for insect resistance and herbicide tolerance with Permit No: NBMA/CFT/001.
The two permits are posted on the NBMA website, signed by its Director-General, Rufus Ebegba, on May 1, 2016 and reportedly issued to Monsanto Africulture Nigeria Limited.
Nigeria is a signatory to the binding UN Treaty along with 168 countries. It came into force on 11th September, 2003. According to Dr Philip Njemanze, the UN Convention is based on the Precautionary Principle designed to protect human health, the environment and biodiversity from the risks posed by GMOs.
He disclosed in a statement that, as a way to further improve biosafety laws in the continent, African leaders also drafted an African Model Law on Biosafety, to give guidance to African governments, in the drafting of their national laws on biosafety.
“The African Model Law sets a higher benchmark for biosafety for Africa. Nigeria was party to the African Union (AU) Summit in July 2003, where Member States were formally urged to use the African Model Law on Safety in Biotechnology as a basis for drafting their national instruments on biosafety. However, undue interference from international biotechnology companies through corruption in government in Nigeria has led to permits for unhindered introduction of GMOs foods with no thorough health and environmental impact studies,” he disclosed.
He described the recent actions of the management of the NBMA as clear manifestations of the undue interference by biotechnology firms who dictate the actions of their government regulators, saying: “These actions of the NBMA are dangerous and unpatriotic. They are in violation of food and environmental safety laws in Nigeria. These actions of NBMA display total incompetence and unprofessionalism by the management, and calls into question their fitness to administer such a crucial job of securing the food security of the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
While calling on President Mohammadu Buhari to dismiss the management and board of the NBMA, Dr Njemanze described the NBMA action as being in total disregard for the food safety concerns regarding GMOs crops expressed by leading governments around the world who, according to him, have had first-hand experience with genetically modified maize.
His words: “These governments, including eight EU member states (France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Luxemburg, Austria, Hungary and Greece), have banned the same insect-resistant corn variety citing environmental concerns.
“The German Agricultural Minister Ilse Aigner announced she was banning not only the cultivation of GMO corn but also the sale of its seeds, saying she has ‘legitimate reasons to believe that MON 810 posed a danger to the environment’.
“French scientists headed by Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini have established that the effects of GMO crops were similar to that of pesticides, including inflammation disorders and severe toxicity to liver and kidney.
“Hungarian scientists headed by Professor Bela Darvas of Debrecen University have shown that Monsanto MON 810 is lethal to two Hungarian protected species and one insect classified as rare. Maize is a wind-pollinated plant so could cause serious devastation to the environment, since wind that can transport GMO pollens or seeds would contaminate the entire environment.
“The recklessness in approval of use of pesticides and GMO crops in Nigeria led to dangerous contamination of food in Nigeria. These approvals were granted despite warnings from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
“In August 2015, the European Page 2 Food Safety Authority detected a 460 times above lethal limits of a very toxic and cancerogenic pesticide in food import from Nigeria. The levels detected ranged from concentrations of 0.03mg per kilogramme to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide, when the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01mg/kg.
“These dangerous levels of pesticides for GMOs sink to the water aquifer killing aquatic life and poisoning drinking water for humans and animals. Consequently, the European Union banned many food imports from Nigeria, resulting in loss of millions of USD in revenue in hard currency and hence the under performance of the entire agricultural sector with regard to contribution of the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”
China, Finland and Zambia are the latest countries to ratify the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation, bringing the total number of ratifications to the treaty to 78.
The second meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP2) serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol is scheduled to take place in Cancun, Mexico, from 4 to 17 December 2016
All three countries ratified the Protocol during the past month. Zambia acceded on 20 May 2016, Finland accepted on 3 June 2016 and, most recently, China acceded on 8 June 2016. The treaty will enter into force for each of these countries 90 days after the date of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.
Nigeria signed in 2012 but is yet to ratify the ground-breaking treaty.
As Parties to the Protocol, China, Finland and Zambia will be able to contribute to decision-making at the second meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol, scheduled to take place in Cancun, Mexico, from 4 to 17 December 2016.
“These recent ratifications demonstrate the truly global support for the Nagoya Protocol. I congratulate the governments of China, Finland and Zambia, and look forward to more ratifications in the coming months,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). “The acts by these three governments move us closer to reaching our goal of 100 ratifications before the important meetings of the Convention and its Protocols to be held in Mexico later this year.”
The 2010 Nagoya Protocol is a supplementary agreement to the CBD, and contributes to global efforts on sustainable development. Building on the access and benefit-sharing provisions of the CBD, it provides a legal framework which can contribute to transparency and clarity for the various actors involved in access and benefit-sharing agreements.
In addition to China’s accession, Finland’s acceptance and Zambia’s accession, ratifications this year have come from the Czech Republic, Germany, Senegal, Togo and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Michelin Group, world leading tyre manufacturer and first world buyer of natural rubber, recently published a zero deforestation procurement policy based on the methodology High Carbon Stock (HCS) Approach.
Cécile Leuba, forest campaigner, Greenpeace France
Reactions have however trailed the development with, for instance, Greenpeace commending the action but demanded that the tyre manufacturer should do more.
Cécile Leuba, Forest campaigner for Greenpeace France, submitted: “The announcement by the Michelin group to commit to a zero deforestation natural rubber procurement policy sends a strong signal to the entire rubber sector: it will soon be more difficult to sell natural rubber that contributes to deforestation.
“This zero deforestation commitment is just the first step: Michelin must now ensure its implementation and quickly stop sourcing from rubber growers who refuse to commit to producing zero deforestation rubber. This starts with Socfin which, is an important supplier for Michelin’s natural rubber.”
In February and May 2016, Greenpeace France published two reports, with the support of investigations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Cameroon and Liberia highlighting how Socfin’s concessions included primary forests, but also secondary forests that store significant amounts of carbon. But the company refuses to make a Zero Deforestation commitment worthy of the name, notes Greenpeace.
The group adds that Michelin’s commitment to protect all “High Carbon Stock” (HCS) forests confirms that the HCS Approach is today the only standard enabling corporations to implement a real “zero deforestation” commitment.
“After the Zero Deforestation commitment of more than 75% of the palm oil sector, as well as major pulp and paper producers in tropical areas, it is now the rubber industry stakeholders who are adopting this methodology,” says Leuba. “The decision of the Michelin group increases the risk for Socfin of being marginalised and the risk to find themselves in non-compliance with procurement policies of their major customers.”
Greenpeace France calls on all Socfin’s customers, palm oil and natural rubber consumer, to ensure that their commercial relations with Socfin continue only on the basis of implementation of a zero deforestation policy based on the HCS Approach methodology.
We have read with interest Monsanto’s defence of NBMA in its response to Premium Time’s report highlighting NBMA’s surreptitious granting of permits to them to bring their GMOs and glyphosate into Nigeria. We restate here that Monsanto’s applications were approved without due diligence and that the law setting up NBMA is extremely flawed in that it gives individuals in the agency the latitude to toy with the health of Nigerians, our environment and food systems. Contrary to Monsanto’s claims, IARC concluded that there was strong evidence of genotoxicity and oxidative stress for glyphosate entirely from publicly available research, including findings of DNA damage in the peripheral blood of exposed humans.
GM maize
May we be reminded once again that NBMA signed the permits on a Sunday – a public holiday, when government offices were closed and just one month and a few days after the applications were opened to the public for comments. NBMA says it was “convinced that there are no known adverse impacts to the conservation and sustainable use to of biodiversity taking into account risk to human health.” However, it is instructive to note that the BT cotton submitted or rather recycled in Nigeria by Monsanto is a replica of the BT Cotton application that it had submitted in Malawi in 2014. That application in Malawi was opposed on scientific, legal and socio-economic grounds. That application has not been approved at the time of this writing. They recycled the application here and we opposed that application on similar grounds.
Monsanto argues that their GMOs and their weed killers are safe. The truth is that the company is good at avoiding liability while exploiting the agencies that ought to regulate them. They claim, “A big part of that confidence comes from knowing that independent experts who’ve looked at GMOs have concluded that they’re as safe as other foods. That includes groups like the American Medical Association and the World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as government agencies like the FDA.”
This is an interesting argument. We quote two statements, one from Monsanto and the other from FDA and leave the public to read between the lines.
Philip Angell, a Monsanto’s director of corporate communications said: “Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job.”
For the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA): “Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety.”
When Monsanto and FDA makes statements like these, the reading is that consumers are left to literally stew in their soups.
In the words of David Schubert, Professor and Head of Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies, La Jolla, California: “One thing that surprised us is that US regulators rely almost exclusively on information provided by the biotech crop developer, and those data are not published in journals or subjected to peer review… The picture that emerges from our study of US regulation of GM foods is a rubber-stamp ‘approval process’ designed to increase public confidence in, but not ensure the safety of, genetically engineered foods.”
This is exactly what is happening in Nigeria today, unfortunately. We have an agency that disrespects the voices of the people, ignores national interests and blatantly promotes the interests of biotech corporations. The relationship between National Biosafety Agency (NBMA), National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) and Monsanto is rife with conflict of interest against the Nigerian people. How is it that the regulated is so influential on the regulator? The evidence in leaked Wikileaks cables is clear. How can we have NABDA sit on the Board of NBDA, be a co-applicant with Monsanto and then sit to approve the application? This should fit into the definition of corruption in this season of Change.
Monsanto has been desperate to tell the world that their weed killer laced with the ingredient known as glysophate is safe. The debate about the safety of glysophate has been interesting with Monsanto in this response to Premium times claiming that “glyphosate poses no unreasonable risks to humans or the environment when used according to label instructions.”
The above claim says two or more things. First that glysophate poses risks. Secondly that this risk can be tolerated when the chemical is used according to label instructions. Thirdly, when something goes wrong, Monsanto will absolve itself of culpability by claiming that the chemical was not used “according to label instructions.”
The scientific debate over whether glysophate causes cancer continues, but based on research several countries have banned the use of the chemical. The very fact that there is no consensus on the safety of glysophate is the reason why Nigeria must apply the precautionary principle. It is interesting that Monsanto accuses IARC of selective interpretation of scientific data. This is a case of a kettle calling a pot black. We doubt if there is any other corporation that engages in selective interpretation of data more than Monsanto.
Despite Monsanto’s claims that glyphosate is safe, French Minister for Health, Marisol Touraine, has said that France will ban Glyphosate – whether or not the EU decides this week to renew the authorisation of the chemical. According to her “the studies we have show it’s an endocrine disruptor.”
Earlier this year, a poll by the international market research firm YouGov found that two-thirds of Europeans want the chemical banned. According to the survey of more than 7,000 people across the EU’s five biggest states, the banning of glyphosate was supported by 75% of Italians, 70% of Germans, 60% of French and 56% of Britons. It is clear so many people around the globe do not want Monsanto’s modified crops or toxic chemicals, so why are they still aggressively pushing and promoting it around the world; dismissing environmental, heath, socio- economic concerns and circumventing government regulations?
Talking about research, a high court in Paris punished a high ranking official representing Monsanto’s interests for deceitfully covering up research data proving that Monsanto was hiding toxicity of its own corn.
Another report revealed that Monsanto marketed its potent weed killer glyphosate, a key element in their Roundup, and the corn and soybeans genetically engineered to withstand it by claiming that it would replace other, more toxic weed killers such as atrazine on American farmland. It didn’t happen. Recent scientific research suggests that both atrazine and glyphosate are more harmful than scientists once thought. For instance, several studies have shown that frequent exposure to glyphosate doubles a person’s risk of developing a blood cancer known as Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “In light of new evidence on the dangers of glyphosate, European Union nations failed to pass a short-term extension of glyphosate’s license for agricultural use when they voted on this on June 6, 2016. The pesticide could be barred in the EU as soon as next month.”
From the antecedents of Monsanto when it comes to cutting corners when it comes to risk assessments we have no inclination to give it any benefit doubt.
There was a time when scientists insisted that cigarettes do not cause cancer. Today that has been exposed as a lie. Monsanto claims that their liability over PCB is over an historical misdemeanour. This is another problem with Nigeria’s Biosafety Act. If problems emerge in future over toxic chemicals introduced into the Nigerian environment today, Monsanto will go free because the law does not have provisions for strict liability. Meanwhile we remind ourselves that if toxic PCB is in history, so is Monsanto’s Agent Orange, the defoliant used in the Vietnam war and the toxic template on which the company continues the business of killing biodiversity.
GMOs are basically regulated because their safety is in doubt. The approval granted Monsanto to conduct field trials of genetically modified maize requires that these crops should keep a distance of 20m from non GMO farms. That is absolute nonsense and is designed to ensure that our natural maize varieties are contaminated. It is known that pollen grains travel several kilometres. Contamination has been one key tool used by Monsanto in countries like USA and Canada to chase after non-GMO farmers that actually are the victims of this companies polluting activities.
Our agricultural systems, eating habits and cultural requirements are not the same as those of Americans, for example, and bringing these crops into our country will expose us to unimaginable health impacts.
We would also be closing markets against ourselves. A case in point is a recent refusal of Brazil to buy corn from the USA, due to GMO concerns, even in the face of shortage of corn needed in chicken feed. Note that Brazil is a country already with other varieties of GMOs!
Finally, we ask, are we so stupid that a genetically modified crop, Bt Cotton, that just failed in neighbouring Burkina Faso, (and the farmers are making claims from Monsanto) is what we are glibly opening our country to? Are we having regulators or GMO traders making decisions over our destiny?
Monsanto should note that its We the People of Nigeria, not Corporations and agrochemical Companies like Monsanto that will dictate the food system we want.
We restate our stand that the so-called permit issued to Monsanto to introduce GMOs into Nigeria should be overturned and the Biosafety law itself should be repealed. We also call on the National Assembly to urgently investigate the process leading to the granting of the permit on Sunday, 1st May 2016 to assure Nigerians that we are not pawns in a commercial game to open Africa to toxic technologies.
By Nnimmo Bassey (Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation – HOMEF), Mariann Bassey Orovwuje (Food Sovereignty Manager/Coordinator ERA/FoEN and Friends of the Earth International – FoEI) and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (Convener, Nigerians Against GMO)
In Boricha district of Ethiopia, women and children walk up to five hours to collect water from shallow and unprotected ponds which they share with animals.
The World Health Organisation specifies 50 liters of water per person per day as the recommended ‘intermediate’ quantity needed to maintain health, hygiene and for all domestic uses
Sometimes water in these ponds is contaminated as rainwater washes wastes from surrounding areas into the sources.
Often, children are left at home while their mothers and older siblings collect water as their fathers’ work. This makes them miss school.
Bekele Hariso, the school director at Boricha primary and secondary school, says most students at his school miss 25-50 school days per year because of sickness; some suffering from water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea.
He explains that because Boricha is located in an arid region, the district often experiences “dry years,” stressing that some school children miss several months of school because their families are constantly searching for water.
With all this time away from school, some school children are forced to repeat classes.
Statistically, only 45% of children in Ethiopia attend primary school. The others are put to work; collecting water each morning and helping their families earn a living.
Boricha district is situated in the Southern Nations nationalities and peoples’ region, a province that is full of beauty and culture. The region hosts about 55 nationalities excluding Ethiopians.
However, it is being severely affected by water shortages. Fields are drying up and farmers are fighting over sources of water for irrigation. Also, children in villages are losing out on education and, instead of going to school, they spend several days collecting water for domestic and agriculture use.
Like many other African countries, parts of this Horn of Africa nation also face poor sanitation and hygiene problems.
Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa where drought and politics are leading causes of water shortage.
A study conducted by Water.org found that only “42% of the population in Ethiopia has access to clean water supply” and only “11% of that number has access to adequate sanitation services.” In rural areas of the country, these figures drop even lower.
As a result of El Niño, droughts have affected several areas of the country, leading to ponds, wells, streams and lakes drying up or becoming extremely shallow.
Many people living outside of the cities collect water from these shallow water sources, which are often contaminated with human and animal wastes.
During months and sometimes years of drought, diseases become rampant through small villages and towns. Frequently there is not enough water for people to bathe, leading to infections. Water borne illnesses such as cholera or diarrhoea are the leading cause of death in children less than five years in the country.
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has described suggestions by the Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, that privatisation is the answer to the water needs of Lagosians as a “betrayal of the trust reposed on him by the electorate”.
Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa
Obasa had, while speaking during a media parley to mark the first year of the Assembly last week, stated that the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC) needs chemicals as well as new and modern equipment to make it deliver on its mandate of providing Lagosians clean water. He added however that the state does not have the kind of resources to ensure this happens, hence will subscribe to privatisers taking over the LSWC.
The lawmaker also revealed that a conducive environment was being put in place for foreign partners to come in, and argued that water was currently being sold to Lagosians at “below price”.
Reacting to Obasa’s comments, ERA/FoEN Deputy Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said: “The proposal of the Speaker on an issue of such magnitude which bothers on the rights of Lagos citizens to a free gift of nature is not satisfactory and also reveals the depth of financial deprivation the water sector has been subjected to owing to the perception that water must be commodified for it to be more widely and readily available.
“This unfortunate suggestion adds to the plethora of conflicting statements from the Lagos State Government on its plans to ensure access to water as a human right. We recall that the Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejire, had said last year said that the issue of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the water sector was ‘null and void’. The Permanent Secretary, Office of the Chief of Staff to the governor, Abiodun Bamigboye, had similarly explained that the state was not considering privatisation in the water sector. A few days after, it came as a rude shock to us that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode sang a different tune, stressing the state would privatise.”
Oluwafemi noted that the Speaker’s suggestion points to an attempt to legitimise water privatisation, playing on the faulty notion that private investors will turn around the Lagos water sector.
“We want to make the Speaker understand that the private sector does not bring capital investments. If they make any investment at all, they push the burden to the people while raking illicit profits. This happened in Manila, the Philippines, Nagpur in India and other countries where privatisation in the PPP model was experimented,” he stated, adding:
“We fault the claim that Lagos does not have the funds needed to deliver on its water mandate. On the contrary, we feel that the state is not prioritising water as it does security, road construction and other obligations it is delivering on at the moment.”
He insisted that examples across the globe show that remunicipalisation is the answer to the failed PPPs promoted by the World Bank, revealing that Paris and Cochabamaba are the latest cities to take back their water from privatisers.
His words: “The water wars of Cochabamba is one example that the Lagos government must learn from. Bolivians rejected the deal to hand over their utility rights to US-based Bechtel Corporation following rate hikes which made it impossible for people to afford water. Lagosians are now being primed for a similar experience if we are to take the Speaker by his remarks that we are paying ‘below price’.
“Like we had said time and again, there are no alternatives to a democratically-governed water sector in privatisation. The people must determine how water is managed. The solution has never and will never be in giving our public assets to privatisers whose only interest is skimming us off profits. We are open to putting forward our proposals on how to ensure this happens. Privatisation in any guise is unacceptable. We reject it and Lagos residents reject it.”
Wednesday, June 15th 2016 marks the global day of action calling for justice for Berta Cáceres, an indigenous Lenca woman and environmental justice and indigenous land rights leader in Honduras who was assassinated earlier this year.
Honduran prize-winning campaigner Berta Caceres was slain by gunmen on March 3, 2016 weeks after opposing a hydroelectric dam project. In Puerto Cortes, Honduras, dozens of people participated in a tree planting and educational event on Earth Day this year in her memory
Her organisation, COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras), called for this global day of action where people all over the world will be holding demonstrations and protests at Honduran consulates and embassies. Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ) and the World March of Women-US chapter (WMW) will be leading demonstrations in New York City, Los Angeles and Albuquerque, denouncing the role of the US State Department in creating the conditions for Berta’s murder by supporting the current Honduran government.
Berta was murdered on March 3, 2016, gunned down in her own home, because of her fearless and tireless work against the repressive Honduran state, whose military receives significant financial support from the U.S, and the extractive and hydroelectric industries destroying her ancestral land and waters.
Over 20 years ago, she co-founded COPINH, a grassroots organisation of workers, women, Indigenous people and farmers. Cáceres was leading the successful campaign to defeat one of Central America’s biggest hydropower projects, the Agua Zarca Dam in the Gualcarque River basin. Three of the five men arrested in connection with Cáceres’ assassination work for either the DESA Corporation, the dam builders, or the Honduran military that has been guilty of beating and harassing Cáceres and other indigenous and environmental activists.
Several other COPINH activists have also been killed for their resistance against Agua Zarca Dam. DESA, the Honduran military and the US government are all implicated in these assassinations. Since Cáceres’ death, the repression and harassment and targeting of human rights defenders is said to have increased, and her family is calling for an independent and transparent investigation into her murder.
GGJ and the WMW-US Chapter stand in solidarity with the family of Berta Cáceres and COPINH in their calls for #JusticeforBerta. GGJ and the WMW-US Chapter demand that the US State Department put pressure on the Honduran government to allow for an independent investigation into the murder of Berta Cáceres, led by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and call for the termination of US military training and aid to Honduras and the immediate and definitive stop to the construction of the Agua Zarca Dam.
“From June 15th to the RNC and DNC in July, we will continue with our message of an immediate end to US military aid and training to Honduras. The US government must stop spending public resources to kill indigenous, environmental, human rights and LGBTQ activists and to harm poor and working communities, and instead deal with the tragic and senseless violence in our own country and serious societal problems, including failing schools, racial and gender injustice and increasing economic inequality,” says Helena Wong, National Organiser with GGJ and the WMW-US Chapter coordinator.
“In this elections period, it is imperative that US elected officials respond to the direct and negative impact that US foreign policy has on frontline communities all over the world, causing recurring harm, like in the case of thousands of Central American children fleeing their countries only to be deported back to US-backed violence,” the GGJ was quoted as saying in a statement.
Courtesy of the Benin City, Edo State-based Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), representatives of communities that are being impacted by the Superhighway Project of the Cross Rivers State Government brainstormed for three days last week (from Thursday to Saturday) on challenges concerning the controversial scheme.
Participants at the Dialogue
The meeting built the capacity of community stakeholders on issues related to their forests as well as the overall impact of 10km right-of-way to be acquired on either side of the proposed road. Threats to their biodiversity rich forest and its resources, the environment and livelihoods they depend on for daily survival were of great concern at the gathering, which drew participants from Okokori and Edondon in Obubra Local Government area; Old Ekuri and New Ekuri from Akamkpa Local government area; and civil society groups and community based organisations.
Officials of HOMEF at the event
At the close of the interactive community dialogue and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) training, participants and community stakeholders from Edondon, Okokori, Old and New Ekuri resolved thus:
Need good roads but do not want their cultural heritage destroyed.
Insist on active engagement of communities in the EIA process with adequate compensation paid where necessary.
Will write to Government to register their concerns relating to the proposed super highway project.
Call on NGOs and International agencies support to build a stronger alliance against the super highway project especially with regard to threats to forests.
Community’s free prior informed consent (FPIC) must be sought in all projects before implementation.
Protest and resist any unsustainable forest management practices in the forest rich region.
Will reduce every activity that promotes deforestation.
Promote forest conservation and regeneration of indigenous trees in degraded areas.
Minimise poaching, unregulated hunting and stop to illegal wild life trade.
Reject use of forest lands for large scale plantations.
Campaign against water pollution and the indiscriminate use of chemicals.
Strengthen the Community Forest Watch for effective community forest monitoring.
Form a community health monitoring group to ensure sustainable forest management practices.
Help to protect, preserve and conserve their forest which provides them with social, economic, spiritual benefits.
Besides HOMEF, other CSOs involved in the initiative include Rural Action for Green Environment (RAGE), Green Concern for Development (GREENCODE), Peace Point Action (PPA), Lokiaka Development Centre (LDC), Rainforest Research and Development Centre (RRDC) and NGO Coalition on Environment (NGOCE).
Residents of Igbologun Community, popularly known as Snake Island, in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, have cried out to government to provide them a functional hospital to check an alarming death rate there, especially among children and women of reproductive age.
Igbologun community in Lagos is characterised by an alarming death rate among children and women of reproductive age
They made the call recently when journalists on an investigative trip visited the area.
Igbologun can only be accessed through water transportation, from Coconut end of the Tin Can Island area in Apapa. The boat trip on a bearing of about 250 degrees South West takes roughly nine minutes and, by trekking, another 21 minutes.
The growing population is as a result of the presence of a company, Nigerdock located in the community, which attracts job seekers to the area. The company has about six shipping companies operating under it.
The first image that attracts the visitor’s attention while on shore is the sandy nature of the road, which makes it difficult for commercial motorcyclists conveying passengers to maneuver their way to residential areas in the community.
It was gathered that this situation is aggravated whenever there is heavy downpour, which give the roads a mud-spattered look. Coupled with this is the lack of drainage system to channel run-off water away from the road.
When translated, Igbologun, means Forest of Warriors.
Indeed, the name is a true reflection of its current state, as life in the island community which is said to be over 400 years old, came likened to one in the jungle.
According to Dr. Silas Wilson and Prince Ggenga Shosany, two of the few enlightened people there, due to neglect by government, about 36 communities in the different Island settlements in the state grapple with so many challenges, with lack of health care services on the top of the list.
“We lack government presence here. We do not even enjoy the dividends of democracy here in terms of health, water and electricity. We enjoy nothing in this community. Immediately after election, they forget the riverine areas.
“In the area of health care, it is zero here. Talk of government, it is absolutely zero. Few years ago, they gave us one health centre that serves about 13 communities, but no doctor and no nurse. Just two weeks ago, we lost a pregnant woman. She was in labour at night. Immediately she started bleeding, she was taken to the health centre. They said the nurse was coming. They waited till a whole night. And the woman bled to death just like that,” they disclosed.
Looking around in Igbologun, one notices many tombs, which speak volume on the high mortality rate in the community with population in the region of 20,000 people.
Another striking thing is that most female inhabitants from adolescent age upwards were either pregnant or nursing a babies.
The government maternal centre inaugurated on 3 February, 1988 by the then military governor of Lagos State, Captain Mike Akhigbe, to provide services to pregnant women, appears to be in poor state with no facility, no doctor and no qualified nurse.
Residents said many of the women die with their pregnancies, while death rate especially among children is very high due to no effective health care services.
However, succour appeared to come the way of Igbologun people recently, when a medical doctor, Shodipo Gbolahan, moved with the passion to save lives established a hospital in the community.
But the private hospital which has treated thousands of people for free is facing hard times as it has virtually been converted into a charity home, because residents do not have money to pay after receiving treatment.
Dr. Gbolahan explains: “My coming here was a long story. Then, I was working in a very big hospital in Ajegunle and I was earning huge. There, I was fond of pregnant women. They were two of them that I was very close to because they were always looking good. Then one of the women died. I asked her friend what happened, she said it was in the middle of the night that the woman started bleeding and they could not come to the hospital. I asked why? You people could have called me to bring an ambulance. She said, ambulance could not reach the place. I asked, is there a place in this Lagos that ambulance cannot reach? I decided to go and see such a place. That was in September 2009.
“So that evening after work, I took a bike and asked for the address. They said Snake Island. I took a boat to Snake island and, around 3 pm, I reached the place. When I arrived, I was just looking around for a hospital. I walked round the whole community and there was not a single hospital. So, luckily, I asked for a health centre which is down there. I got there and found out that it was already closed. I asked why should a hospital close by 3pm? I then found out that it was a primary health centre, and what they do was only labour and things like that. After six months, I said, what if I go to the place and start a hospital? But I didn’t know how to convince my wife. How could I tell her that I was not going to America or England, but to one local village? She was pregnant then. She was planning to go abroad to deliver. Immediately she left Nigeria, I just resigned and came to this place. I started with a two-room apartment. So, I put a notice, ‘Qualified doctor around now, 24-hour service’. So, I started in one small room.
“My salary for that month, I used it to rent a room for one year. Then there was no bed. Soon, there was an emergency. I treated the guy, he got well. He was the one that started doing the advert. Within a month, people started coming. I thought to myself, I could turn this into a hospital. Then I got a bigger place and moved into this place.
“On the average we have 180 pregnant women annually. Their common issues are bleeding, some have eclampsia, some have obstructed labour. I charge for my service but, in many cases, they lacked the means to pay. For instance, you can see this woman with a convulsing baby, they came with no money. Should I say because they do not have money, they should go and die? No. I don’t think it is the best.”
Dr. Gbolahan said the reason for the high mortality rate especially among pregnant women is because the people had the mindset that hospitals are only for the rich, and as such took their wives and daughters to local birth attendants with no formal training.
Charity Felix was among the lucky pregnant women who survived the delivery process by the whiskers.
She was in a comma when she was rushed to the hospital after being in labour for more than a day at the place of a traditional birth attendant.
Charity and her baby were saved through a caesarian operation, but she is in tears because her unemployed husband has no money to pay the medical bill.
Her words: “I did not go to hospital because we had no money. To even eat two square meals a day is impossible. If not for this doctor, I would have been dead. My husband does not have work. Since two weeks, I have been here, my husband does not have one naira to give the doctor. God used this doctor to save my life. I do not have any other person; my mother left me 11 years ago. Before this, I had two children, one 10 years the other six years old. Things are too rough for us; we don’t even have property to sell. Even to pay house rent, we cannot. I was not taking medication during pregnancy.
“I registered with Iya Ijaw, a local midwife. That night that I fell into labour, I had no food to eat. I was at Iya Ijaw’s house. She was the one that brought me here because I was in comma. When the woman checked me, she said I will deliver through operation. My husband said he did not have any money for operation. But God used this doctor to save me. He did not even collect deposit. Even up till now, we have not given him any money.”
While in the hospital, a two-year-old boy Pasca Kapo with serious convulsion was rushed to the hospital and, after examination, it was confirmed that his blood level had dropped to below 10 percent.
The boy’s father, John Kapo, a 32-year-old unemployed who had divorced four wives and now living with the fifth one, said he lacked the means to pay his son’s hospital bill.
“Some of our children die. When the child became sick, since there was no money, he was afraid of taking the child to the hospital. At a point, he took the child to a woman herbalist. The woman tried her best. After some days, she said she could no longer cure him, that we should take the child to the hospital. When we came here, doctor examined him and said the baby did not have blood again. He said the malaria has drained all his blood.”
Mr. Kapo is said to have watched his previous children die without taking them to hospital because of financial issues.
Reacting, Dr. Gbolahan said transportation difficulty has led to countless deaths, because when emergency cases arose at odd hours, people could not easily take their sick ones to hospital.
“Most of the pregnant women register in Ajegunle, across the ocean. There are indeed good hospitals there. But when problems arise at night, they cannot get a boat to cross. Like Charity here, she was brought here around 2am. Sometimes, like people in remote Islands, they will be in labour throughout the night. By morning, the women are already weak and they die with the baby. Some of them are lucky; we manage to save the women, but their babies would have died.”
On the part of the children, he said the most common ailment causing death is malaria, which is blamed on heavy mosquito attacks there. When it is untreated, the children become anemic like the case of little Pascal.
All the pregnant women interviewed said they did not go for anti-natal services because the maternal centre was not working.
Throughout the about five hours the team of journalists was in the community, no patient was seen at the government maternal centre.
A young woman seen at the hospital, who claimed to be an assistant nurse, said the midwife in-charge of the centre was not around for interview.
The Baale of Igbologun, Chief Amisu Alaso Gegeiyawo, seemed economical with the truth, apparently for fear of being sanctioned by state authorities.
One Chief Alawo, however, said he has been telling the authorities to provide them qualified doctor and nurse, as well as portable water and refuse disposal services, but that his plea seems to have fallen on deaf ears as nothing has been done.
It was observed that most of the women in Igbologun have many children in the belief that since there was no effective health care, many of the children could die and they still have some surviving.
Also, the ambition of most of the girls is to get married and make babies, with no thought about acquiring good education or learning skills.
Reacting, a Programme Officer of Development Communications (DevComs), Mrs. Biodun Owo, said if government cannot fund and equip its facilities, it should at least partner with the private health institution to save lives of the many pregnant women and their babies there.
“If government can help, maybe in donation of equipment to facilitate his job or by supplying commodities that he can be providing to the women at subsidised rates. Also individual and companies that have the means should come on board. You can see the roof of the health centre is falling off; they can help to refurbish the health centre. They can also donate commodities and equipment just to reduce the running cost for him.”
We were told that at least 30 communities in the different Islands in Lagos including Igbologun, Ibeshe and Sagbokoji face very bad living conditions with no power, health care, and drinking water, while their entire physical environment is highly polluted.
Although the government in Lagos State is said to have been in the forefront of health care provision to pregnant women, the state’s statistics in Child and Maternal Mortality is not an impressive one, with one in 40 women dying from pregnancy or delivery related causes in her life time, and just one in 15 children die before his or her 15th birthday.
Apparently moved by a publication on plight of residents of Kanti village, a community located west of Rigasa, a suburb of Kaduna metropolis, North-West Nigeria, General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division, Nigerian Army, Major General Adeniyi Oyebade, has constructed a borehole in the community.
Women of Unguwa Kanti community dancing round the bore hole in appreciation
This follows a story by Water Journalists Africa that reported on the plight of this community pitting emphasis on the lack of access to clean water.
Prior to the borehole being dug in the community, their only source of water was a pond covered with dried leaves and dirt.
Commissioning the borehole at the village that is about 20 kilometres away from Kaduna city, the Army GOC said he was touched by the news report about their plight.
General Oyebade assured the villagers of the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration and other state governments’ effort to ensure welfare of all Nigerians, adding that the Army, having recognised that government cannot do it alone, will always reach out to the needy.
“I read recently about your community that your major problem is lack of portable drinking water, so, I told myself that my heart will not be at peace until I give you water. So, I asked one of my officers to locate this place, so that I can give you borehole.
“I want to assure you that President Muhammadu Buhari led administration and the respective state governments are working tirelessly to ensure welfare of all Nigerians, but government cannot do everything for everybody, so we can always support the government.
“Also, the Army is not just about fighting war, we also assist the civil populace, because the Army under the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Tukur Buratai, is very friendly with the civil populace.”
Responding on behalf of the community, the Village Head, Aliyu Bala, expressed appreciation to the GOC for giving the community life as he also appealed for more social amenities in the area.
