Just in ...
Chevron Gas wellhead still on fire
GPS Coordinates: Elev:3m, N 04°21.350’, E 005°46.607’ [about 100 meters away from the flames]
Date of visit: January 24, 2012
ERA/FoEN monitors had to repeat the visit to Chevron’s gas wellhead site in Apoi North that has been on fire since January 16, 2012. The visit was intended to ascertain if Chevron had taken any step to halt the inferno, as well as the effects of the pollutant in on the water which had earlier killed fish in the waters. This second visit was worth the while and efforts.
Our field monitor learnt that the failure of government to compel prompt actions has started generating bad blood among the youth.
Press Release
Nnimmo Bassey and some Right Livelihood Award laureates from around the world, wrote to Norway Government Pension Fund asking them to take action on a matter of grave importance regarding corporate social responsibility and ethical investment of Shell Nigeria in relation to their devastating exploration activities on the Niger Delta environment from which they operate.
Here is a link to the letter.
Headliners
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Nnimmo Bassey's interview with Democracy Now!
Wednesday, 7th December 2011
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COP17 Global Day of Action
Sunday, 4th December 2011
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Wrong Climate for Damming Rivers
Friday, 2nd December 2011
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ERA Trains Journalists on Environmental Reporting in Enugu
Tuesday, 4th October 2011
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Will Rio + 20 Forget Rio?
Tuesday, 4th October 2011
Oil Politics
Tell it to the President
The Nation-wide strike in Nigeria against petrol price hike, enters Day Four as this is being written. Nigerians woke up at the dawn of the New Year to learn that price of a litre of petrol had been jerked up by about one hundred and twenty per cent. Petrol now costs 141 Naira and 200 Naira (about one US dollar) per litre in an economy where the minimum wage is 18,000 Naira (about one hundred and ten US dollars). We note that even before the organised labour call out workers on strike, citizens had already hit the streets in protest against what they see as an insensitive and unacceptable action by the government. The response of government to the massive uprising has been rather worrisome. First of all the government presents a face that says there are no options to the move they have made. The speeches by the president and the many presentations by the governor of the Nigerian Central Bank, the ministers of Labour/Productivity, Petroleum Resources, Information and the Minister of Finance, remain persistently paternalistic and convey the message that they do not hear the dissensions across the nation. In moments of dramatic expression, the Minister of Petroleum Resources demonstrated on television how the government’s hands are tied on the matter of fighting the rot in the petroleum sector. It would be interesting to know why the government allows itself to be bound hand and foot by thieves!






