Press spotlights $12bn needed to clean up oil spills in Nigerian state of Bayelsa, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that Nigeria needs $12bn to clean up decades-old oil spills in southern Bayelsa State over a 12-year period and $3bn spent by Nigerians on foreign healthcare-related services from 2020 to 2022 are some of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Punch reports that Nigeria needs $12 billion to clean up decades-old oil spills in southern Bayelsa State over a 12-year period, a new report revealed on Tuesday, as it singled out two international oil companies, Shell and Eni, for being responsible for most of the pollution.
Oil majors in Nigeria have long faced legal challenges over Niger Delta spills, which they mostly blame on sabotage and vandalism of pipelines and illegal refining.
The Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission said in a report that it started an investigation in 2019 on the impact of spills and looked at evidence from forensic scientists, blood samples from people in affected areas and company data, according to Reuters.
The investigation discovered, among other findings, that toxic pollutants from spills and gas flaring were many times higher than the safe limits in samples of soil, water, air, and in the blood of local residents, the commission said.
“The report finds failures of strategy, prevention, response and remediation by oil companies,” it said.
Reuters stated that a spokesperson for Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited said the oil firm was not privy to the final report and could not comment.
An Eni spokesperson said the oil spills were due to theft to feed illegal refineries as well as illegal exports and sabotage but the company undertook to remedy all spills.
Most of the gas produced from Eni’s Nigerian unit was converted into LNG and fed local power plants, the spokesperson said, adding that “Eni conducts its activities according to the sector’s international environmental best practices, without any distinction on a country basis.”
The newspaper says that Nigerians spent about $3bn on foreign healthcare-related services from 2020 to 2022, according to findings by The PUNCH.
The total spending for the period under review was obtained from the Balance of Payments database of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
This came to the fore on Tuesday as the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors insisted on starting a warning strike on Wednesday.
The doctors are starting the strike despite the fact that the Federal Government said it had begun talks with their parent body, the Nigerian Medical Association.
As doctors cited poor health infrastructure as one of the reasons for the strike, The PUNCH observed that Nigerians spent a total of $7.07bn on overseas treatments between 2016 and 2022.
The least bill for medical tourism was in 2016 (about $17m) while the highest amount was spent in 2019 ($2.56bn).
About $783.77m was spent in 2017, while about $1.67bn was spent in 2018.
The data further showed that over $1bn, $615.03m, and $434.43m were spent in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively.
The Guardian reports that the Acting Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Antonio Pedro, has said that Nigeria and Africa must promote supportive policies and infrastructure development to attract green investments and boost trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
“To reap the AfCFTA opportunities we must address Africa’s infrastructure gap,” he told participants at the Africa Regional Session of the 12th Annual Investment Meeting, adding that, to attract sustainable cross-border investments to Africa, hard and soft infrastructure must be addressed.
The theme of the Africa Regional Session was, ‘The AfCFTA Investment Protocol – An Investment Paradigm Shift for Africa’ which set out to discuss the role of the AfCFTA and its Investment Protocol to create a new framework for attracting sustainable and productive investments in the continent and the investment opportunities that are arising as a result of that.
Pedro decried the lack of policy space to pursue the structural transformation agenda in Africa, saying, “It is not because of the lack of blueprints.” He called on African countries to support the implementation of the AfCFTA with “harmonised continental, regional and national trade and industrial policies that will help move from ideas into action”.
The AfCFTA was established in 2019 and constitutes a single continental market with a population of about 1.3 billion people and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of approximately US$ 2.5 trillion. At its full realisation, the AfCFTA, with the mandate of eliminating trade barriers, will be the largest free trade area in the world bringing together 54 countries.
The AfCFTA and the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) of the African Union will help deepen regional integration and build regional value chains he noted, highlighting the importance of building beyond Africa’s comparative advantage of resource endowment and low costs.
“We need to invest in science, technology and innovation (STI) to stay competitive in the long run and build Regional Value Chains (RVCs) that can generate more value added to increase the market share of African businesses,” he said, adding that Africa can leverage its natural resources to create sustainable regional value chains such as the battery and electric vehicles value chain in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia.
“Green industries are important for Africa’s competitiveness in future net-zero carbon markets,” he added. He underscored that an African Carbon Market presents a viable structural approach to attract sustainable investment opportunities that can drive the continent’s green growth ambition.
The newspaper says that Ambassador of Ireland to Nigeria, Peter Ryan, has reiterated Ireland’s commitment towards deeper technological exchange with Nigeria.
He also said that through the European Union and Ireland’s work in Nigeria, they are contributing to the development of a more prosperous, secure and safe Nigeria.
He said this during the Ambassadorial Forum, held by Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) themed “Nigeria -Ireland Relations”, yesterday.
He stated that there is huge opportunity for progress in Nigeria, adding that Nigeria’s journey somehow reflects theirs as an independent nation.
“I see the resilience, creativity and innovation of the Nigerian public. The European headquarters of most technological equipment and services used globally is Ireland. Nigeria and Ireland are known as creatives and technology is a good place for greater collaboration especially among the youths,” he said.
Saying that Nigeria is the largest African diaspora in Ireland, he said the nation has seen an increase in the new generation of Nigerians, especially in their business and cultural space and Island treasures and intends to nurture them.
Speaking on peace, he emphasised that the world cannot address global challenges, conflict, climate change, and food insecurity, without an effective robust United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
He said the Security Council remained a pivotal institution at the heart of the multilateral system.
Director General, NIIA, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, said the ambassadorial forum has been created to deepen the arena of cooperation, association and relationship between Nigeria and other countries.
He added that from the dialogue, one could expect that the relations would expand and be strengthened at every level.
GIK/APA