SPACES FOR CHANGE [S4C]

Sunday, 10 November 2013

NIGERIANS UNSURE OF SURE-P

Last week, the Senate ad-hoc committee investigating the activities and finances of the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) raised an alarm that N500 billion, accruing to the project, has not been accounted for. The committee, headed by Deputy Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi, stated that a total amount of N834.33 billion accrued to SURE-P between January 2012 and September 2013.

N834.33 billion is the sum total of receipts from the 25 billion litres of petrol which the partial withdrawal of subsidy yielded within the period. The unaccounted sum is the difference between what the SURE-P committee, headed by Dr. Christopher Kolade, claimed to have received during the period under review. Kolade told the Committee that only N300 billion has been released to SURE-P committee.

Eko Atlantic City Project will further widen the gap between the rich and the poor - Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri

Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, is the Executive Director, Spaces for Change(S4C). Basically, S4C works to infuse human rights into social and economic governance processes in Nigeria. She was recently interviewed by National Weekender Newspaper on the Eko Atlantic City Project. She revealed that it is a project that will further widen the gap between the rich and the poor and as such, is anti-people. Here are the excerpts…

Can we meet you?

My name is Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri. I am the Executive Director, Spaces for Change (S4C), a policy advocacy group advocating for citizen participation in public decision-making. Basically S4C uses the human rights framework and youth-centered strategies to mobilize for the inclusion of certain often-unheard sections of the populace in social and economic governance and decision-making processes.

Eko Atlantic City (EAC), project attracted huge debate as experts argue that it is not a popular idea and exclusively meant for the rich. National Weekender's (a national daily newspaper in Nigeria) reporter FRANCIS OGBONNA took on all sides as he spoke to the Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, South Energy Nig. Ltd.(SENL) and a human right advocate, Victoria Ibezim – Ohaeri, executive director of Spaces for Change

The Project

Eko Atlantic City touted severally as a “city rising from the sea” is a proposed city which will sit on 1000 hectares of land reclaimed from the Atlantic sea. Once completed, it will be a self sufficient city with waterfront area, tree line streets, efficient transport system, helipads, hotels, residential areas and boulevard. It will be a development with mixed-use plots that will combine residential areas, leisure facilities, offices and shops. It is divided into 6 phases, the first five of which are available for commercial and residential development, while the sixth will be used as a hub for utility service, such as sewage treatment plants, water supply and solid waste management.

Community Protests Against Mobil Oil Spill Thickens

A two-day conference, hosted by Spaces for Change in Eket, Akwa Ibom State coincided with widespread community protests against the unpaid N26 Billion Naira compensation for the environmental atrocities committed by Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) Unlimited in the state. The aggrieved host communities: Eket, Ibeno, Ona and Esit-Eket are demanding compensation for the numerous oil spills within the state, especially the November 2012 spills which had destructive and deleterious effects on the environment and adversely affected the socio-economic development of the inhabitants of the areas of impact. Among other objectives, the conference, “PIB: Pulling Together for Environmental Justice” aimed to provide a platform for stakeholders in the oil and gas industry and oil-impacted communities to develop and initiate joint action towards transforming local agitations into opportunities for peaceful change, environmental justice and corporate accountability, within the context of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Executive Director's address at the 2-day Conference, PIB: Pulling Together for Environmental Justice

Text of an address delivered by the executive director of Spaces for Change, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri at the two-day conference, PIB: PULLING TOGETHER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE held in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Oil spills in the oil-rich Niger-Delta have attracted global attention. Because of increased dependence of the Nigerian government on oil revenues and imported petroleum which involves corresponding exploration, transportation and handling of oils, it can be expected that accidental oil spills of considerable magnitude will continue to occur. The Niger Delta region, being the central point of oil exploration and production in Nigeria is gravely affected by exploration activities in which the traditional means of subsistence, farming and fishing in the creeks, streams and mangroves are adversely affected by constant oil spills, gas flares, blow-outs and leaks, with spiraling effects on public health, soil productivity, aquatic life and the environment.