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The recent public
presentation of the book, ‘The Ogbunigwe Fame’ by Felix Oragwu brought
up memories of the technological innovations that kept the Biafran
dream alive from 1967 to 1970.

During the vicious
civil war, Biafra was blockaded and starved of access to resources
ranging from domestic goods to industrial products. Necessity thrust
upon Biafra the need to innovate and to create. It was in this mode
that the nascent nation built and ran crude oil refineries and also
produced missiles or bombs, then known as ‘ogbunigwe’ or ‘Ojukwu
buckets’. These efforts were driven by the inescapable urge for
survival.

In the past few
years, there has been an emergence of what many term ‘bush refineries’
in the oil fields of the Niger Delta. These are spots in the swamps and
creeks where local people, mostly youth, produce petroleum products
using crude oil obtained from either already leaking pipelines or from
spots broken into by crude oil thieves.

These refineries
pose serious health hazards to their operators as they have no clue
about the toxic nature of the products and do not have any sort of
protective clothes, boots, or gloves. These young folks bear the
extreme heat from the flames of the belching dragons in order to
produce litres of semi-refined products that pose additional threats to
the end users.

Many deaths related
to kerosene explosions have been recorded and these may have resulted
from the use of the uncontrolled products from these contraptions. The
dire poverty in the oil region is often cited as justification for the
existence of these bush refineries.

Regrettably, the
response from the government, as well as from the political parties
seeking control of the federal government after next month’s elections,
is nothing beyond the provision of physical infrastructures in the
region. While these are essential, the most urgent need of the region,
and indeed the entire nation, is the detoxification of our environment.

As we have often
argued, the average Nigerian will take care of her basic needs if the
physical environment supports her livelihood-generation efforts. This
means that the urgent first step is an audit of the environmental
situation of the region, as could possibly be exemplified by the
current study of Ogoni by the United Nations Environmental Programme
(UNEP).

A factor that could
be perpetuating the bush refineries is the dislocation of the social
infrastructure of the region. This includes the loss of communality,
the rise of individualism, and the deep corruption that has been
entrenched by key players in the oil industry sector. These systemic
ruptures must be structurally addressed.

We cannot ignore
the efforts of security agencies in combating the menace of the illegal
refineries. But merely combat posturing only gives the trigger-happy
security men cover for extortion and further human rights abuses of an
already traumatised people.

However, it must be
acknowledged that the continued operation of these bush refineries is a
disservice to the local people and a huge shame to the government.

‘Ghost’ bush refineries

Going by figures
from the Joint Military Taskforce operating in the Niger Delta,
hundreds of these bush refineries have been destroyed. By mid-December
2009, the JTF reported that there were over 1000 “illegal refineries”
in the Niger Delta and that within two months to that time they had
destroyed 600 of the refineries in different parts of the region.

Sarkin Bello, the
General who commanded the JTF at that time, made an important point
that just as other ills had started in one part of the nation and
spread to other parts, there was a chance that such refineries may pop
up in other areas of the country – especially those through which oil
pipelines passed.

Months later, Mr.
Bello bemoaned the resurgence of the bush refineries, as was widely
reported in the mass media. It was not exactly surprising when a
fortnight ago, the JTF announced that they had detected 500 bush
refineries in the Mbiama area on the border between Rivers and Bayelsa
States.

It was not
surprising because the refineries have been operating more or less
brazenly, with law enforcement agents sometimes accused of exacting
tolls or illegal taxes from the operators. So they probably destroyed
600 in 2009 and the ghosts of the levelled plants resurrected soon as
the security agents left the scene. These bush refineries are huge
tourist attractions for foreign journalists and you do not need a space
rocket to gain access to their locations.

We have heard some
politicians claim that the bush refineries cannot be eliminated because
the youth cannot find alternative avenues of employment. Quite
specious, that form of reasoning. It is illustrative of the ineptitude
of persons in power who ought to provide employment and keep people
away from practices that are harmful to them, the environment, and the
economy.

There are untold
dangers related to operating these bush refineries. The poor youth who
work these refineries, covered in crude, standing in the searing heat
and continually inhaling toxic elements can hardly be in a position to
enjoy the fruits of their labour. These refineries may put some kobo in
their pockets, but they are essentially condemned to poor health and
truncated lives.

It is a shame that
a government that trumpets amnesty for people who took up arms against
state structures would not consider extending the same largesse to
these poor lads who are killing themselves. Could they not benefit from
some technical education and other benefits extended to the militants?

A point that we
must underscore is the fact that despite the large number of these bush
refineries and the fact that they refine products that are illegally
obtained, their operations do not lead to a reduction of the crude oil
output of Nigeria. Why is this? It is simple to see.

Large-scale illegal
bunkering with international dimensions has gone on unchecked for
decades and many top guns obviously benefit from it. The large-scale
crude oil theft in Nigeria has gone on alongside the continual meeting
of the production quota of the nation.

The bush refiners
may have been inspired by the fact that between the oil wells and the
export terminals is a bottomless pit in which thievery is highly
rewarded. Efforts at halting the petty stealing for bush refining will
not be successful if the cancer of mass oil theft by the high and
mighty is not tackled.