A non-governmental organisation in Nigeria, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre has called for calm and acceptance of Dr. Olufemi Adekanmbi, a non-Ogoni, as the Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project.
In a statement made available to reporters, the executive director of the NGO, Dumnamene Fyneface, made this call in Port Harcourt on Sunday.
This was in response to President Bola Tinubu’s approval of the appointment of Dr. Adekanmbi, a Yoruba man from Ondo State, as the head of HYPREP, the agency under the Federal Ministry of Environment overseeing the Ogoni Clean-up project.
Fyneface noted that the foundation for such an occurrence was laid by ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, urging that no blame should be placed on President Tinubu.
The statement reads in part, “No one should blame President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, for the appointment of a non-Ogoni as HYPREP Coordinator.
“Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a Niger Deltan, laid the foundation in 2012 by refusing to establish an Ogoni Environmental Restoration Authority (OERA), as recommended by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the Ogoni Environmental Assessment Report, 2011, and instead opted to establish HYPREP, then known as the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project, as a national clean-up agency.
“Besides, the restructuring of HYPREP on December 8, 2016, with the creation of the Board of Trustees, Governing Council, and Project Coordination Office as contained in the HYPREP Establishment Official Gazette No.
“176, Volume 103, Government Notice No. 164, also paved the way for the inclusion of other Nigerians in the various organs; thus, any Nigerian can head HYPREP, and the organization was not surprised when President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, on Saturday, July 13, appointed Dr. Olufemi Adekanmbi, a Yoruba man from Ondo State, as the first non-Ogoni substantive Project Coordinator of HYPREP after Prof. Philip Shekolo, another non-Ogoni who had previously served as interim Project Coordinator of HYPREP.”
The group cautioned against attaching ethnic colourations to the appointment of Dr Adekanmbi, noting that he is also a Niger Deltan.
HYPREP is a federal cleanup project established by former President Jonathan, which allows for the appointment of its coordinator from any part of the country, similar to other Ogonis appointed to other federal agencies, past or present.
The group’s executive director, who is also an environmental justice activist, further recalled that in May 2023, while thanking ex-President Muhammadu Buhari for the appointment of Prof. Ninibarini Zabbey as the project coordinator, he condemned the frequent change of leadership in HYPREP.
He warned that Prof. Zabbey might be the last Ogoni project coordinator of HYPREP, as many Ogonis are known to fight their kinsmen appointed as HYPREP project coordinators, especially with the plethora of court cases negatively impacting the smooth implementation of the project by slowing down the cleanup exercise.
He extended his congratulations to Dr Adekanmbi on his appointment and urged Ogonis to embrace and assist him and his team in their contribution to the Ogoni cleanup project.