OGONI CLEAN-UP: We don’t want to start on a faulty note, says minister

Jibril Ibrahim, the minister of state for environment, says the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration does not want to start the clean-up of Ogoniland on a faulty note.

In an interview with TheCable, the minister said the past administration employed 150 persons to the Hydrocarborn Pollution and Restoration Project (HYPREP), and 120 of them were without appointment letters.

He said the government is clearing all outstanding issues, build the right structures, before progressing with the clean-up, adding that he is not in a hurry to fail.

“The staff that were recruited where more than 150, only 30 have employment letters, the rest have no appointment letters, and the bill they gave us for the payment was about N6 billion. Even the project coordinator was receiving about N6 million per month,” he said.

“So you see why we have to be careful, like I always tell people, I am not in a hurry to fail. If you don’t unravel all these nitty-gritty, you cannot move successfully. And You cannot unravel this nitty-gritty without being careful.

“On Wednesday, when we went to council, I asked the minister of labour, he said they have almost finished the report to advise us on this bill of N6 billion. 100 plus have no appointment letter, yet they want to be paid.

“They were paid once, so it means maybe a form of contract, but formal letter of appointment is not there.  If we are to address this strictly, it will be only 30, but we dont want to start on a faulty note, people will start agitating, and if you are having problems with government, people believe what people say than what government says.

“So we dont want to put ourself under that bad light. Let us see how we can resolve it amicably, so we have a clean slate.”

THEY WANT US TO BUY VEHICLES, WHEN WE HAVE BRAND NEW ONES

The minister added that many people agitating for the clean-up are not necessarily agitating for the people, but for what they would get from it.

He stated that some members of the community want the ministry to buy new vehicles and rent big offices, adding that the ministry recovered about 14 brand new Toyota Hilux from the old HYPREP office.

“Why you hear this agitation is that some people want us to start buying vehicles, to rent offices, and I say no, we are not renting an office. We have NOSDRA (National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency), a big office, an agency under ministry of environment.

“When I was handing over to them, I told them that this is not a landlord and tenant relationship; it’s a case of two landlords owning a property. NOSDRA and HYPREP are babies of the ministry of environment, therefore they must share the property of their father.

“Some of the people agitating want us to rent when we have a bill of N96 million we have not settled, they want us to recruit anyhow when we’ve not settled the so called N6 billion.”

In the full interview — which will be published on Wednesday, July 26, 2017 — the minister explained the state of things with the Ogoni clean-up and why there seem to be some delay in the project.