Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, The Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has criticised Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) for divesting its facilities to companies that lack the financial capacity to manage the assets.

In a press release on January 16, 2024, Shell Petroleum Development Company revealed that it had reached an agreement to sell its Nigeria onshore subsidiary.

The statement added, “The assets on sale are estimated to be worth $2.8 billion.

During a training session for environmental monitors and defenders organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), it was stated that the challenges in reporting ecological issues gave rise to step-up monitoring training and defense of the environment and to call the government’s attention to one of the main reasons they were in the office: to defend the people and the environment.

Dr. Nnimmo Bassey stated that the SPDC revealed that “Renaissance comprises four Nigerian companies, ND Western, Aradel Energy, First E&P, and Waltersmith, and one Geneva-based company, Petrolin, involved in exploration, production, and oil trading.

Initially, Shell will receive $1.3 billion and then a further $1.1 billion on completion of the sale. But here comes the rub: Shell will provide a loan of up to $1.2 billion to the buyers to help them buy their stake in SPDC.”

Dr. Bassey further stated that this is a shameful move and injustice on the part of the people, given that the Nigerian government is celebrating a company that is loaning funds to a company that is coming to buy and manage the assets.

“Even Shell Petroleum Company is giving a loan to the company buying its assets. They are giving them $ 1.2 billion for sale. That means the company buying Shell doesn’t have money.”

“The shameless transaction is in the open, and the government is celebrating it; they should be held accountable. Noting the pollution situation in the Niger Delta region is politically motivated, saying that the government has not shown serious concern about the effects of the pollution on the people in the area.”

The Executive Director of We The People, Ken Henshaw, said during his presentation that this is a call for a “Clean Environment,” which can come through a “Social Movement.”

“How do we move away from just documenting the evil of these oil companies and hold them to account? We can only do that through the route of social movement, “…Ken stated.

Charging the monitors and environmentalists, he stated that they need to assess themselves and define what they stand for and what they want; he reemphasized the need for accountability, restoration, restoring what has been destroyed, fixing the damages done to the environment, and restoring livelihood.

“What happened in the Niger Delta has caused death, has caused destruction, it has killed people, and when people are murdered willingly, that is a crime. My argument is that the Niger Delta is a crime scene and that crime we know who committed it and we know how they committed it”.

The government must take the side of the people and demand accountability for the crime in the region. There is continuous gas flaring in the area despite the world moving away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy is alarming.

“The target for ending gas flaring in this country has been shifted eight times since 1979 till now. Since 1979, we realized that gas flaring was poisoning and killing people, and we realized that we needed to stop it; at every point in time, the government would move the gas flare end date in response to pressure from the multinationals. And that is pretty much what the government is doing now.”

The Eco-defenders and monitors were charged to take control of the narrative and show genuine empathy and emotions when they find themselves among community owners.

The training was for Eco-defenders and Civil society organisations that monitor the impact of Hydrocarbon extraction on the environment in their various communities, monitor environmental devastation, and advocate for environmental change.