•Oil pollution in Ogoniland
Various claims and reports have continued to trail the ongoing cleanup exercise in Ogoni land, Rivers State, being handled by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) .
Former Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, in June 2016, flagged off the remediation exercise, reports The Guardian.
However, on May 25, 2025, the Africa Independent Television (AIT), and some media outlets reported that the remediation of the Ogoni land at the Centre of Excellence and Environmental Restoration is almost 80 per cent completed and has attracted various partnerships from within the country and international communities, including the Irish Ambassador to Nigeria, Peter Ryan, who was at the HYPREP office in Port Harcourt, seeking partnership with the agency.
The report, since then, has sparked controversies, especially on X space with many X users commending the efforts of President Bola Tinubu while others described it as ‘propaganda,’ stating that the president wants to resume oil exploration in Ogoniland, hence, the claim.
An X user, with the handle, @TheLionkin6627, said: “Your interest is to suck their oil, you don’t care about them (the Ogoni).” Another user, @proudnaijaguyy, said: “PBAT na talk and do” while George Damian, said, “We play with figures too much in Nigeria.”
Concerned by the controversies generated by the report, our correspondent conducted an on-the-ground assessment of the current situation of the Ogoni cleanup exercise, which revealed that the exercise is still far from attaining 80 per cent completion.
Even the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report’s recommendation noted that it will take about 25-30 years to remediate the polluted Ogoni environment starting from June 2016 when former Vice President Osibanjo, launched the exercise. However, nine years down the line, there’s limited progress.
Findings revealed that of the few oil-devastated sites that contracts have been awarded, there is an appreciable restoration of the mangrove and shoreline.
HYPREP, in its 2025 mid-term scorecard, claimed that the mangrove restoration on the awarded sites is 93 per cent but the report could not prove or interpret the instrument for the data collection and how it arrived at the figure. The report also claimed that the shoreline remediation stands at 53 per cent.
The Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, however, acknowledged that it is the Centre of Excellence, the mangrove and the shoreline that have attained appreciable progress.
