Morris Alagoa is a social and environmental activist as well as state coordinator of a non-governmental organisation known as Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth based in Bayelsa state. In this interview with JOY EMMANUEL, he berated the government for environmental-related issues.
Was the 2019 World Mother Earth Day celebration observed in Bayelsa state?
Unlike the World Environment Day, the Mother Earth Day is given less attention, but the United Nations in this year’s theme is trying to say that as human beings, we should do all we can to reduce the climate change phenomenon which has become a major issue. It behooves on us as individuals, government and corporate organisations to be on the same page in terms of the climate change issue so as not to exacerbate the situation. We are all feeling the heat. On this issue, we normally place the government on the fore because it has so many responsibilities. Other bodies take issues more seriously when government is involved. If you look at Bayelsa state now, lumberjacks are having field days. They cut down trees indiscriminately. They don’t spare our very important economic trees that have very good health benefits to our locals. Both the ogbono and bush trees are all being cut down. I have led a team to visit the commissioner for environment about this. If you go to places like Kaiama, it is worse. They don’t spare any tree. During the 2018 World Environment Day, we surprisingly saw those who decimate our forest resources also waving their flags. If you go to Biseni, Ogbia, Southern Ijaw, people are just cutting down trees and you know that trees absorb carbon. They help to remove carbon from the atmosphere to reduce heat. If you are removing those mature trees that have the capacity to reduce carbon, you are exacerbating climate change. We need nature for sustainable development. So, the World Mother Earth Day is to remind us on how we ought to manage the earth.
Would you say Bayelsans and friends of the state are friendly to the environment?
It depends because regulatory agencies are there and there are regulations but how do we ensure that people comply with environmental laws? We don’t have industries as it is in states like Rivers, Lagos and other places; the way we throw away waste is not friendly to mother earth. For instance, you hear the sound of generators everywhere because there is no constant power supply. That also adds to the problem. Apart from the carbon monoxide and other carbon-related air pollutants that are coming from the fumes of cars, the generators also add to the level of carbon being emitted into the atmosphere. Whatever we eat or drink is carbon-related. Also, those who dig sand from our rivers around Famgbe and Obogoro areas are doing so without proper environmental impact assessment. Erosion is eating up our lands just like what happened at Odi community recently. Some of these things are man-made while some are natural due to tidal movements, so, we should check our actions. There are people who empty their refuse into the gutters and some sell in from of their stores with refuse everywhere. When we block the drains and water can no longer flow, it will backfire. So, individuals, organisations and the government should obey environmental laws. I have discovered that in some of the roads and buildings that government is constructing, they do not carry out environmental impact assessment. Even if they do, they adjust from time to time. This happened at the newly constructed road at Igbogene. Some houses were due to be destroyed for expansion but each time the commissioner for works went there, he would do some adjustments. For instance, there was a particular storey building that was just about 1.5 kilometres away from the road; we saw the building and wrote our report. My happiness is that at the end of the day, the owner of that property was compensated and that building has been destroyed. The man might have relocated to somewhere else and built again. Both the state and federal governments should also obey laws.
Is the government fully exploiting the environment to create more revenue for the state?
Well, right from the 80s, what we know is that tax is one source, personal income tax, whether there are civil servants or not, citizens have to pay tax. I was discussing with a friend from Europe and he told me that in Africa, we are lucky because most of the things here are free. She told me that although they have every social amenity, they pay taxes. I remember in those days when I was in school at Oloibiri, tax collectors used to wait at the waterside to collect tax from adults. Even when I went to the higher institution in Aba, tax collectors were stopping vehicles to look for adults to pay tax. But now, crude oil has bridged a lot of gaps. The money coming from oil has become so much that a lot of areas where government is supposed to look into for internally generated revenue are no longer there.
However, here in Bayelsa, when this government came on board, civil servants lamented that they were over-taxed. Later on, we heard about the education trust fund. Later we heard about students’ school fees increment and all of that. And don’t forget that almost all of us are still paying tax. In those days, there was nothing like Value Added Tax (VAT). Today, in many things you by, including your phone, there is value added tax. So, we are all in one way or another still paying tax maybe to the federal government. And all that comes back to the state and the local government in the form of federal allocation. However, the 13 percent which comes to the oil producing states is huge. It doubles, if not triples the statutory allocation that comes to the state every month. I remember when the state government was mentioning how much came to the state, while statutory allocation was about three billion, that of 13 percent derivation was over nine billion. So, this amount that is coming from the federal government is huge, however, the state government has also felt that they need to generate money internally to support what is coming from the federal government. So, civil servants are heavily taxed. We also have the Creek Motel like the Presidential Hotel that is being managed by foreigners. The creek motel was also being managed at a time by some white guys. But for over a year now, that place has been dormant. In fact, it is now fallow with over grown weeds and cobwebs everywhere. In all the Niger Delta states, it is only in Bayelsa that state transport company is not functional. If you go to Uyo in Akwa Ibom state, they have a very big terminal where you book for a ticket depending on the state you are going to. It’s a well-organised system. In Rivers, the waterline areas have the Rivers State Transport Company. The same applies to Delta, Edo, Sokoto and others. This would have generated revenue and create employment. What about the plastic industry that we used to have? Today, it is no longer there.
