CSOs criticise Tinubu’s silence after UN accused oil companies of rights violations, frustrating cleanup

The Nigerian government has yet to respond to a damning United Nations report, accusing multinational oil companies operating in the country of treating the Niger Delta as “an experiment for divestment without clean-up.”

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Over 20 civil society groups, including Amnesty International and Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, say the federal government’s silence amounts to a betrayal of millions of Niger Deltans enduring decades of environmental devastation.

Backstory

This newspaper last month reported that some experts at the United Nations say the recent sale of oil assets by International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Nigeria “lacked transparency,” raising concerns about human rights impacts and hindering efforts to clean up pollution and compensate communities.

“The repeated oil spills in the Niger Delta over a span of decades severely affected the right to life, the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, the right to safe drinking water, the right to health, food, housing, cultural rights, and access to remedy,” the UN experts wrote.

The Polluter Pays Project, a not-for-profit organisation that works to ensure that oil and gas companies clean up their mess, stated that the UN experts made their position known in letters addressed to Shell, Eni, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies.

The experts also extended the letters to host governments of the multinationals – the UK, USA, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, as well as the Nigerian government.

In a statement forwarded to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, 25 civic society organisations in Nigeria said that while Shell and Eni, as well as the governments of the UK, Italy, and the Netherlands, have issued responses, Nigeria has yet to. The group says Nigeria’s continued silence shows its complicity in the suffering of the people.

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“Nigeria has not. Not a single word of reassurance. Not a single commitment to justice. Not a single step toward accountability,” the civil societies said.

“This silence is not just disappointing—it is dangerous. It signals either a profound disregard for the rights of Nigerian citizens or complicity in their continued suffering.

“The responses from the companies and their host governments offer little more than recycled promises—paper commitments that have repeatedly failed to materialise on the ground. Nigerians deserve more than platitudes. They deserve justice.

“Remediation cannot wait. The Niger Delta must be cleaned up to international standards, with independent monitoring and the full participation of affected communities. Anything less would be a betrayal of the people,” the group said.

Demands

The 25 civic organisations in the statement are demanding that the Nigerian government publicly disclose the terms and conditions of all oil company divestments, reveal the funding allocated for environmental remediation and compare it to independent estimates of actual clean-up costs, and establish and enforce clear standards for environmental restoration.

They further called on the federal government to ensure full compensation and meaningful participation of affected communities in the remediation process and immediately halt the reopening or licensing of any oil wells in the Niger Delta until comprehensive clean-up and restitution have been completed.

“Nigeria has a proud record of signing human rights treaties. But paper commitments must be honoured in practice. The ball is now in the government’s court. The government must now demonstrate that it stands with its people—not with polluters. Failure to act will bring dishonour to Nigeria and deepen the suffering of its people.

“We urge President Tinubu to break the silence. To lead with courage. To act with urgency. The world is watching. The people are waiting. The time to act is now,” the CSOs said.

Other members of the group include Human and Environmental Development Agenda, Spaces For Change, Mothers and Marginalised Advocacy Centre, Women in Media Communication Initiative, Accountability Lab Nigeria, Policy Alert, BudgIT Foundation, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre, Global Rights, and Partners West Africa – Nigeria.

The presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, did not respond to calls and a text message seeking his comment.

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately get a reaction from Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources, as calls to Amaka Okafor, the spokesperson to the minister in charge of oil, were not connected.

Divestment

In recent years, IOCs operating in Africa have been selling off some of their assets to relocate to countries they consider more profitable and friendlier for their operation.

While some considered moving from one jurisdiction to another within a country and indeed the continent, others contemplated a complete exit from the country and Africa.

Last October, the Nigerian government approved four major oil divestments, including the sale of ExxonMobil’s onshore assets to Seplat Energy, over two years after the deal was first secured.

The transactions, according to the regulator, are Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU) to Seplat Energy Offshore Limited; Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited to Project Odinmin Investments Limited; Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited to Oando Petroleum; and Natural Gas Company Limited and TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited to Telema Energies Nigeria Limited.

The Polluter Pays Project had said the four oil companies have been active in Nigeria since the 1950s, making billions of dollars in profit and causing toxic oil spills that have significantly harmed local communities and the environment.

“Repairing the damage is estimated to cost at least $12bn in just one of the nine Niger Delta states where the oil companies have been active,” it said.

“With oil reserves shrinking, the international oil companies have sold their assets to local buyers, in an apparent attempt to pass on clean-up costs. Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary was sold to the Renaissance group – a consortium of African-based companies run by former Shell staff – despite Nigeria’s regulator initially blocking the sale after civil society groups raised concerns that the new company did not have the required resources to clean up the damage.”

Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), it argued that companies have duties to respect human rights, offer a remedy to people affected by their operations, and use leverage to prevent human rights abuses in dealings with third parties.

States also have obligations under international human rights law to ensure that companies comply with their duties to respect human rights, known as the “duty to regulate”.

Pollution

In many parts of Nigeria’s Delta region, especially in Ogoniland, fossil fuel pollution has been recorded in communities over the past three decades, forcing the Nigerian government and other stakeholders to initiate a $1 billion cleanup and restoration programme in 2018.

The cleanup programme followed a comprehensive study conducted by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2011.

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Although remediation and restoration efforts are being carried out by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), an agency of the government domiciled at the Federal Ministry of Environment, the impact of the cleanup initiative remains largely negligible, as major oil pipelines traversing these communities frequently leak, resulting in spills that continue to harm the environment.

A PREMIUM TIMES report recently captured the plight of farmers and fishers in the communities.

Polluter Pays Project said, “The people of the Niger Delta have been slowly poisoned by the effects of oil extraction, and many have had their livelihoods destroyed.

“This UN intervention strengthens the hands of Nigerians who are taking the oil companies to court, like the Billie, Ogale, and Bodo communities, as it makes it clear the firms have legal obligations to rectify the human rights abuses they’ve caused.

“The sales should not have been allowed to go ahead without comprehensive clean-up plans in place. But now that they have, the governments where the oil companies are headquartered and the Nigerian government should urgently intervene with each company to ensure due diligence was followed, and that sufficient funds have been provided to Nigerian authorities in respect of historic liability. States have a legal duty to regulate to protect human rights, and must not let the oil companies off the hook.”