 Well, we're back with the breakfast in plus CV Africa, the sport in time. We'll have an environmentalist who joins us this morning. Desmond, Maja Kodoubi. Thank you so much for being part of the show. He's an environmentalist, like I mentioned earlier on. Merry Christmas. It's a very, very Christmas to you and everybody on air. I see you had a nice holiday, everybody took a nice morning break. I'm not sure about that, but it's fine. It's good to have you join us this morning. But let's, you know, get to the crux of the conversation. The Federal Executive Council at its last meeting approved a total of ninety five point nine billion error for the remediation of simple hydrocarbon imparted sites in Ogoni land. The amount is in favor of thirty five contractors and the construction of one thirty two VK transmission lines and power substation for phase one of the Ogoni power project. The Minister of Environment, Mohamed Abdulahi, described a slow implementation piece of Ogoni cleanup exercise as concerning. However, Abdulahi links the nominal progress to several litigations by different groups over the years. He are sure that a strategic monitoring team has been set up six months ago and is working hard to threaten gray areas. Thank you so much, Desmond, Maja Kodoubi, for being part of the show this morning. What are your thoughts on this development? Fantastic. This is really, really so encouraging that this announcement has been made that this large amount of money being is supposed supposed to be deployed to clean up an area that is actually officially recognized as one of the most oil extraction polluted locations in the whole world. And when we're talking of oil pollution in a location like this, we're talking of sorrow, tears and disease, terrible, terrible types of diseases. We're talking of benzene poison. Benzene is a chemical that comes out of the hydrocarbon when you extract it. Benzene is one of the most toxic, carcinogenic chemicals. That is, it causes cancer, particularly in the underaged, in the young people and the level of carcinogenic diseases that have been rampant in this Oguni area, not just Oguni, Maja, but in this whole location. It is it is almost beyond belief that we could have allowed this to have happened at all in the first place. But the news that has been announced that this big amount of money is now being made available for the clean up. It's it's a it's a very good news and all kudos to the minister and to his ministry and to the presidency and all those who were involved in making this decision and making this announcement. Four kudos to them. The only question that arises is why, why, why has it taken so long for this money to be announced to be available? This area has been polluted for a long, long time. And it was really over 10 years ago that the United Nations Environmental Protection Agency gave out a report after assessing the area for months for 14 months to assess this area. And that's when they came to the conclusion that we have it on record that this area in Nigeria is the most oil polluted location in the whole world. They gave their reports over 10, 11, in fact, it was 2011 that this report came out. And now we're talking of this money. And by the way, the money is not enough, anything. So yeah, it's it's a bit of a bit of a sweet pill. Well, a lot of persons have also I mean, I agree to the points that you have raised that is quite commendable. But you know, with Oguni land and we understand, you know, the implication of the dynamics or the extent of which the pollution had gone in the environment. In 2018, there was a launch cleanup that was made of about one billion dollars. And so this necessarily might not just be the first time we're talking about, you know, the release of funds by the government. And on the other hand, we ask this once really released, even though you say it might necessarily not come from the coffers of government, but collaborative efforts maybe from the United Nations amongst other bodies. But do you think that these would actually go a long way in solving the problems of pollution of the land? No, that's the that's a that's a very pertinent question. Any little bit at all will help. But it's, you know, it goes beyond just the money. Although the unbridled pursuit of the money was one of the major factors of of causing this thing. Again, let's remind ourselves, what are we talking about? We're talking of people in this area. This and the local government area is the place where you have the highest carcinogenic rate amongst young children. OK, you know, here we are grieving and rightly so because a young lady was was was was killed. Honam, young lady was killed in Asia on Christmas Day. Temperable tragedy. But then when you compare that to the tragedy of hundreds, if not literally thousands of young children dying painfully from cancer. That has caused by this carcinogenic pollution of the atmosphere, not to mention inability to grow food, inability to fish in this location. Yes, I have a friend who grew up their way back in those days. Daniels would would go to school on the canoe on the way back from school. They'd cast their nets and still be rowing before they go to the show. They've already caught fish and is still walking on the shoreline and be picking up cassava from this father's farm or his own farm. By the time he got home, all the food they need for the night is all there. The fish and the cassava and yam and so on and so forth. He can't do that anymore. He dare not to poison himself. So we're talking of, you know, something that is causing terrible tragedy, that is causing awful mayhem amongst the young people there. So again, to get back to the major cause is the unbridled, the unbridled desire to extract maximum profit from this place. OK, that is where you could put it in a more philosophical way. The the the love of money. Being the root of all evil. Yes, because if we chosen slightly more expensive ways, more responsible ways of extracting the oil from this area, of transmitting the oil, transferring it in the pipelines without interruptions and breakdowns and so on, the pollution would not have been as bad. So what are we talking about here? We're talking about money now being deployed to the rescue of the situation, which is very, you know, is very positive. It was the pursuit of this money, a causal problem. So hopefully the deployment of the money will be able to alleviate the problem, but it will only be able to do this. If we have the correct change of attitude and it is the attitude that must change, that same attitude that has taken it so long for the cleanup to really, really progress. We talked about it. In fact, it was the outgoing minister of environment, Mrs. Mrs. Mohammed, before she was snatched by the United Nations. She was really, really pushing for this as well. And the successive ministers that came after her were saying, yes, yes, yes, we're going to do it. We're going to do it. But so little has been done because so much needs to be done. This is a terrible. It's a death zone for anybody that breathes in the toxic air, for anybody who gets contaminated by the toxic water, for anybody who tries to survive within that location. And it's a large location. As I said, it's not just the Oguni line. So it's a very, very interesting paradigm that we've reached now. And we've got to come to terms with this reality that where we have gone with all this oil extraction, it's actually something that has been given us and will continue to give us very, very negative reactions. And it's not just Nigeria. It's not just the Oguni land. It's a global issue. Humanity has to come to the realization that we can no longer continue using these poisonous substances the way that we've been using it. That brings me to my question now and is that what difference will this make? We know that it's been clamored for, clean up the environment. But the activities, I mean, all exploration continues. It's not something that has seized in, you know, the Niger Delta region on any other region where you have oil, you know, flowing and moving. So what difference does this really make? Yes, yes. Well, the difference is going to be forthcoming partly because of organizations like your good selves, the media organization. There you are. You know, when a lot of people are enjoying their holidays, you're out there, you're bringing information, you're bringing realities into people's consciousness. And I think this is even more important now. You know, whether we like it or not, the reality is that we're dealing with a highly toxic substance. OK, I'm sure there's nobody in their right mind who is listening to me if they're in their home, their sitting room, wherever, or their bedroom. If I bring a small generator into that room and I fuck it, they will not stay there, even your studio. In fact, I dare not. You people will manhandle me if I bring a generator into that studio and I turn it on. You will manhandle me. You will say, no, you can't do this. You want to come on poison marks because the reality is that when you burn this substance, it emits a deadly poison. That's the reality. Now, this poison is not just deadly to mammalian life, to to fauna. It is also deadly to flora, that is, to the plant life, is deadly to the animal life, to the insects. But also also it is very harmful to the atmosphere of this earth, of this planet. And remember, this planet earth that we're talking about is an extremely unique, miraculous entity. Now, with science, we're able to examine many, many other millions of planets in the thousands and thousands of galaxies around, we're able to examine them quite closely. And so far, we have come to the incontrovertible conclusion that this earth, which actually, when you compare it to the cosmos, to the other planets and galaxies, it's actually just a tiny little green speck in space. But it's a unique speck because it is the only one that has the capacity to support life. OK. And one of the major reasons why it has that capacity is because of this incredible, miraculous atmosphere, different types of gases in specific ratios. And by burning this oil, we are also upsetting this miracle of the atmosphere, which is what's causing problems that we're having now with the climate change, the drought here, the flood there, the different types of breakdown of the system. So we've come to a crux, we've come to a point whereby we must realize that OK, a definite change has to come. We can no longer be using this substance the way we've used it and look at what it's caused in Ogonilan. And there are a lot of concerns around the continuous exploration and the fact that we are talking about clean up, which you have, you know, responded to, to some extent. But let's quickly look at the scenarios this let's assume that the funds will be released. Paraventure is released because it's wanting to say there's been approval and it's another thing to see this funds are released, you know, to the latter. So let's say this funds are released and, you know, the cleanup is and backed on on that side for the exact peoples that was meant for what benefits will this bring to the immediate community, what benefits would this bring to the environment? Well, tremendous. Yeah, great question. Well, immediately one one hopes that a lot of local people would be employed in the whole of the cleanup process. Different groups of good credibility would be deployed as part of it. There will be a lot of manual labour as well as a lot of expertise. And hopefully we will be training local people on what needs to be done. They would eventually make some of the areas far more habitable to make a lot of the areas a lot safer. So it is a godsend, you know, and again, I, you know, give full kudos to the agencies and the people responsible for the clearing that this money will be will be made available. My hope of my prayer is that, you know, temptation will not enter the system and corrupt practices will continue. And sadly, the reality is that in the oil and gas industry in our nation and also many other parts of the world, this tremendous amount of unbridled corruption has been going on. And, you know, my only admonition to those who are involved in that is, you know, just bear in mind that there are also some very fundamental laws that are governing humanity, that are governing life on this earth. And I'm talking of the laws of retribution, the laws of action and reaction. I have a farm when I plant cassava in my farm. I have never, ever been able to harvest cocoon. That's a reality whatsoever. Well, whatsoever a person so if so surely shall he reap. And this is not for my knowledge. I, you know, I just have a little bit of practical experience. I'm quoting scripture. I'm quoting the Holy Bible. I'm quoting the Holy Quran. I'm quoting major scriptures all over the world that tell us that we should be very careful with what we saw because we shall surely, surely reap it. So we'll be tired. Any corrupt dirty hand that would want to come and contaminate this particular funding that has been announced to be available because you get a reaction. I was hoping that we talk about, you know, the immediate impact this would have, this particular course of action if being implemented, what's the benefit? What do we expect to see? I mean, we know that in some parts of reverse state, of course, you have the issue of the black suits. So we're expecting that all of that will go away. What's the implication for the environment? Yes, it's easy. You see the drawing from the UNEP report of 11 years ago, 2011, actually, it said that the cleanup would take over 30 years. OK, that's the United Nations scientists who really, really stood by this thing because the pollution is so deep, it's gone deep into the soil, it's gone into the groundwater, it's gone into the sub aquifer layers. It is really, really serious pollution. But the immediate benefits, if it's well handled by, you know, responsible people who appreciate the magnitude of the responsibility that is now upon them, they could actually be ensure that clean water could be made available with very, very deep types of boreholes and good infiltration filtration systems. Aquaculture could be developed there in a pragmatic way. It's not that you're going to be able to just go back to the rivers and start fishing from those rivers. It's going to take years and years to clean up the rivers, but you can make clean water available with that kind of money. You can make some very, very deep sub aquifer really, really low, deeper types of boreholes that will bring out clean water. You can actually clear some areas where you could be doing hydroponic agriculture as well. There are ways of getting immediate benefit, but it will only happen, it will only happen if people handling this are able to resist the terrible temptations that have been going on that has brought this place into the level of desolation that it is. And again, we have to reiterate, those who are responsible for the decisions that made sure that children are dying on a regular basis in this area. They're dying from carstas. Ma'am, come to me. We have to go. Thank you so much, but we have to go. That's because we need to join the newsroom at nine o'clock for the news brief. Thank you so much for being part of the show this morning. Thank you so much. I'm glad you have a great day. Yes, then we wish you a Merry Christmas and of course a prosperous New Year. A Desmond Magic Kodume is an environmentalist and also an activist for the environment. Thank you once again. And that's the size of a conversation this morning. If you missed out on any part of it, it would be great to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Subscribe to our YouTube channel where at Plus TV Africa, Plus TV Africa lifestyle, my name is Messia Buffo. Have a fantastic morning.