Federal Govt Urges Donors To Bridge Funding Gap For Ogoni Cleanup

The federal government has appealed to oil companies, development partners, donor agencies, multilateral lenders and the private sector to step up funding and technical support for long‑running environmental restoration in Ogoni land, saying current resources are dwindling even as key remediation work continues.

Speaking at a conference on donor facilitation and diplomatic support for the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, urged donors to mobilise fresh funding and technical support for the Ogoni environmental restoration project, saying progress so far must be consolidated to secure long-term gains for affected communities.

Describing the project as a “life’s work”, Lawal thanked the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for its foundational 2011 environmental assessment and urged a renewed, coordinated push to complete the work and sustain gains for affected communities, so that “Decades of environmental degradation can be reversed.”

He listed achievements under HYPREP, including remediation of hundreds of hectares of hydrocarbon‑polluted land, provision of portable water schemes, steps to restore fragile ecosystems, new health facilities and livelihood programmes that have trained and supported thousands of beneficiaries.

He also noted that the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration — an institute intended to train postgraduate specialists and conduct research — is almost complete.

Lawal praised HYPREP’s leadership and the agency’s vice‑chancellor (the project implementer), saying the project’s “face” had improved over the past three years. He appealed for a broad range of support — financial, technical, scientific and policy advice — and called for continued collaboration between government, communities, development partners and the private sector.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Trust Fund Incorporated, Emmanuel Deeyah, also reiterated the call for outside support and offered assurances about governance and stewardship. Deeyah, who has served on the previous board, lauded the minister’s active engagement with UNEP and the project’s administrators, saying that such alignment had helped advance the initiative.

Deeyah recalled the origins of the remediation campaign, including community protests in the early 1990s and UNEP’s subsequent scientific confirmation of widespread pollution affecting groundwater, farmland, and fisheries. He noted that UNEP’s report recommended that oil companies contribute US$1 billion every five years for 30 years — a target that, he said, has not been met over the past decade.

Deeyah said domestic funding alone would not be enough and appealed to donors and governments to help bridge the financing gap.

“We want your support,” he told delegates. “Whatever you invest will be used according to international best practice.” He highlighted the Centre of Excellence building as a legacy asset that needs equipment and operational funding to fulfil its mandate.

A long‑time UNEP adviser and HYPREP collaborator, Mike Cowing — who joined the conference remotely — set out why HYPREP remained a compelling candidate for donor investment.

Cowing, who led the UNEP team that produced the landmark 2011 assessment and later provided technical support to HYPREP, said the institution had survived changes of ministry and presidency and had built local capacity across the region.

“Investing in HYPREP is far beyond soil cleanup,” he said. He added that donor support would deliver public health benefits, strengthen economic resilience, reduce community tensions, and contribute to longer‑term stability. Cowing also emphasised the need for rigorous accountability and independent international oversight, noting improvements but warning that transparency remains a work in progress.

He urged donors to attach milestone‑based conditions to funding so outputs could be measured against contributions. “It is no longer a question of whether Ogoni land can be restored — we have demonstrated that it can be. The question now is whether we have the commitment and the funds to complete the cleanup,” he said.

HYPREP was established following the UNEP environmental assessment, which identified extensive pollution in Ogoni land — a region of the Niger Delta long affected by oil exploration. The project aims to remediate polluted sites, restore ecosystems, provide clean water and health services, and support livelihoods while creating an institutional framework for ongoing environmental restoration.

Speakers at the conference argued that HYPREP could become a global template for remediation in oil‑producing developing countries, but stressed that achieving that outcome requires steady funding, robust governance and continuous international engagement.