Towards a Gas-Flaring-Free Nigeria

Gas flaring, which is the deliberate burning of natural gas associated with crude oil into open-air, has routinely been condemned by different countries, including Nigeria. In a bid to eliminate the practice by 2020 and possibly enhance the economic use of gas, in 2016 the government commissioned the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme. Yet, Nigeria’s ranking among gas flaring countries remains high, largely because mining companies feel that the wasted gas has little economic value as opposed to crude oil. But at what cost? Accepting the multiple health hazards, the environmental risks and the economic loss of an estimated potential revenue of 770 million dollars yearly, no matter how little that is?

Various researchers such as Anslem O. Ajugwo, in his article titled ‘Negative Effects of Gas Flaring: The Nigerian Experience’, have established the direct negative effects of gas flaring on the environment and human health including contamination of the atmosphere and causing deformities in children. But what about the indirect risks—deforestation being a major one—which are already at play, and whose larger-scale effects are not only prevalent in the Niger Delta region?

Growing up in north-eastern Nigeria—Mubi, Adamawa state to be precise—I experienced sunshine, as well as intolerant weather conditions of heat and extreme cold, and I also saw fertile lands that produced bursting grains for commercial consumption. Fast-forward into my adulthood, I have seen a decline in land fertility and food production, and I have seen an almost unbearable continuous upsurge of heat and a decrease in cold. So, it is worth asking: in what way has gas flaring contributed to such drastic change?

About 95 per cent of Mubi’s population depends on fuel sourced from forests in the form of firewood for cooking (typically for use by bakeries, rice processing outlets, as well as eateries, bukkas and/or restaurants). This is so because the majority of the people get this fuel either for free or at a very low price, leading to hundreds of trees going down every month. Now, this happens not just in Mubi, but virtually everywhere in Nigeria. In other words, our forests are continuously pushed to the brink of extinction despite the fact that the country is blessed with an abundant gas deposit that is, however, being wasted. This fiasco is hardly ever spoken about and it got me thinking: What if the gas being wasted was refined and converted into cooking gas set at a price so low that ordinary Nigerian would only have to worry about buying a gas cylinder.

According to Shiva Makki, in the 2009 essay, ‘Deforestation: Disastrous Consequences for the Climate and for Food Security’:

Deforestation devastates biodiversity and natural habitats and degrades natural resources. In the developing world, 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their food, fuel and livelihoods. The real economic value of forests is much greater than the short-term benefits of logging or clearing land for agriculture. In the longer run, the loss of biodiversity, habitat, and natural resources will affect food production… But the most serious consequences of them all may be global warming…

Besides fuelwood collection, there are many other reasons why deforestation persists including indiscriminate logging and the desertification of land which makes land unfit to grow trees as a result of wastes released into rivers or water bodies by petrochemical industries, leading to soil erosion. All of these are critical drivers of the persistent increase in greenhouse gas emissions that create climate change. Making people less dependent on forests for fuel is an important step when trying to combat climate change in Nigeria. It would go a long way in saving our forests and restore the declining food production.