Lois Otse Adams
The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) has assured the Open Government Partnership (OGP) of its readiness to collaborate on inputs and implementation of the Third National Action Plan (NAP III) which features the role of the agency in its 8th commitment.
The assurance follows an advocacy visit by a Team of the OGP Secretariat, led by its National Coordinator, Dr. Gloria Ahmed, to NOSDRA headquarters in Abuja.
Senior Director of NOSDRA, Dauda Abiodun, who received the Team, expressed the agency’s unwavering commitement to addressing oil spillages in the country which is a key contributor to environmental degradation.
Abiodun added that the agency’s doors are open to parties who need information on data assessment on oil spillages.
He assured OGP of partnering on challenges and realities of natural disasters which have bedeviled the country in recent times.
According to him, climate change has resulted in floods, pipe breakages and oil spillages which are detrimental to human health.
He reiterated NOSDRA’s interest in reviewing updates on the first and second Action Plans to be able to make informed inputs on the next action plan.
He also lauded OGP Nigeria for adding Climate change as a thematic area on the Third National Action Plan.
Abiodun added that the agency will contribute to the formulation of the policy document as well as its implementation when it is finally endorsed by the President.
NOSDRA is an agency instituted by the National Assembly in 1990, under the Federal Ministry of Environment in Nigeria with respect to states where oil exploration and production are prevalent.
On her part, the National Coordinator of OGP Nigeria, Ahmed, said the visit of her Team was to intimate NOSDRA of their role in the Third National Action Plan.
Ahmed, gave a brief on OGP that the organisation is a multi-stakeholder and multilateral initiative which started in 2011 by an alliance of 8 countries, and presently has a membership of about 77 countries. Nigeria joined in 2016 as the 70th member when President Muhammadu Buhari signed the country on.
The initiative brings both Government and Civil Society Organizations to work together and co-creatively formulate and implement action plans that deliver the dividends of democracy beyond the ballot box.
She added that the National Action Plans and various thematic areas are initiated by the partnership to improve implementation of polices and reforms in line with the global standards of the OGP.
She therefore, urged NOSDRA to give the document a holistic approach by making timely inputs and reviews.
The OGP Coordinator, in a question and answer session, encouraged the actors to proffer fair solutions to local issues between civil societies, host communities, and Federal /State governments.
According to her, such gestures will give room for trust, as the objectives of co-creation would then be achieved.
NOSDRA is focused on oil producing regions with environmental degradation due to oil spillage and its core mandate is to oversee the implementation of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) which also integrates with the National Oil Spill Contingency System (NOSCS).
In compliance with the International Convention on Oil pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation (OPRC 1990), the agency oversees policies that govern all the terrains in the petroleum sector of the country’s economy.
Its activities carried out ensure that oil-rich regions in Nigeria, particularly in the Niger-Delta region of Port- Harcourt, Warri, and Uyo regarding oil pollution are monitored, controlled and that host communities affected by oil spillages are duly compensated.
Over the years, oil spill occurrences recorded by the agency instigated the development of a National Oil Spill Compensation Rate (NOSCR) in 2017 to guide the petroleum industries in Nigeria to inaugurate fair and appropriate compensation to host and transit oil communities.
In effect of these, there is constantly existing partnership between the government and host communities in oil exploration and transit communities.
On the other hand, the Open Government Partnership, is a global platform explored by state and non-state actors with objectives to create action plans with concrete reforms, and to transform how government serves its citizens.
