There are many Nigerians who have absolutely no doubt that what is deemed as the precarious situation of the country is only but a tip of the iceberg. This is because the country is largely data-poor. What little data is available usually would paint a horrifying picture of Nigeria.
Whether it is the number of those living below the international poverty line or the number of out-of-of-school children or the rate of infant and maternal mortality, when data has been available, difficult stories have been told.
Yet, in Nigeria`s bid to build a country where everyone counts, the importance of data cannot be overemphasized. Like a good doctor would do a proper diagnosis before commencing treatment, unless data shows the extent of the problem at hand, and those most affected, effective measures cannot be taken to address it.
A blessing or a curse?
In 1956, in Oloibiri, Bayelsa State, Nigeria, barely four years away from a historic independence, struck gold when crude oil was discovered in commercial quantities. The discovery was to change the economic fortunes of the country as petrodollars began to stream in.
Before then, the different regions of the country were holding their own, with each of the regions majoring in the production of a particular agricultural commodity.
But complacency was never far away, and it was only a matter of time before Nigeria abandoned its other options to become a mono-product economy.
In its journey as an oil producing country, Nigeria has encountered many monsters on the road, the most formidable of these monsters of which have included corruption and environmental degradation.
According to the World Bank, gas flaring is the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction. The practice has persisted from the beginning of oil production over 160 years ago and takes place due to a range of issues, from market and economic constraints, to a lack of appropriate regulation and political will.
Flaring is a monumental waste of a valuable natural resource that should either be used for productive purposes, such as generating power, or conserved. For example, the amount of gas that is currently flared each year – about 144 billion cubic meters could power the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.
Gas flaring persists to this day because it is a relatively safe, though wasteful and polluting method of disposing the associated gas that comes from oil production.
According to data from the Nigerian Oil Spill Monitor, an arm of the Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), released on August 7,2022, Nigeria lost N891bn to gas flaring in 18 months.
The data revealed that the country lost a total of N707bn in 2021 and N184bn in the first half of 2022, to bring up a total of 891bn.
According to NOSDRA, despite efforts to reduce gas flaring, it has continued to be flared in Nigeria since the 1950s, releasing carbon dioxide and other gaseous substances into the atmosphere with the resultant environmental and health challenges.
From 2012 to 2021, NOSDRA estimated that the total value of gas flared over a decade is valued at $13.3 billion. Converting this into naira at the prevailing exchange rate over the course of 10 years puts the cumulative value at N4 trillion.
One of the major drawbacks of oil exploration in Nigeria is just how deleterious it has been to the environment, particularly the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
The World Bank has ranked Nigeria seventh among the top gas flaring countries of the world after Russia, Iraq, Iran, the United States, Algeria, Venezuela.
Gas flaring results in a range of pollutants released into the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, methane, and black carbon (soot). According to the World Bank, the methane emissions from gas flaring contribute significantly to global warming in the short to medium term, because methane is over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide on a 20-year basis.
There is no doubt that the current levels of gas flaring in Nigeria are simply unsustainable. Not with the staggering environmental and economic costs.
For Nigeria, efforts to cut down on gas flaring must continue in earnest. Nigerians, especially Nigerians in the Niger-Delta should be able to enjoy what is one of nature` most valuable commodities without necessarily having to pay any steep price.