On 8 November 2023, Prof Engobo Emeseh from the University of Bradford visited the AUCEL, and presented her research on environmental justice and her practical work experience in this area.
The AUCEL were grateful to host Prof Engobo Emeseh from the University of Bradford on 8 November 2023. Professor Engobo Emeseh is the Head of Law School at the University of Bradford. She has extensive experience in higher education both within and outside the UK.
Prof Emeseh participated in the meeting of the Global South Research Network led by Dr Eddy Wifa and Dr Titi Adebola, which included a roundtable discussion on Translating Legal Research into Law and POlicy in Africa.
She has also presented at the AUCEL research seminar on Local Communities, Environmental Justice and Just Transition: Reflections from The Bayelsa Sate Oil Commission Report. The seminar was well attended by the AUCEL members and energy law students.
The talkfocused on the Bayelsa State Oil and Environment Commission Report, ‘An Environmental Genocide: The Human and Environmental Cost of Big Oil in Bayelsa, Nigeria, published in May 2023. Prof Engobo was directly involved in its preparation and shared her experiences with it. The report provides one of the most robust evidence based critical accounts of the environmental, human and economic impacts of oil pollution in Bayelsa, one of the states in the oil producing Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Prof engobo explained that it drew upon evidence from testimonies from communities, oil spills data, and forensic analysis, underpinned by the extensive literature on oil pollution in the Niger Delta to paint a picture of the true cost of the activities of the oil industry in the state. The evidence garnered by the Commission is stark, showcasing a frequent, consistent, pervasive and sustained devastation of the environment that imperils the livelihoods and very lives of Bayelsans on such a grand scale that led the Commission inexorably to the conclusion of ‘an environmental genocide’.
Against this backdrop, this seminar explored the findings and recommendations of the commission through the prism of the ‘four failures’ developed by the commission as its framework of analysis.
We are grateful to Prof Engobo for sharing her time and expertise with us.