One of the ills of globalisation is in the way in which foreign based non-governmental organizations seek to create and force through a narrative purely from their own perspective on issues of global interest and concern using the wide reaches of the internet. Where such narrative pertains to activities and policies of governments and countries in Africa, there is often latitude taken to generalize and be prejudicial at the expense of facts and objectivity.
A case in point is the report on the export of Rosewood (Kosso) to China by the Environment Investigative Agency, (EIA) which was widely carried in the Nigerian media.
The voluminous report which was based on an undercover investigation by the Agency on the export to China of a specie of wood called Rosewood, more commonly known locally as Kosso took liberty to make unsubstantiated allegations, baseless and outright false claims.
The most tellingly negative aspect of the report was in its bid to cast Nigeria in bad light especially the substantive Minister of Environment at the time, Mrs Amina J. Mohammed, who is now the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations.
Already both the United Nations and the Federal Ministry of Environment (FMEnv) have come out to debunk the report with facts and figures and to absolve the former Minister from any wrong doing in the course of her job in that capacity. Both institutions have also affirmed their confidence on Mrs Mohammed’s integrity and competence in their various statements of reaction in the wake of the report.
Mrs Mohammed herself had issued statements and given interviews explaining her role on the issue in the process filling in the wide gaps existing between the fiction in the EIA report and the facts and reality from her perspective as the focal point and from what obtains in the protocols of global environmental best practices with regards to wood exports.
As explained in the FMEnv’s statement, Rosewood export comes under appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which allows for sustainable trade to improve the livelihood of people living where the Rosewood exists. What existed before then was that Rosewood exports was in appendix III of the CITES protocols where there were no controls whatsoever. This is what resulted in the depletion of the specie in Senegal, Togo and Ghana. Seeing what this had done in these countries, Nigeria took the step of carrying out a review which resulted in getting CITES to move the trade in Rosewood to appendix II which provides a middle ground between allowing the natives of the area where the specie exists to export it to support their livelihood and for relevant authorities to control and guide the trade. Thus with regards to the trade in Rosewood as far as Nigeria is concerned, the FMEnv is obligated and committed by Nigeria’s membership of the CITES to sustainable guidance of the Rosewood trade by ensuring the balance between allowing the trade in the specie and by making sure the trade is controlled so as not to deplete it.
Interestingly, it was Mrs Mohammed in her capacity as Minister that led this review which was duly signed by President Buhari and which helped sanitize the wood industry in the country ensuring that we do not go the way of our neighbours.
The EIA report did not feature this critical element in its report neither did it state the processes involved in issuing out approvals for Rosewood exports which is guided strictly by the provisions of CITES. This stringent process which range from requiring potential exporters to apply and to get their premises and factories inspected for compliance before such exporters are allowed to apply for CITES permit was followed to the letter by the Minister in granting the approvals.
Perhaps either out of deliberate mischief and prejudice, the EIA side stepped all this relevant information in the course of its investigation which should have given its report balance and objectivity.
In place of this critical gap of information, the EIA report merely threw in unsubstantiated allegations of bribery by exporters of Rosewood to Nigerian officials from the Presidency to the National Assembly to induce them to fast track approvals for about 300 million dollars’ worth of Rosewood export detained by Chinese authorities. The EIA report claimed that in return for this gratification, the Mrs Mohammed granted all the approvals hurriedly in one day on January 16, 2017 on the eve of her departure to take up her new job at the United Nations.
Again were the EIA not bent on mischief and full of prejudice, a simple check would have revealed to that the approvals had commenced in batches from August 2016 to January 2017. Another check would also have revealed that Mrs Mohammed was in office up until February 24, 2017.
As Mrs Mohammed had denied the allegations of accepting any form of inducement in bribery and any other form in signing the approvals in the various interviews she granted following the EIA report, the onus lies on the agency to prove its claims with incontrovertible evidence if it has any.
Similarly the claim by the EIA that the approvals were hurriedly signed off because the Chinese importers of Nigerian Rosewood needed such documentation to clear 300 million dollars’ worth of the commodity detained at the Chinese ports of entry was neither here nor there. There was no formal official correspondence from relevant Chinese authorities to any of the corresponding Nigerian agencies on the matter requesting for its resolution. The only documented case on record is that of the Vietnamese authorities who in similar circumstances sought assistance from Nigeria to resolve the issue. The claim by the EIA therefore of the purported detention of Rosewood imports from Nigeria at Chinese ports can only be at best a disingenuous imagination fuelled by mischief.
Although the EIA laboured in its report to portray itself as a kind of benevolent watchdog on environmental issues concerned with the depletion of a vital resource in Nigeria, we only need to take a critical look at the motive behind the report to determine the real import behind it.
EIA claims like any other NGO to be a non-profit benevolent friend of the earth. But investigation reveals that it is sponsored by powerful interest groups in the global wood industry. These interests are alarmed that China the biggest market for the global wood industry is turning attention to Nigeria which has the highest grade wood in Rosewood in abundance. The EIA report admitted that much with the assertion that Nigeria has now become the largest source Chinese demands for wood by Chinese furniture makers looking to satisfy the huge market for furniture by the burgeoning Chinese middle class. Effectively, Nigeria has now trumped the traditional sources of Chinese demands for wood which no doubt makes gloomy news for the sponsors of the EIA.
It is therefore a matter of regret that some Newspapers in Nigeria rushed to carry the EIA report without subjecting it to the routine checks expected of any serious newspaper. Also some of these papers did not seek to hear the views of the FMEnv or relevant agencies that have responsibility over some of the issues covered in the report.
The growing Nigerian export in wood is no doubt one of the positive signposts in the economic diversification agenda of the Buhari administration. As Nigerians have clamoured for diversification of the economy in the light of global economic headwinds especially in the oil and gas industry which has been the mainstay of our economy, it behoves on us to be vigilant and protect the gains of the governments efforts in giving the country a new economic orientation and direction.
Gadu wrote this piece from Abuja.
