Ewekoro lived off the highway. Now, it dies by it. A dusty silhouette of commercialised ruin. At dawn, a thick pall of cement dust hovers atop the roof-peaks of the town, before raining like a sand storm from a grey, indifferent sky. At night, the dust falls like snowflakes until the township disappears under its fog, and its thickening debris cobwebs the sleep of the solemn wild. Eventually, it blankets the houses and greenery like a greyish fabric of ash.
Nine years after The Nation exposed the devastation unleashed on Ewekoro via multinational cement company, Lafarge Africa Plc’s discharge of cement slurry and exhaust into its water bodies and atmosphere, the situation has barely improved.
Within and about Ewekoro, despair shines like final fate. “Living here is akin to subjecting yourself to a cruel and unusual form of punishment,” said Bode Adekunle. “Anyone who wishes to prosper in life must get out of Ewekoro,” said the 19-year-old.
Amid the bleakness, Adekunle’s voice pealed, like the tragic knell of a civilization in its final death pangs.
Corroborating him, Sakiru Lasisi, 21, condemned his grandparents for yielding their land and birthright quite cheaply to Lafarge. He also condemned his parents for failing to exact compensation from the cement company for the devastation it wrought and still wreaks on their birth place. “They gave them the opportunity to take our land and maltreat us. Will they try this in the Niger Delta? They will never attempt what they do to us in Warri,” he said.
Adekunle and Lasisi were 10 and 12 years of age respectively at the time of The Nation’s first visit to Ewekoro. Like many of their peers, they plotted their escape from the town since their early teens. Bode currently sells building materials in Lagos while Lasisi works as a commercial transporter.
Likewise, Nofiu Ologunebi left Ewekoro in 2014, just after he turned 17. Now 26, the Lagos-based maintenance engineer admitted that he has no plans to relocate to his hometown.
“I have persistently told my younger ones to relocate immediately, anytime the opportunity arises. Many of us who relocated to Lagos do not want our siblings to waste away unduly in Ewekoro,” he said.
Despite his disenchantment with the status quo, Ologunebi cannot entirely abandon his homeland. He is a part of the Ewekoro Youth Indigenes (EYI), a pressure group comprising sons and daughters of the soil on a mission to reclaim the lost glory of their birth land.
His mother, Shakirat, who is also the Iyalode of Ewekoro, has equally been fighting for the interest of Ewekoro in her own way. For instance, she is currently embroiled in a fierce tussle with a faction of the community’s traditional council perceived to be loyal to Lafarge and accommodating of the company’s activities.
Just recently, the Iyalode was arrested and hauled to the Ogun State Police Command in Elewe Eran, in Abeokuta, Ogun State by the other faction, which claimed that she was unsettling their town by her quest for environmental justice and reparation from Lafarge. According to the female chief, the fight cannot be left completely to the youths.
Her nephew, Asiwaju Olamide Shodipe, heir to the former Asiwaju of Ewekoro, late Chief Shodipe, had also being a part of the clamour for reparation before the demise of his father. According to him, he and his peers would not relent until they secure justice for the entire local council.
Four years ago, members of the community dragged Lafarge Africa Plc, before the Federal High Court in Abeokuta, accusing the company of polluting and destroying their environment through the mining of limestone.
In a class action suit filed through their lawyer, Idris Faro, the community members are demanding N1trillion in damages as compensation for the alleged “pollution and destruction of the plaintiffs’ town, farmlands, rivers, air and general environment, arising from limestone mining and cement manufacture for a continous period of 60 years,” by Lafarge.
They want the N1trn damages to be paid with an annual interest of 15 per cent until the final liquidation of the sum.
They also prayed the court to order Lafarge to refund them the money they spent in filing the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs – Asiwaju Olamide Shodipe, Alhaji Raufu Akintokun, Shakirat Ologunebi, Ayinde Akintokun and Olufemi Tewogbade – filed the N1trn lawsuit on behalf of themselves and the entire Ewekoro community.
Aside from Lafarge Africa Plc, they also joined as defendants six persons, whom they described as the company’s “lackeys, stooges and errand boys”.
The six other defendants are Chief Satari Balogun (now deceased), Chief Joshua Akintokun-Oniyitan, Chief Ayantan Shodiya, Chief Tajudeen Adebowale, Chief Taye Akintokun and Prince Bola Awesu.
In their second amended statement of claim, the plaintiffs said Lafarge sited its largest plant in Nigeria in their community at Km 64, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, alleging that the company’s activities in the last 60 years had taken a toll on their well-being and means of livelihood.
They recalled that the defunct Western Region Government of Nigeria acquired part of their land and gave to West African Portland Cement Company (WAPCO) for limestone mining and cement manufacture.
The said WAPCO was later acquired by Lafarge, which carried on with the business, “using powerful explosives like dynamite in the mining and blasting of limestone in Ewekoro town, which, apart from causing disturbing noise, has damaged a lot of houses in Ewekoro town.”
The plaintiffs said, “A huge expanse of our farmland, measuring 426.599 hectares, which were not even part of the original acquisition, have been entered into by the 1st defendant (Lafarge) and it mines limestone thereon.
“The cement dust from the giant chimneys of the 1st defendant’s plants billows into the air, polluting the plaintiffs’ town, farmlands and rivers for a continuous period of 60 years.
“The cement dust has depleted the population of fishes, crabs and other animals in the rivers in and around Ewekoro land. Also, the livestock in Ewekoro have reduced in number as a result of inhalation of cement and pollution of the grassland where they graze.
“Farmlands, measuring about 1,000,000 hectares, have been polluted by cement from the 1st defendant’s plant for about 60 years, destroying crops.
“Dwelling houses in Ewekoro town have been splatered with cement dust billowing from the defendant’s plants.
“The livelihood of about 300,000 farmers and fishermen, including the plaintiffs, have been destroyed by the 1st defendant’s mining of limestone and cement manufacturing for about 60 years in Ewekoro town.
“Ewekoro inhabitants suffer from asthma, skin diseases, respiratory diseases etc, due to cement inhalation and this has led to loss of several lives over the years. The 1st defendant has made trillion of profits or more for about 60 years in Ewekoro land.”
The court reportedly ruled in favour of Lafarge, stressing that the natives lacked the right to institute legal action against the company. The court held that only the state government may institute such action against the company. “Right now, we are taking the case to the Court of Appeal,” revealed one of the plaintiffs.
The decline of Ewekoro bears a striking resemblance to the degeneration of its neighbouring satellite community, Olapeleke, where the natives grapple with collapsed buildings and socio-economic ruin foisted upon them by Lafarge’s limestone mining activities in the area.
The residents complain of cement dust pollution, vanishing rivers, and a comatose agricultural economy. With anguish, they recalled Ewekoro’s promising years. According to the natives, before LafargeWAPCO arrived in the community in the late 1950s,the entire region of Ewekoro was a prosperous community; farming was its economic mainstay and its thriving agricultural economy produced cash crops including ofada rice, yams, cocoa, plantain, palm kernel and maize at great profit. But no sooner did Lafarge venture into the region than the once burgeoning agricultural sub-sector began to suffer irredeemable decline.
The natives argued that the only benefit they derive from hosting Lafarge is that due to its presence in our community, electricity supply in Ewekoro has been stable and this attracted a lot of immigrants from Sango, Ifo and eviron into the community. However, the immigrants who came to enjoy the electricity have fled due to the excessive pollution of the community by Lafarge.
Aside from destroying the natives’ homes and other valuables, cement dust from Lafarge’s chimney settles on their farms and contaminates their vegetables. The cement dust released by the company’s chimney settles on the crops. Take ewedu (jute), for instance, which is often grown by lots of subsistence farmers in the area; it must be washed vigorously to cleanse it of cement dust after being harvested for sales and consumption. But once the water dries off, it displays stains and patches of cement dust all over. This makes it extremely difficult to sell it in the market. Left without a choice, the natives are forced to eat it. No one would buy such contaminated vegetable at the market.
Before the decline, Olapeleke was a crucial part of Ewekoro with about 200,000 people in its satellite expanse. Prior to the arrival of the West African Portland Cement (WAPCO), now Lafarge-WAPCO, the township boasted of a rich endowment of natural resources and agricultural cashcrops, including cocoa, kolanut, cocoyam, cassava, rice (its fabled highly nutritious and expensive ofada rice), tomatoes, pepper, groundnut, plantain, sugar cane, maize to mention a few. However, the township’s most valuable and expensive natural endowment is its abundant limestone deposits.
Olapeleke sits atop limestone, the major raw material used in the production of cement.When the discovery of the natural resource in the Ewekoro Township became public in the early 1950s, residents of the community anticipated a remarkable fillip to their thriving agricultural economy. But they were wrong. By the time Lafarge commenced mining of the raw material, the community came to a sad realisation that rather than bring great fortune and prosperity to their doorstep, the company’s limestone exploration wrought untold loss and hardship on Olapeleke.
In 2001, Olapeleke reported a loss of over 100 houses as that completely collapsed under the incessant barrage of limestone raining like hailstones on the community in the course of Lafarge’s quarrying activities.
Twenty two years later, less than 30 houses are left standing in good condition of the 110 reported by Baale Gabriel Akinremi in 2014; and these few bear crude patches all over, that are meant to prevent the cracks allegedly wrought on them by Lafarge’s flying rock debris from aggravating.
Many of the families that lack the strength and wherewithal to renovate their homes have deserted the village in droves to live in more habitable settlements outside the community.
The impoverished ageing population, however, lamented that they do not have any where else to go and they cannot desert their ancestral homes even as the few left stand at risk of devastation by flying rock fragments from Lafarge’s limestone quarry.
Prior to the cement company’s arrival, the community had five rivers which were used for irrigation, fishing and drinking purposes. The rivers were Ewekoro, Amititi, Sofuntere, Abalaye and Olorekore, according to the villagers. But Lafarge reportedly channelled the five rivers away into its quarry thus causing them to dry out. Consequently, the community’s cash crops and trees, including cocoa, kolanut and palm trees, withered and gradually died off.
The Nation findings reveal a township struggling to deal with the tragic loss of its once flourishing agricultural economy. There are no flourishing cocoa, rice, palm kernel and cocoyam farms anymore; a dense forest and swamp of shrubs and thickets currently dominate the wide expanse of land that was once the lure that attracted itinerant contract farmhands, agricultural entrepreneurs, farmers, middlemen, transporters and traders to mention a few, to the erstwhile prosperous enclave.
Today, those who still have the nerve to farm engage in subsistence farming. And the proceeds are always very poor. Aside from cassava and maize, very few cash crops survive on the land thus killing its hitherto thriving agro-economy.
The elderly population recalled with nostalgia the good old days when agriculture was the mainstay of the rural community. Back then, it was common to see a young couple partner to acquire profitable stake in the agricultural economy. They jointly farmed, harvested and sold their farm produce, including cocoa, palm oil, and other cash crops at great profit. But their farmlands were destroyed at Lafarge’s incursion into the area.
“We suffered a lot after our land was forcibly taken away…we got only N0.50 kobo as compensation. Today, we are recognised as the actual land owners yet we are suffering because there is no one to fight for us,” cried Apeke Akinremi, a widow.
Intrigues made in Ewekoro
In 2014, at The Nation’s first visit to Ewekoro, the Baale of Ewekoro, late Satar Lawal, refused to comment on the degree of devastation suffered by his community, claiming that he would only react after The Nation had spoken to Lafarge. Satar claimed that Lafarge had really tried for Ewekoro community, stressing that the company discharges cement dust on his community only when its equipment are down with a fault.
The reality is, however, quite different from Satar’s claims; while he defended Lafarge, The Nation copiously took photographs of the cement company’s chimney that towers directly behind his palace as it dispelled cement dust excessively on to the community. It was also very instructive to note that the company’s equipment were not down due to any fault at the time the pictures were taken.
Soon after The Nation’s visit to Ewekoro, late Satar and his fellow chiefs called a press conference to address crucial environmental issues affecting Ewekoro local government area (LGA). They urged the company’s management to consider their safety and do something to mitigate the impacts of its operation on them and the environment.
The 12 communities they claimed to represent are Olapeleke, Akinbo, Oke Oko, Egbado, Sekoni, Olujobi, Papalanto, Ewekoro, Egba -Ajegunle, Elebute, Alagunto and Itori. While the first eight communities are situated on areas referred to as ‘limestone belt,’ the four others, are homes only to the company’s plants and chimney.
Lafarge’s elder support, CSR and other tokens
The natives would find it easier perhaps to assert their rights if they could escape the cycle of tokenism that has them jostling for “paltry sums” given to them annually by Lafarge. While the latter prides itself on its commendable Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives in the area, the people of Ewekoro dismissed the company’s claims, arguing that whatever form of support the company gives to their community as part of its CSR, will never be enough palliative to the damage it wreaks on their neighbourhood by its production activities.
A good example is the so-called elder support. The traditional authorities are asked to suggest beneficiaries of the fund and when they do, Lafarge gives each beneficiary N50, 000. When the latter gets back to the community, he or she has to share the money with about 20 other people. At the end, what often gets to each beneficiary, around N2, 000 or thereabouts, is usually too ridiculous to be acknowledged.
Hence from a purported N50, 000 annual support to one aged person, in Ewekoro, what actually gets to the beneficiary and other recipients, is a measly N2, 000.
In the absence of a dependable Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) regulatory framework in the country, most multinational corporations are at liberty to commit discretionary percentages of their profit to CSR initiatives. To this end, Lafarge allegedly commits N55 million annually to Ewekoro and its 11 satellite communities including Olapeleke, Akinbo, Oke-Oko, Egbado, Sekoni, Olujobi, Papalanto, Ewekoro, Egba -Ajegunle, Elebute, Alagunto and Itori.
Findings revealed that, of the figure, N11 million gets to Olapeleke for community development. Initially, the figure was N9 million, out of which N5.5 million is earmarked for capital projects like road construction. About N1 million is earmarked as bursary for 10 students at N200, 000 each; N250, 000 as support for five aged people; Youth Empowerment, N700, 000; while five farmers are given N500, 000 each.
When the recipients of the money eventually get it, they take it back to their respective communities where the money is split, by consensus, among greater number of recipients. The N50, 000 Lafarge gives as support to the aged, for instance, is reportedly shared with about 11 or 15 fellow aged persons. Thus, even though Lafarge claims to have given N50, 000 as support to one aged person, the money is actually shared among the specified recipient and about 11 to 15 others. At the end, each beneficiary gets a paltry N2, 000, N3, 000 or N5, 000. The natives are forced to adopt this method in order to make the money go round those who desperately need financial support within the community.
The same formula is adopted in sharing N500, 000 given to five farmers. Eventually, what will get to each farmer is never up to N50, 000. What gets to each farmer most times is as low as N10, 000.
Feeding fat off a battered mule…
No doubt, the amount Lafarge devotes to CSR in Ewekoro is too meagre and unrepresentative of the immense profit the company grosses from its mining and cement production activities in the area.
For the year 2022, the company declared a dividend of N32 billion following the approval of the company’s shareholders at the 64th Annual General Meeting of the Company held in Lagos on Friday, April 28, 2023, at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
In the year ended 2022, Lafarge Africa Plc increased its revenue by 27% from the N293 billion recorded in 2021 to N373 billion as Operating Profit improved by 29.3% on the back of net sales improvement to close at N84.2 billion.
Addressing Shareholders during the meeting, the Chairman of the company’s board, Prince Adebode Adefioye, stated that: “Overall, net sales increased by 27% compared to the prior year, to close at N373.2 billion. Similarly, Operating Profit improved by 29.3% on the back of net sales improvement to close at N84.2 billion. In addition, cost-saving initiatives implemented across our value chain contributed partly to operating profit improvement. The improvement in net sales and operating profit led to an increase in Profit Before Tax by 12% to N69.7 billion and Profit After Tax by 5.2% to close at N53.6bn.”
In the first half of this year ended in June 2023, Lafarge Africa declared N55.32 billion profit before tax, an increase of 18 per cent from the N46.88 billion reported in half year ended June 30, 2022. The cement maker on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) reported N35.48billion profit after tax in H1 2023, a decline of 5.2 per cent from N37.41billion in H1 2022, attributable to 109.5per cent growth in tax expenses in the period under review to N19.84billion as against N9.47billion in H1 2022.
Lafarge, however, reported N197.68 billion revenue in H1 2023, a nearly six per cent increase from N186.6billion in H1 2022.
Against the backdrop of the company’s declared profits, many residents of Ewekoro are bitter because they feel that their representatives are not representing their interests as they expect them to. Pleading anonymity, a member of the traditional council alleged that their traditional chiefs hardly protect the interests of their communities because they are wary of offending the management of Lafarge.
“They fear that if they do, they will lose the lucrative contracts they get from the company periodically,” revealed the chief.
We prioritise health and safety of our host communities – Lafarge
In an exclusive interview with The Nation, Lafarge’s Head, Corporate Communications, Public Affairs & Sustainable Development, Ginikanwa Frank-Durugbor, stated argued that the company is doing its best to make life easier for residents of its host communities.
She said that Lafarge is committed to conducting its business with zero harm to people while minimizing its environmental footprint. “Our investment in a new bag filter underscores this commitment. Our stack emission measurement is done by government accredited agencies on a quarterly basis and the report is shared with both the State and Federal ministry of Environment. In addition, Air quality measurement (Total Suspended Particulate) conducted across the plant fence lines shows all measured values are below the national standard of 250 µg/m3.
“However, measurement was also carried out simultaneously on 3rd party (Lagos/Abeokuta express road) influence and the result showed dust (Total Suspended Particulate) value of more than 250 µg/m3. Mitigation measures are to plant trees along our perimeter fence in order to prevent impact of dust from the third party. We also carry out palliative repairs regularly on bad portions of the road to reduce fugitive dust generation,” she said.
To mitigate the impact of Lafarge’s production activities on its host communities, she said the company has put corrective measures in place, including the installation of dust abatement and emission monitoring equipment on its stacks while ensuring continuous preventive maintenance of the equipment.
A people’s heartfelt prayer…
Despite Lafarge’s claims, not a few residents of Ewekoro contended that they are forced to live under a perpetual cloud of pollutants and cement dust discharged by the company’s chimney.
Among other things, they wish that the company embrace environmentally- friendly activities in line with global business practices in the extractive industry.
They wish that Lafarge “pursues CSR initiatives that truly benefits all segments” of their community. They want Lafarge to desist from its plot to buy what’s left of their land “for a pittance.”
The children dream of a better neighbourhood complete with decent living facilities similar to those accessible to Lafarge staff in their gated estate.
Precisely nine years ago, the Ekeji Baale (Chief) of Ewekoro, Musiliu Balogun, argued thus: “Our community is the goose that lays the golden egg that Lafarge currently feeds fat upon; let Lafarge compensate us for exploiting our land and damaging it. We deserve to be compensated,” he said.
Corroborating him, the Otun Iyaloja of Ewekoro, Risikat Balogun, lamented thus: “Nobody cares what happens to us. Nobody. We are dying here and the world is quiet about it. Poor people like us suffer heavy consequences and pay heavy penalties for the company’s exploitation of our land. I am pleading as a mother, a wife and citizen of Nigeria, let the government come to our aid. The world should come to our aid. We are dying over here.”
But precisely 3,285 days after their lamentation, the two Baloguns have completely gone quiet even as the fate of the entire community hangs precariously on the balance.
About dystopia
To witness the aftermath of Ewekoro’s industrialisation by Lafarge is to be lost inside a wakeful nightmare. The markers on this mapless journey are the poisoned air, cratered roads, tyre-gripping mudbeds, swarms of children covered in cement dust, dust shields fabricated of disused blankets and nylon sheets, deserted mini-market and a township limping with decapitated hope.
Most of the natives who were born into a vibrant farming community along the transit highway have watched their agro-economy fritter and fade off a precipice interred by neglect.
The rich community of Lafarge staff, however, live very safe metres from the plateau of Ewekoro’s impoverishment; untarnished in their gated estate, fenced with lush greenery, tarred roads, paved sidewalks and manicured gardens.
Behind Lafarge’s gates, the manicured beauty of its staff residences tapers into oblivion. Dystopia persists as the natives huddle farther from relief. In over 60 years, those with next to nothing slink into greater austerity in a necessary performance of hope and endurance.
The crescendo of their privation and hardship, reveals in real time, how a once blooming agro-economy got stifled by industry.
Lafarge arrived, Ewekoro collapsed, and the world has since responded the only way it could, until it stopped. “Empathy fatigue” manifests as the straw man of pundits within and outside the beleaguered community.
The epic catastrophe that plagues Ewekoro has been met only with feeble resistance.