Media practitioners must go beyond being passive observers, but active amplifiers of stories of communities bearing the brunt of gas flaring and methane emissions in Nigeria’s oil-producing regions.
This advise was given by the Executive Director of Policy Alert, Tijah Bolton-Akpan, just as the Country Manager, Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), Tengi George-Ikoli, challenged journalists to investigate the methane emission numbers and give voice to the pains of the communities.
Both Bolton-Akpan and George-Ikoli spoke in Abuja on Tuesday at a webinar on the theme: “Leveraging Media Storytelling to Strengthen Accountability and Enforcement on Methane Emissions,” held to advance the advocacy campaign surrounding a documentary titled Flaring Lives.
The film, co-produced by Policy Alert and “We The People”, with support from the NRGI, highlights the environmental, health, and socio-economic devastation wrought by decades of gas flaring on Niger Delta communities.
The film was produced as energy industry stakeholders intensify advocacy for stronger accountability and enforcement of environmental safety in the Niger Delta region.
In his introductory remarks, Mr Bolton-Akpan, painted a stark picture of a region that has endured over 60 years of gas flares that has continued to pollute and devastate the country’s environment.
Describing the documentary as not merely as a film, but as “a tool for introspection and accountability,” the Director stressed that behind every flare stack lie communities battling respiratory illnesses, contaminated farmlands, vanishing fish stocks, and a worsening climate.
“The conversation can no longer be about whether this harm is happening — it is about why it is still allowed to happen,” Bolton-Akpan said.
He criticized the long-held industry attitude that treats emissions as an acceptable cost of doing business, while see the affected communities as collateral damage.
He charged journalists and editors to shoulder greater responsibility by being more than mere witnesses, but also amplifiers of truth.
Ms George-Ikoli urged the media to carry the stories of the negative impact of methane emissions beyond the webinar and begin to investigate the emission numbers and give a voice to the communities whose lungs and livelihoods are the true cost of every cubic metre of gas burned into our atmosphere.
Putting in context the challenge of gas flaring and methane emissions within Nigeria’s dual ambitions, the NGRI Country Manager said the country is not only expanding its gas production as an economic driver, but simultaneously committing to methane reduction and the elimination of routine gas flaring.
She warned that the gap between policy commitments and on-the-ground reality remained dangerously wide, adding that
progress on paper was not the same as progress in practice.
George-Ikoli cautioned, laying out five key conditions for meaningful advancement, namely stronger and more consistent enforcement of regulations; a credible, unified framework for measuring methane emissions; mandatory emissions management by companies beyond mere disclosure; acceleration of initiatives like the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, and robust independent monitoring and verification systems across the oil and gas value chain.
Noting that Nigeria’s methane challenge was increasingly an economic one, George-Ikoli said with international markets — particularly the European Union — tightening requirements around how oil and gas is produced, not just how much.
Both speakers credited sustained pressure from civil society, researchers, journalists, and communities for the progress recorded so far, including the adoption of new methane regulations and stronger public discourse around emissions accountability.
“Flaring Lives” emerges as a timely evidence-based tool intended to keep community voices at the centre of policy conversations.
Stakeholders expressed hope that Nigerian media would leverage the documentary to deepen coverage, interrogate official data, and ensure that the human cost of methane emissions remains visible in public discourse.
