Douglas Blessing
The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has charged the incoming government of Nigeria to make environmental protection its important responsibility.
Executive Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey made this call yesterday, during a one day capacity building workshop held in Okrika Community in Rivers State.
Bassey who noted the need for the protection of the environment, stressed that the people depends on the environment as source of livelihood, yet several activities have destroyed the water and land, which he noted has caused many residents of the area to their early death.
The renowned environment stated that the incoming government if actually voted by the people, should respond to the basic needs of the people, provide enabling environment with clean waters and ensure an end to the re-pollution of the Niger Delta region environment.
“I think is a big embarrassment that we have government at all levels in this area and we don’t see any sign of concern for the environment. This is one thing that is wrong in Nigeria generally.
“Government tend to see natural resources as things to be exploited at any cost; so you destroy the environment, take the resources, you make the foreign exchange and you make all the money. But if the environment is destroyed, you are directly destroying the life of the people and if your people are not able to thrive in their community, then whatever financial gain they make is ‘Blood Money’.
“We need to come to the point, especially as we are having a new government coming into office. The government coming if they were actually voted by the people, they have to respond to the needs of the people, protecting the environment should be number one responsibility of the government, because our people depending on the environment, people drinking water from polluted waters, polluted streams. People are farming in polluted land, breathing polluted air, that is completely unacceptable”.
Speaking on aim of the workshop, he said “This is a capacity programme for communities around here and the critical essence is that they should be able to identify the environmental challenges they have, identify the sources and formulate ways of tackling those problems, especially by using policy advocacy.
“We learnt alot from the communities about the impact of oil spill, gas flare, the pollution from the Petrochemical, the dumping of chemical to the water ways that destroys the fishes in this area. We have seen a very desperate community, not just in terms of having lost alot of their natural resources, but how they have been ignored by the government.”
AUTHORITY observed at the workshop that the participants were equipped with the capacity to confront the challenges, to speak to government and to corporate entities who are creating the environmental problems in the area.
