Two years after the reports on the environment on Ogoni have been released by the United Nations, there are delays in the implementation of the recommendations made by the United Nation Environment Programme, UNEP.
In a round table organized by Ogonis, a renowned environmentalist, Mr. Nnimmo Bassey said the Ogonis should hold their elected leaders responsible for the delay in the implementation of the report especially those at the federal level.
He said the inaction and the delay by government two years after the report was released shows hatred, which is lamentable.
Mr. Bassey stated that the Ogoni people should use modern technics and tactics on persuading the Federal Government to look into their matter by using “direct peaceful action” to put pressure on the Government to be alive to it responsibilities.
The environmentalist has earlier visited some of the devastated sites of oil spills in Ogoni, especially Bodo City creek and Goi Community.
He said the Federal Government should not take the peaceful disposition of Ogonis for granted as their livelihood has been wiped away by series of oil spills.
Also speaking, a one time Minister for Environment from Germany and a co-chair, Right Livelihood Award Foundation, Dr. Monika Griefahn said she was shocked to discover that the people of Goi community have fled the area because of pollution.
She called on the Nigerian Government to borrow a leave from Germany many years ago where its environment was badly polluted but the government engaged experts with the assistance of local communities to clean-up the area and today the place is habitable.
The Environmentalist charged government to take pragmatic steps to implement the report, because they discovered that in several parts of Ogoni there are sign post mounted by Hydro-Carbon Pollution and Restoration Project, HYPREP, with the inscription. “This is a polluted area” and nothing has been done.
“All you see are signpost by HYPREP, saying this is a polluted area, where do the people go when all their communities are polluted? Both the surface and the underground water is polluted. The land itself is polluted.
The situation calls for urgent and pragmatic steps to safe the people” he said.
The environmental gurus challenged the communities to live up to it expectation to end oil theft, while advising the Federal Government not to open new oil fields in the area to save the region from further oil pollutions.
Mr. Celestine Akpobari in his contributions has lamented on the issue of chemical known as benzene in the Ogoni water.
Mr. Akpobari of Social Action said the delay by the Federal Government is a deliberate plan to eliminate Ogoni people. The event was used to launch a book written by Late Ken Saro-Wiwa while in prison titled, “Silence Would Be Treason, last minute of Saro-Wiwa. ###
Pius Dukor
