Blessing Okorite, Port Harcourt
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has urged the Federal Government to declare Niger Delta environmental State of Emergency and focus more concentration on the region to end gas flaring.
Executive Director of ERA, Dr Godwin Ojo, made the call on Wednesday during its press briefing and environmental parliament in Port Harcourt, to mark the World Environmental Day celebration.
He said that Federal government should delineate the Niger Delta as ecological disaster area, establish a clean up and remediation fund for the clean up of Niger Delta to address the severe impacts of oil operations on communities and the environment.
Ojo said that Nigeria could survive without oil by investing in renewable energy sources.
“As a conflict resolution mechanism, the federal government should delineate the Niger Delta as ecological disaster area and declare environmental state of emergency to focus on the Niger Delta and end had flaring.
“Government should immediately divest public finance, loans and subsidies from fossil fuel exploration and channel such resources to investment in renewable energy sources to improve energy access for all.
“Government should decentralize energy production and supply system through an energy democracy transition model that allows communities and individuals to be co-producers of energy as well as suppliers as end users.”
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Also speaking, , the ERA Executive Director stated that the Federal government should dedicate a percentage of the national annual budget for research, developments, production and supply of renewable energy systems to improve solar energy access that is currently low in the country.
He urged government to be courageous to ban diesel and petrol generator sets in the Ministry, Departments and Agencies and use the funds to provide solar energy systems for the offices.
“Government should also set a deadline to halt the importation and use of diesel and petrol cars and other means of transportation to achieve the 2030 environmental target and also save Nigeria from being a dumping ground for obsolete cars from industrialised countries.
Ojo also stated that government should demonstrate seriousness on environmental protection and establish a clean up and remediation fund of 100 billion US$ for the clean up of the entire Niger Delta to restore the environment and sustain rural livelihoods.
Responding to questions at the briefing, ERA Programme Manager, Port Harcourt, Mike Karikpo, also called on journalists to do investigative reporting on the extend of the Ogoni cleanup exercise before putting anything to the public.
Karikpo urged journalists to know the sites for the clean up, find out if the standards set for the cleanup exercise was in place so that the neigbougring communities would not suffer from the pollution waist dumped for them after the clean up.
