Blessing Iruoma, Port Harcourt
The Director of the ecological think-tank, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Rev. Nnimmo Bassey, has slammed the Nigerian government over what he tagged as environmental injustice.
Nnimmo Bassey who stressed the consequences of continuous neglect on the environment, stated that the biggest challenge is it ill effect on the nation’s economy.
He noted the fact that environmental degradation especially at the Niger Delta region has vastly affected the health of the people in the area, causing high rate of mortally, as there are more youths than old people presently in the region.
Bassey who spoke with our correspondent at a meeting with HOMEF volunteers in Port Harcourt, stressed that the people who would have protested against the environmental harm now see it as a normal occurrence as government have paid a deaf ear to their years of cries.
He said the government was yet to manage the area and sources of economy, adding that Nigeria like other African countries is turning into a toxic dump by some acclaimed developed countries.
According the environmentalist, “The issue is when you look at the level of exploitation of the environment in Nigeria for resources, either for solid minerals, for oil and gas or when land is needed for plantations to extract other forms of natural resources is always the powerless that suffers.
“Is not just in Nigeria, anywhere in the world, when polluting factories are to be set up they don’t set up in a rich public.
“They are put in places where people’s opinion, peoples voices are not listened to and so you find that pollution is actually sometime very deliberate.
“If companies who pump as much as five oil spills a day into the Niger Delta, if they had regard for the people who live in those communities, they will not do it.
“And those who grab land to set up plantations for export crops, if they care about where the community who live there get food to eat, practice their own agriculture to meet local needs, they will not do that.
“But because they know that they can do it and get away with it, because they are concerned only about the money they get then they can destroy the environment and people died that is their business.
“I mean, how would life expectancy be 41 years in Niger Delta and nobody is alarmed about it.
“Why should life expectancy in Nigeria be 53 years and Nigerians go about and think is normal because you see a people living 80, 90, how about the majority of the people. Why are children dying so young.
“If you see videos, documenting on social media, children seem happy , celebrating. I have seen a lot of children swimming in oil spills happy. Why should that be normal?
“Pollution is taken as normal because those who ought to do something about it, they believe that pollution is okay.
“Government had to understand that without citizens there is no governance and when people say there is a big youth population bulge in Nigeria, is because the adults are not there. And so when we say that there are too many youth, is a reflection of the fact that there are very few adults as well.
“And so you shouldn’t say is a youth problem, is adult problem. Is a government problem, why are people dying. Why don’t we have more old people, is a big problem. So you look at the youth then you point one finger at them, you are pointing all the other fingers at yourself”.
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Bassey, however, urged government at all level to assume their responsibility by ensuring the protection of the environment.
“So, government has to wake up to its responsibility of providing basic environmental safety, basic environmental health because a sick population is a sick workforce, it affects everything including the voting.
“The environmental harm affects everything in Nigeria because it affects our health: when the environment is seriously polluted people gets sick, children are dying there are a lot of death defect, a lot of diseases in the Niger Delta, a lot of diseases where you have artisanal mining going on all over the country.
“In the oil communities, if people are more sick, people pay less attention even when they are employed because people are concerned more about their health.
“And the thing is this, so called Cooperate Responsibility is actually useless if you keep on making the people sick, and then you build a clinic for example and people are sick and goes to the clinic, it doesn’t buildup or children are sick and goes to school.
“If you don’t have a healthy population your economy is in a bad shape and there is a lot of wastage.
“Is good to take note that we have regulatory agencies and the second thing about the regulatory agencies is how well positioned are they.
“The DPR, HYPREP, NESDRA, NOSDRA, are they really effective in their responsibilities. So government had to understand that environmental health is a basic prerequisite for collective health, an investment in that sector is almost like investment in education.
“If you do not invest in environment is like wasting your time putting bandages on a sore without treating the sore.
“We are having this meeting with HOMEF volunteers, to coach them to understand that if they see anything in their communities suffering more environmental harm than benefits, they should speak up and tell their official that something is wrong and produce evidence as accused for solution”.