Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has declared that the Ogoni people are key to the success of the land remediation efforts of the federal government to clean up the environment in Ogoniland.
The governor asserted that involving the Ogoni people in all the processes geared toward remediating their land, after years of environmental degradation by oil companies will truly make them own the projects without sabotaging them.
Gov. Fubara made the remark when he received the Minister of Environment, Mr. Balarabe Lawal, and his delegation, at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Monday.
The environment minister was accompanied by the Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh, the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator, Mohamed Malick Fall, and HYPREP Project Coordinator, Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey.
The governor noted with delight the progress reports that have been reeled out by the environment minister, which indicated the seriousness given to remediating the effects of pollution occasioned by oil exploration, and production in Ogoniland.
“We all know the situation of Ogoniland. They don’t have good water, they don’t even have the farmland for agriculture anymore; their rivers are already polluted. If they have anyone (river) that is remaining, the fishes there are already contaminated.
“The life expectancy is also cut short because whether we like it or not, the food we eat, when contaminated; the water we drink, when contaminated, also affects the elements in our system.
“So, I want to appeal that while we go on with this programme, it is not just coming to commission the water project and the few other things that have been outlined here, the Ogoni people, the people directly affected should be part of it. There should be a buy-in; they should own what you are doing.
“And how do they own it? It is not by you sitting in Abuja, and awarding contracts to somebody we don’t know. In as much as I don’t support issuing it to somebody who cannot deliver, but the community people should be part of the process, so that they have that sense of belonging, that sense of responsibility; it also gives the sense of protection. Because if they believe that they are not part of it, issues of sabotage come in,” the governor said.
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Gov. Fubara said the water project that has been completed, and is now ready for inauguration, must be truly functional to serve the people who had suffered from a lack of portable water for years.
He promised to convoke a meeting of critical stakeholders in the benefitting communities to emphasise the need for them to protect the projects, and never allow them to collapse, either by lack of maintenance or vandalisation.
Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, said the delegation is in Rivers State to inspect ongoing projects, adding that they will also be inaugurating completed projects.
Mr. Lawal stated that the federal government has been confounded with frustrating attitude of the Ogoni people in accepting some projects or even owning the ongoing ones, despite attempts to secure the peoples’ buy-in.
The minister spoke on the Ogoni power project, and appealed to Gov. Fubara for support to facilitate the distribution of electricity that will be tapped from the national grid to serve both the Ogoni people and neighbouring communities.
The UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator, Mohamed Fall commended the governor for his administration’s support to ongoing work in Ogoniland, and stressed that the partnership will help all parties achieve the desired targets set out in the UNEP report
