As President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the much awaited, much-touted, much-debated and even much-politicised United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on Ogoni land clean up, it is imperative to consider some unresolved issues that may play up.
Before yesterday, Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed had visited the state at least three times, and held stakeholders’ meetings.
On their part, the Ogoni umbrella body, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), has been holding awareness and sensitisation campaigns across the different communities that make up Ogoni land, an area that consists of four local government areas – Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme – on what role the affected people should be playing while the clean up lasts.
On the political turf, the two major parties in the state, the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) have used the UNEP Report implementation to bandy words about – the APC, through Magnus Abe, its candidate for the yet-inconclusive Rivers South East senatorial election, tries to own the implementation as its populist programme – the PDP criticises Abe (and APC) of politicizing what touches on lives of hapless hundreds of thousand people. While Abe frowns at what he described as PDP feeling bad that APC was doing what it failed to do when it had the opportunity.
But Governor Nyesom Wike quipped: “Mr. President is here as the father of the nation, who cares about the environmental and developmental challenges that we face as one of his primary constituencies… His presence in Rivers State is not an occasion for political campaigns by anybody or political party. Rather, it is an occasion and an opportunity for us to demonstrate unity of purpose, and our readiness to work together with Mr. President to move Rivers State and the nation forward.
“Let me therefore, advise desperate politicians in our midst, to be mindful of the charged social and economic situation in the country, and refrain from making unguarded statements over Mr. President’s visit that could inflame political rivalry and precipitate unnecessary upheavals in the State.
According to the governor, Buhari’s visit is “to kick-start the largest environmental cleanup in our nation’s history, for which Rivers people, and indeed the Niger Delta will remain grateful.”
Meanwhile, environmental rights activists advise strongly on the Federal Government setting statutory bodies that would drive the environmental cleanup – rather than the perceived ad-hoc setup presently Deputy Governor Dr. Ipalibo Harry Banigo says the implementation of the UNEP Report on Ogoniland will mitigate the suffering of the people and the ecosystem occasioned by the exploration and exploitation activities of the multi-nationals that have ravaged the area for over five decades.
On her part, the Deputy Governor, Ipalibo Harry-Banigo also urged Rivers people and Ogonis in particular, to sink political rhetorics, and speak in one voice so as to achieve a common goal during the visit of President Buhari to the State to flag-off the commencement of the implementation of the UNEP Report in Ogoni.
The deputy governor said, Governor Wike’s administration attaches importance to the smooth and successful clean-up of Ogoni environment, and has always expressed readiness to support the Federal Government in actualizing all programmes that would bring succour to Rivers people; noting that Rivers State, as the “goose that lays the golden egg,” deserves more projects from the centre; stressing that the clean-up exercise due to be undertaken by the Federal Government in Rivers State should not be over politicised.
She called on Ogonis to see the clean-up exercise as an opportunity they should not allow to be politicized, since according her, it will open more windows of opportunities in the area; and urged the Federal Government to reimburse the Rivers State Government for Federal road projects undertaken by the State Government.
