A Civil Society Organisation, Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, has challenged youths in Nigeria to take the lead in climate actions, seeking climate justice for heavily impacted communities.
The Executive Director of HOMEF, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, who gave the charge on Friday during an opening of a two-day School of Ecology workshop themed “Peoples’ Power for Climate Action” held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, warned that if young persons fail to be the driving force in the call for climate action, they would be surprised the level of devastation and impact they would experience in years to come.
According to him, ‘”Young people really need to take climate action seriously because the future is about them. The climate impacts of today will be nothing in the next 10, 15, 20 years, if they don’t get into being the driving force in the call for action, they will be so surprised at what they’re going to see in the future when they get there.
“This is what we have in the School of Ecology, to spread that awareness by seeding in the hearts of those who are attending, the ideas that they have to share with their colleagues.”
He encouraged them to learn from other youths other climes who have being at the forefront in demanding climate justice citing the boldness of youths from the Pacific Island who went to the International Court of Justice at the Hague and got a special opinion of the court about climate change which now gives opportunity to anyone in the world to sue governments for not taking the right climate action.
Bassey also challenged the youths to seek answers for non-remediation of impacted environment especially in the Niger Delta, questioning why some abandoned oil wells in the area have not been decommissioned.
He said such sites are ticking time bombs against the environment, health, and livelihoods of local communities.
While admitting that most of the young persons were not born when oil drilling started in the 1950s and the hazards done; Bassey said now was the time for them to drum it into ears of the government and relevant companies to begin the process of remediation amidst reports of divestment.
“We have seen abandoned oil wells breaking out in fire. Some years back we saw an abandoned oil wells exploding at Ikot Adaudo in Akwa Ibom and was quelled after some months. We also witness another abandoned oil well explosion at Santa Brabra in Bayelsa. People see abandoned oil wells and think that it is just Christmas tree and walk away but those are all time bombs,” he said.
He, therefore called for immediate action from government and oil companies by taking responsibility for decommissioning and rehabilitating these wells.
Ms Betty Abah, Founder of Centre for Children Health Education, Orientation and Protection, CEHOPEP, lamented that oil spills from non-decommissioned wells contaminate water sources, destroy aquatic life, and affect the livelihoods of particularly women who are majorly into fishing and farming.
She further stated that women are more prone to the pollution in the Niger Delta Region because of their physiology calling for their infusion in decision making process.
Also speaking, Mr Jaye Gaskiya, Director , Centre for Transformative Governance, stated that one of the challenges of environmental justice is that “many people presume it as a Niger Delta problem.”
He said that far-reaching effects of climate change cut across all sectors of economy particularly agriculture irrespective of the region of extractivism.
Earlier in her remarks, Mfoniso Xael, described School of Ecology as a place not just for learning but where to reimagine the world through the lens of justice, solidarity, and ecological sanity.
She added, “We are here because the earth is crying, and so are our people. We are here because the Niger Delta remains a living wound, an open testament to decades of exploitation, pollution, and abandonment by systems that value profit over people, extraction over existence.
“We will map the landscape of power and resistance, identify allies and enemies, and co-create strategies for ecological defense, evidence gathering, and advocacy.”