Nigeria Launches $1 Billion Ogoniland Clean-up and Restoration Programme

References:

https://twitter.com/beegeaglesblog

http://cctv-africa.com/2016/06/02/nigeria-launches-1-billion-ogoniland-clean-up-and-restoration-programme/




Nigerian Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, today set in motion a $1 billion clean-up and restoration programme of the Ogoniland region in the Niger Delta, announcing that financial and legislative frameworks had been put in place to begin implementing recommendations made by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Speaking at an event in Port Harcourt attended by thousands, including international football star Joseph Yobo and Miss Nigeria Pamela Lessi, the Vice President said the Nigerian government was now delivering on what was one of President Buhari’s key election promises.

UNEP’s Executive Director Achim Steiner travelled to Port Harcourt to join Vice President Osinbajo and other dignitaries for the launch ceremony.

The implementation will be based on recommendations from a 2011 UNEP report, commissioned by the Nigerian government, on the impact of oil extraction in Ogoniland.

The report found severe and widespread contamination of soil and ground water across Ogoniland. In a number of locations public health was severely threatened by contaminated drinking water and carcinogens.

Delta ecosystems such as mangroves had been utterly devastated. The report also found that institutional control measures in place both in the oil industry and the Government were not implemented adequately.

The report proposed the establishment of a Restoration Authority with an explicit mandate to clean up Ogoniland and restore the ecosystems.

The report also recommended the establishment of an Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Fund with an initial capitalization of 1 billion dollars to cover the clean-up costs.

Mr. Steiner said, “The people of Ogoniland have paid a high price for the success of Nigeria’s oil industry, enduring a toxic and polluted environment for decades.

Today marks a historic step toward improving the situation of the Ogoni people, who have paid this high price for too long. A clean-up and restoration effort like this cannot happen overnight, but I am hopeful that the cooperation between the Government of Nigeria, oil companies and communities will result in an environmental restoration that benefits both ecosystems and the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta.

UNEP has provided the scientific basis for this work, and will continue to offer its technical expertise as needed to help ensure a positive result for all involved.”

Requested by the Federal Government of Nigeria, UNEP’s Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland was released in August 2011. It examined over the course of two years the environmental impact of oil industry operations in the area since the late 1950s.

It found that oil contamination in Ogoniland is extensive and is having a grave impact on the environment, with pollution penetrating further and deeper than previously thought.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, who will be stepping down from his position this month, was joined by Erik Solheim, UNEP’s incoming Executive Director.

Since January 2013, Mr Solheim has been UNEP’s Special Envoy to Ogoniland, supporting negotiations between the Ogoni people, the Nigerian Government and oil companies. His role as UNEP’s future Executive Director will ensure UNEP’s continuity in supporting the programme.

“The task to clean up Ogoniland will neither be easy nor fast, but it needs to be done,” Mr. Solheim said. “If we succeed here, it will demonstrate that degraded environments can be restored, sending a signal to many other communities around the world that peaceful co-operation can lead to positive outcomes.”

The clean-up is vital for the future of the region. It will help create new livelihoods, establish old livelihoods and change the lives of a million people. It will also establish a new model for working towards sustainable development, even in the most challenging of environments.

The environmental restoration of Ogoniland is likely to be the world’s most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean up exercise ever undertaken. Experts suggest that it may take up to 25 years until ecosystems are fully restored.

Alright

alright

Very likely that posterity will judge Buhari victim of the fight back by Nigeria corruption. This narrative is beginning to gather...

but those of us that study Africa have other ideas....

good,but that is not what the niger delta is asking for,this cleanup is a greek gift------snailspeed.

Nice one Mr. President, now we know who truly loves the Niger Deltans.

Mack3N:
good,but that is not what the niger delta is asking for,this cleanup is a greek gift------snailspeed.

Your own group of NDers should shut the fvckup and bury your head in shame.
Your broda (the jesus of otueke) was the number 1 citizen of this country for 6 gud yrs but did not deem it fit to clean up your land. As if that is not bad enof, your own group of NDers did not see anything to ask for UNTIL a hausa fulani muslim (the group of people you all hate so much) came into power and set things in motion in less than 6months. Today the actual cleaning has started and you are here talkin nonsense.

Who gets paid to clean up the mess? Bet it ain a Nigerian company....


Wars and strife in Africa are so lucrative it will take some doing to ween the benefactors of ....lets just say, anticipating more

gists:

Your own group of NDers should shut the fvckup and bury your head in shame.
Your broda (the jesus of otueke) was the number 1 citizen of this country for 6 gud yrs but did not deem it fit to clean up your land. As if that is not bad enof, your own group of NDers did not see anything to ask for UNTIL a hausa fulani muslim (the group of people you all hate so much) came into power and set things in motion in less than 6months. Today the actual cleaning has started and you are here talkin nonsense.

Commissioning a project and carrying it out are two different things,wait till the project is accomplished and not abandoned before quoting me again!

Mack3N:

Commissioning a project and carrying it out are two different things,wait till the project is accomplished and not abandoned before quoting me again!

Shameless wailer.
Why did your gej not start the cleaning.......
.......What am I even saying sef? The correct question is, why didn't your shameless son of the soil approve the implementation of the UNEP report - even if he knew he won't to implement it. Surely, as the president for 6 good yrs, he couldn't have been in a better position to at least approve the report even if it is just for political jamboree.

gists:

Shameless wailer.
Why did your gej not start the cleaning.......
.......What am I even saying sef? The correct question is, why didn't your shameless son of the soil approve the implementation of the UNEP report - even if he knew he won't to implement it. Surely, he couldn't have been in a better position to at least approve the report even if it is just for political jamboree.

You must be having hangover from the shocking disappointment your sherrifatu gave you this morning,go heal up.your mate don hide finish you dey here dey bleat!