Environmental Group, ERA, Warns Nigeria

Environmental Group, ERA, Warns Nigeria

* Says 2011 Won't Be Business As Usual

FOREMOST environmental rights advocacy group in Nigeria, Environmental Rights Action (ERA), which also serves as the country's branch of Friends of the Earth, has warned that for the Nigerian government and power-seeking politicians, it will no longer be business as usual in 2011.
The next cycle of general elections in Nigeria comes up in 2011. That is when the country's next President, members of the bi-camaral National Assembly, 35 state Governors and members of their state Houses of Assemnly would be elected for a tenure of four years.
As electoral campaigns gradually build up towards 2011, ERA is saying that environmental concerns will become a deciding factor since in the past little or nothing was said in this regard.

In a communique wired to AkanimoReports on Monday after their Annual General Meeting, ERA is pushing for immediate end to gas flaring in the Niger Delta and appropriate penalties for defaulting companies that will include withdrawal of their operational license.

The communique which was signed by Nnimmo Bassey, the Executive Director of ERA also called on Nigeria to embrace a post petroleum economy that will ensure that all new oil finds are left in the soil, and a halt to new oil exploration and bidding for allocation of new oil and gas or bitumen blocs.

Their meeting was however, held in Oghara, the home town of former Governor James Ibori (1999-2007) in Delta State, from February 8-12, 2010. During the meeting, they evaluated current events in the country and globally as they relate to environmental justice and climate change.
Those who attended the meeting were members of ERA board, management, staff, community campaigners on the platform of Host Communities Network (HoCoN), students and volunteers. They expressed dissatisfaction over the state of the Nigerian environment.

Participants accused the Federal Government of Nigeria of double standards because according to them, ''it is yet to demonstrate commitment to ending gas flaring in the Niger Delta going by the endless shift in flare-out dates while it is professing a commitment to climate change mitigation and adaptation''.
They equally observed that reckless and illegal logging in what remains of their remaining natural forests poses a grave threat to livelihoods and harmony in the impacted communities, and a major contributor to climate change.
The participants unequivocally rejected the Copenhagen Accord that is seeking the treatment of climate change with kid gloves. ''The outcome of the Copenhagen Talks last December falls totally short of the expectations of impacted nations of the global South and is a toxic brew for the vulnerable peoples who are the most impacted'', they said.
Participants said they found as shocking the decision of the African Union (AU) and the Nigerian government to back the Copenhagen Accord and contrary to the position of their citizens who were neither consulted nor considered before the ratification of the accord.

ENDS

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