Some civil society groups in the Niger Delta have called for urgent, coordinated and sustainable action to address the region’s long-standing environmental challenges.
Speaking at a one-day conference on the Niger Delta Cleanup Campaign in Port Harcourt, Coordinator of the Pilex Centre for Civic Education Initiative, Courage Nsirimovu, said the scale of environmental degradation requires collective efforts by governments, communities, environmental defenders and civil society organisations.
Nsirimovu said the conference was designed to bring affected communities and environmental defenders together to transform years of advocacy into coordinated and measurable action. The keynote speaker, Niruo Wills, described the environmental crisis in the Niger Delta as a major emergency and urged political candidates to make environmental cleanup a priority in their campaign agendas.
Other participants called for immediate action and greater accountability, insisting that political leaders and multinational corporations operating in the region must be held responsible for environmental degradation. The conference ended with a call for stakeholders to move beyond advocacy and work collectively towards a cleaner, safer and more sustainable Niger Delta.
