The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria, has expressed dismay over what it described as the countrys unwillingness to implement the United Nations Environmental Programme report on pollution in Ogoni land.Speaking at the opening session of the fourth National Environmental Consultation programme in Benin, Edo State, on Tuesday, Executive Director, ERA/FoENs, Rev. Bassey Nnimmo, upbraided Nigeria for toying with the lives of Ogoni people and further endangering the eco-system.A recent UNEP report on pollution in Ogoni land indicted oil giant, Shell, and called for the putting in place a number of steps to clean the region. Nnimmo, who is also Chairman, Friends of the Earth, International, the first African to serve in that capacity, in the 77-member-country organisations 40 years history, said Nigeria would require no less than $100bn to begin the arduous task of cleaning up the Niger Delta area. He said, "Ogoni waters are not only dirty, Ogoni waters are deadly. We expect the President (Goodluck Jonathan) to declare Ogoni land a disaster area."They told us that Ogoni land is polluted five metres down, the environment is toxic, live expectancy is 41 years there, the environment is polluted there and the people are living on borrowed time."Government needs to take emergency action and unless you want to wipe out the Ogoni nation, as the government is doing now, that is when you keep quiet. The government needs a billion hundred dollars to begin cleaning up the Niger Delta." In a goodwill message she delivered at the occasion, President, Campaign for Democracy and Women Arise, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said the conference could not have come at a better time.Reeling out the misfortune that had befallen hundreds of Nigerians, as direct consequences of inappropriate handling of environmental issues, Okei-Odumakin said, "On a daily basis we are regaled with one tale of environmental disorder or the other associated with climate change around the globe."Many of these disorders have been better managed and curtailed in societies where proper attention is paid to the issues of environment. "Unfortunately, such issues that threaten humanity do not take the primacy they require in our own country where our rulers are only concerned with the corruption they can benefit from in the oil industry without care about the environmental impact of oil exploration activities."If half of the time devoted to oil subsidy has been devoted to climate change issues, our country would be safer today."
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