Stakeholders Urge Rivers govt to set up Ministry of Blue Economy, carry out audit of environment

 

The Rivers State Government has been advised to make haste and begin steps to enthrone a Blue Economy. The government has also been called upon to leverage Ogoni cleanup scheme to launch appeals for total cleanup of the state by starting with environmental audit of the state.

These were the key resolutions at the activity on the World Ocean Day which took place at the Rivers State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Port Harcourt by the Energy and Maritime Reporters (EMR) of Nigeria.

Stakeholders regretted that Rivers State, a key coastal state, did not seem to lead in taking advantage of low hanging fruits in the dawn of the Blue Economy, and called on the state government to set up a dedicated ministry to this and develop a blue print to explore the sector the way the Federal Government has already done. 

The stakeholders said if such a Ministry had been set up, that EMR members and other stakeholders would be engaging with it to render support and ideas to make Rivers State a leading state in the Blue Economy headway. 

On cleanup, the stakeholders observed that Rivers State stood at huge advantage to leverage Ogoni Cleanup to get the experts and resource persons that audited Ogoni environment to also audit the state and invite oil majors, the Federal Government, and the international community to support cleanup of the state. 

Experts said such would have laid a drive for other states to latch on the Rivers blue print to push for the cleanup of the entire Niger Delta. 

At the World Ocean Day event at the NUJ, Dr Suka Monta, an energy expert, once again affirmed that his firm has found a way to clean up pollution faster, better, and cheaper. He said his nano method does it once while the exiting technology runs a site thrice to get result. He said oil companies and agencies of government have his discovery to test and saw it is true. He said his firm is expecting to land its first cleanup project.

At the event, Dr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, Executive Director, Youth and Environment Centre (YEAC) Nigeria, joined the call for total cleanup of the Niger Delta, saying modular refineries would have since made pipeline vandalism and artisanal refining a thing of the past. 

Comrade Paul Bazia-Nsane, the state NUJ Chairman, commended the EMR and called it a unique beat association. He pledged total support to the group to help give voice to the energy and maritime sub sectors in the Niger Delta. 

He was supported by Dr Ijeoma Tubosia, state secretary of the NUJ, who urged the EMR members to continue to dish out accurate information to the rest of the society, and to carry the cries and woes of the communities to the government.

Ignatius Chukwu, the EMR Leader, harped on the harms from the ocean due to harms done to the ocean by humans. He mentioned micro and nano plastics pollution now threatening humanity through poisoned fish stock from the seas and oceans. He also appealed to Indorama Nigeria to as part of corporate social responsibility, help set up plastics recycling centres starting from the Niger Delta.

Comrade Martins Giadom, national chairman of EMR, traced the years of efforts of the association to set agenda for reporting the energy and maritime sectors, saying there is need for training of Reporters to do better. He also called for linkup to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to help guide activities of the EMR.   

Goodwill messages were rendered by experts including Wonne Afronelly, Initiator, My Environment My Wealth Nigeria, who encouraged Journalists to continue to fight for the environment despite numerous setbacks and apparent conspiracies.