Ifeanyi IbeThe 10th Anniversary Conference of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) was held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, on Monday, with His Highness, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, the Emir of Nasarawa, calling on governments at all levels to give greater priority to environmental challenges facing Nigeria.
HOMEF is a non-governmental body established in 2013 to act as a think tank that advocates for environmental and climate justice and food sovereignty in Nigeria and Africa. It stands against forces erected by colonial practices through which environmental and people exploitations take place.
Global Environmental Governance
Presenting the first keynote address titled, ‘Environmental Governance: Between Policy and Practice,’ the Emir located the history of the global quest for environmental safety and appreciated the important role the United Nations Environment Programme has been playing in global policies and practices.
The Emir pointed out two specific examples of global policies such as the Ozone Layer Depletion which was discovered by Charles Fabry and Henri Brisson, French Physicists, and how the Montreal Treaty was used to find a solution to the challenge.
The second is the problem of Climate Change for which global response action came unmistakably in the form of Conference of Parties 21(COP 21), which, having risen from the Kyoto Protocol, culminated later in the famous ‘Paris Agreement on Climate Change’ in 2015.
There were other policy decisions like the ‘Kigali Amendment’ which followed the ‘Montreal Protocol.’
These, he emphasised, were frontal approaches taken by the United Nations Environment Programme established in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, the first time the word, “Environment” was deployed by the United Nations in a deliberate effort for a global solution to environmental issues.
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This conference culminated in the ‘Earth Summit’ of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which was the 20th Anniversary of the UNEP. It was a beehive of political leaders, diplomats, scientists, media, and non-governmental organisations from across 179 countries, focusing on human socioeconomic activities on socioeconomic development.
In its quest to chart a policy path for global environment, the United Nations Environment Programme defined Environmental Governance as “Policies, rules and norms that govern human behaviour and it also addresses who makes decisions, how decisions are made and carried out, the scientific information needed for decision-making and how the public and major stakeholders can participate in the decision-making.”
Jibril described the United Nations Environment Programme as “the environmental conscience of the world.”
He noted that the HOMEF has fought battles on issues of the environment, such as in the area of Genetically Modified Organisms.
Nigeria’s Environmental Governance
Jibril noted that Nigeria launched into a significant first step in environmental policy in 1988 with the establishment of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency(FEPA). It was followed later in 1999 with the establishment of the Federal Ministry of Environment to take over the functions of FEPA. All policies relating to the environment were vested in the ministry.
In 2017 and 2019, another breath-taking effort was made with the Nigerian Green Bond through which ₦10.6 billion and ₦15 billion were raised to support sustainability and climate-related issues, energy efficiency, pollution prevention, sustainable agriculture, fishery, forestry, etc.
Another great impact Nigeria made was the establishment of the New Erosion and Watershed Management Project(NEWMAP) assisted by the World Bank to deal with erosion issues in the South-East and land degradation in the North.
Then also came the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project(HYPREP) under which issue of oil pollution is addressed. It is under this intervention that the Ogoni cleanup is taking place.
School Of Ecology (SoE)
The organisation, in pursuit of its mandate, has established School of Ecology in 2021 in collaboration with the University of Lyon, France. The school “is a knowledge space for interrogating concepts, policies and actions on various issues, including environment and climate, justice, agriculture, resource democracy and overall socio-ecological transformation.”
Topics the school treats include “Shifting the power line; Politics of the sea; Political ecology; Transforming the earth; Biosafety, Biosecurity and Food Sovereignty.
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The organisation also “pursues the objective of putting pressure on governments to commit to shifting power modes from fossil fuel to renewables with the aim of building a fossil-free future and amplifying actions of women and youths in the movement against energy colonialism, especially in most affected areas by systematic environmental racism.”
Push-backs To Environmental Governance
The Emir lamented that there has been challenges on the noble path to environmental action. Such challenges include “the inherent behaviour of powerful organisations and countries who deny the scientific conclusions on climate change.
“The fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war which may reform the world in the direction of adoption of coal, a dirty fuel, as an alternative. This will pose a setback to efforts to address climate change.”
Jibril further identified as a big challenge the gap between the national and subnational governments in the handling of environmental issues. This is especially so in Nigeria.
According to him, “Whereas there is the availability of technically competent manpower at the national level, it is different at the subnational level. More serious actions are taken at the national level than at the subnational level. There are also more technically competent personnel at the national level than at the subnational level. This gal is a big issue because it determines whether the nation will move fast and efficiently to save Nigeria’s environment from numerous harmful practices.”
Complexity Of Environmental Justice: Colonialism Blamed
In a welcome address by Nnimo Bassey, HOMEF said, “The struggle for environmental justice in Africa is complex”, noting that “it is the continuation of the fight for the liberation of the continent and for socio-ecological transformation.”
The statement emphasized that, “The environment of man is his life, the soil, rivers and air are not inanimate or lifeless entities. We are anchored and rooted in our environment.
“Our roots are sunk in our environment and that is where our nourishment comes from. We do not see the Earth and her bountiful gifts as items that must be exploited, transformed, consumed or wasted. The understanding of the Earth as a living entity and a dead thing warns that rapacious exploitation that disrupts her regenerative powers are acts of cruelty or Ecocide.”
Bassey blamed the history of colonialism for today’s exploitative tendencies that have been at the root of the complex challenges the Earth faces presently.
And it comes truly home in Africa where, “Grand theft by the colonial forces was seen as entrepreneurship; genocide was overlooked as mere conquest; slavery was seen as commerce. The civilizers were purveyors of death, death of individuals, death of ecosystems.”
But there exists a contradiction: “People are worried about what to do with the crude oil or fossil gas in our soil if we do not exploit them. In other words, how could we end poverty if we do not destroy our environment and grab all it could be forced to yield?
“We tolerate deforestation, unregulated industrial fishing and run a biosafety system that promotes the introduction of needless genetically modified organisms and by doing so, endanger our biodiversity and compromise our environment and food systems.”
Interestingly the world has arrived at a juncture where there is a collision between exploitation and consumption. This circumstance seems to be so inescapable that it compromises everyone.
Thus, in one perspective it’s the story of capital moving across borders in search of exploitation in the garb of offering development and in another the pliant readiness with which national governments are so receptive of such transborder capital, throw a blind eye just for their selfish gains against their people and environment.
In his word, Bassey described this situation as “the reign of exploitation and consumption without responsibility which drives Africa and indeed the world to the brink.
“The current civilisation of death seeks ready investment in destruction through warfare and extractivism rather than in building resilience and adapting to the environmental changes that result from corporate and imperial misadventures.”
He further noted that “Africa is facing multiple ecological challenges resulting from actions of entities that have seen it as a sacrificial zone.
“Are we against renewable energy? No! While the world knows we must rebuild our biodiversity, what we see is the push towards more deforestation in Africa and for monoculture agriculture, all of which are against our best interest and that of the world. A sore issue, land grabbing has not disappeared with the coming innovations.”
10-Point Recommendation
The address made recommendations to consider, including,
“1. Commit to issuing an annual state of Environment Report to lay out the situation of things in their territories.
2. End destructive extraction no matter the appeal of capital.
3. Demand climate debt for centuries of ecological exploitation and harm.
4. Require remediation, restoration of all degraded territories and pay reparations to direct victims or their heirs.
5. Support and promote food sovereignty, including by adopting agroecology.
6. Adopt and promote African cultural tools and philosophies for the holistic tackling of ecological challenges and for the healing and well-being of our people and communities.
7. Promote and provide renewable energy in democratized manner.
8. Recognise our right to water, treat it as a public good, halt and reverse its privatisation.
9. Recognise the right of Mother Earth and codify Ecocide as a crime akin to genocide, war crimes and other unusual crimes.
10. Ensure that all Africans enjoy the right of living in a safe and satisfactory environment suitable for human progress.”
Dignitaries/Presentations
Part of the activities during the event was the presentation of a book written by HOMEF titled, ‘Politics of Turbulent Waters: Reflections On Ecological, Environmental and Climate Crises in Africa.’
The three-day event witnessed the presence of eminent Nigerians including His Highness, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, the Emir of Nasarawa; His Royal Highness, King Bubaraye Dakolo, Agada IV, Ibenanowei of Ekpatiama Kingdome, Chairman, Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council; Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto and Prof Niyi Osundare, Poet/Dramatist.
Others are Dr Isaac Asuma Osuoka; Ifeoma Malo and a host of artists and participants.
The second keynote address titled, ‘Art, Culture and the Environment’ was presented by Prof Osundare. The third, titled ‘Environmental Justice For A Resilient Africa’ was done by Dr Osuoka. Kukah presented the fourth keynote titled, ‘Our Duty of Trusteeship Over Creation.’
Other intellectual highlights at the event include, ‘Riddle of The Oil Thief’ which was presented by Dakolo. There was equally a documentary presentation titled, ‘Ten Years of Ecological Think-Tank’.
Discussion sessions include the topic titled, ‘Re-imagining Development in Africa’ with Ken Henshaw among the discussants.
There was also a session for ‘Communities and Partners to Share Experiences’, and poem recitation.
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