The founder of an NGO, Environmental Aware and Restoration Network (EARN), Prof. Slyvester Egwu, has urged Nigerians to cultivate good environmental behaviour.
Egwu, who gave this advice in an interview in Lagos on Monday, January 22, 2024, said there was need to sensitise Nigerians ahead of an Oil Pollution Conference, Nigeria 2024, scheduled for Bayelsa State in March.
“A time has come for Nigeria to be friendly to the environment.
“A time has come for Nigeria to decarbonise and restore the environment for green climate and low carbon economy.
“What we need to do is to make sure that our environment is decarbonised and restored after several decades of destruction and damage, particularly in oil producing areas.
“Today, if no action is taken, the country will suffer the consequences and ramifications of intergenerational injustice in future,” he said.
Egwu said that, a few years ago, the level of heat was not what it was now, adding the country needed to reduce it.
He said that illegal refinery, popularly known as “Kpofire”, was causing more damage to the environment.
He said that burning crude oil openly released a lot of carbon dioxide and methane that had high potency for retention of heat.
According to him, when these are released to the atmosphere, they cause Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) and warming.
GHGs increases the intensity of solar radiation on earth and causes global warming.
He said security personnel destroying the products was not the best option as the action exacerbated climate change.
Egwu said the best option was to recover the products, hand them over to appropriate authorities and punish the offenders.
Egwu said that the EARN conference had assembled experts in environment, restoration, crowd funding and crowd sourcing to effectively chart the way forward.
He said that the NGO would be involved in rehabilitation of ‘Kpofire’ operators and giving them options of farming and fishing ventures.
He said the security agencies involved in prosecution and arrest of oil thieves would also participate at the conference for them to know the best way to handle oil thieves.
Egwu said that the NGO would be fully involved in building adaptive capacity and resilience in communities affected by the oil pollution.
He said that the conference would address oil pollution, climate change, oil spill, gas flaring and others.
By Chidinma Agu
