Stakeholders in the Niger Delta on Friday urged government at all levels and multinational firms operating in Nigeria to put an end to what they described as the criminal neglect of the Niger Delta region, particularly with gas flaring still ongoing daily.

Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, Rev Nnimmo Bassey, and Prof. Tanure Ojaide, among other scholars and dons from the university community, including Dr. Bode Ekundayo, made the call in Benin at an event entitled, “Poetry Day With Prof Tanure Ojaide on Environment and Culture,” organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF).

Ojaide who won the 2018 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, expressed disappointment with government and multinational companies saying, “Top officials of the oil companies and the Federal Government must be honest, truthful and sincerely concerned about the development of the oil rich Niger Delta region.”

He added that genuine effort aimed at ensuring restoration and reparation of Niger Delta communities must be a topmost priority on the part of the federal government as well as multinational corporations agenda to drive the rapid development of the region.

Ojaide solicited the support of all and sundry in making Nigeria’s environment safe for all.

He said, “Let us make things better in Nigeria. Let us make the environment better, safer, and more conducive. When you take good care of the environment, the nation’s economy will be better. Environmental struggle and justice are lifelong battles. Do not get tired.

“HOMEF should be praised for its efforts in environmental restoration and advocating environmental/climate justice and food sovereignty in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

“We need to be ecologically literate. If we are all ecologically literate, the world will be much better. Environmental-conservation activism is never too late. Be conscious of the environment.

“We should not abuse the environment. We can not just sit idly and do nothing about the environment. Be more sensitive to the environment.”

Ojaide, an Urhobo from Delta State, whose creative works have inspired millions across the world noted that there is criminal neglect of the Niger Delta, with gas flaring still ongoing daily, calling on top officials of the oil companies and the Federal Government to be honest, truthful and sincerely concerned about the development of the crude oil and gas-rich Niger Delta.

Earlier, the HOMEF executive director, Nnimmo Bassey, expressed optimism that knowledge on environmental sustainability and climate justice has been adequately documented in books and anthologies.

Lamenting the huge damage done to the Niger Delta region and local communities, Bassey said the sad thing is that the main promoters of these environmental evils, some of them are not Nigerians, they are corporations that come from elsewhere.

“What they do in Nigeria, they cannot do in their home countries. This is why when the environment is eroded, life expectancy is also eroded.

“The global definition at the moment has driven the world to the brink, which is why everything is so broken and damaged.

“Pollution is an outcome and a problem of ‘development’ and ‘growth’. End should now come to the criminal neglect of the Niger Delta.

“The polluters should be repentant and become penitent. If they do that, redemption is possible, but then, we must all stand firm and ask that all the persons who have damaged our environment make reparations for all the destruction. The polluters should be held to account, particularly to pay reparations, not just polluter pays.

“Reparations mean you pay continually until the original state of the environment is repaired and restored. You will also pay for the inconveniences that the people have suffered because you stole their environment.”