Foremost group of environmental activists, the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has urged the Federal Government to urgently declare a state of emergency on the environment as it joins the rest of the world in celebrating World Environment Day (WED).
HOMEF made the call in a statement to commemorate the 2024 WED signed by its Executive Director, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, noting that the 2024 World Environment Day is dedicated to communities whose lands and livelihoods have been lost to extractivism and pollution.
It said in celebrating the 2024 WED with the theme: Land Restoration, Desertification and Drought Resilience, the government, groups and individuals “should reflect on their stewardship duty towards the nature, environment and all living beings rather than continuing with a predatory and destructive relationships that negate our well-being.
HOMEF urged that steps must be taken to halt deforestation, biodiversity erosion and land degradation, adding that without serious climate action humanity will remain on a downward spiral to multiple crises that are already plaguing the world today, adding: “Today is a good time for reflection and change of direction.”
Bassey also noted that the 2024 WED offers Nigeria a template for socio-economic and environmental reexamination and action, lamenting that parts of the African continent are ravaged by environmental degradation, water stress and drought and that Nigeria is particularly affected by desertification and other ecological harms.
“As we celebrate World Environment Day, we remind ourselves that our environment has been plagued with destructive activities especially through resource extraction and poor land-use changes. Nigeria needs an emergency environmental restoration plan across board as the only way to build resilience and ensure a safe future.
“This is our duty to ourselves and to future generations and immediate steps should be taken by the Nigerian government to ensure the proper clean-up of polluted lands, restoration of the same and payment of compensation for damage suffered,” Bassey stated.
He further warned that: “We must wake up from the futile dream that the earth can be recklessly exploited without dire consequences.
We need to understand that the generous gifts of Nature must be handled with gratitude and care. We are living witnesses to the crimes committed in mining communities, oil fields and conflict zones. We must protect our biodiversity, reject species-eroding genetic modifications of all sorts, and support harmonious relationships with Nature.”
HOMEF observed that the World Environment Day is an important day for governments to resolve to ensure that communities must be fully informed, consulted and their consent received before projects that impact the environment are designed or implemented.
The group equally maintained that it must never be forgotten that these communities continuously tackle the impacts of the multidimensional ecological crisis in their unsupported and vulnerable state and deserve to be protected.
“We should change our policies and choices in a transformative way to live sustainably in harmony with nature, with the complete understanding that the planet is our only home and that its resources are finite,” the statement added.
