The Social Media as a Platform for Creating Environmental Awareness in the Niger Delta Region
By Idumange John
[email protected]; 07039103572
Being a paper presented at the 3rd Environment Outreach Magazine Public Lecture & Environmental Awards
Theme: The Petroleum Industry in Nigeria and the Niger Delta Environment: Blessing or Curse?
Venue: Conference Hall of Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Effurun, Delta State
Date: Friday September 28th 2012
The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. You cannot sustain the economy if you don't take care of the environment because we know that the resources that we use whether it is oil, energy, land … all of these are the basis in which development happens. And development is what we say generates a good economy and puts money in our pockets. If we cannot sustain the environment; we can't not sustain ourselves.” WANGARI MAATHAI
Introduction:
The aphorism that man shall not live by bread alone appears to have gained wide acceptance, but the most fundamental reality is that man cannot live without bread. Therefore man's economic activities in his immediate environment have brought about improved living conditions. There is an inextricable nexus between the environment and the economy, human development and happiness. God created the earth with unmatched infinite creative artistry designed the living and non-living components of the environment to exist in perfect harmony. Man's activities have negatively shifted this ecological balance thus threatening his own very existence on the planet. On a global scale, the universal environmental problems are threatening the human population are becoming worrisome. Practices such as improper disposal of household refuse, open-air disposal of sewage waste forming sewage lagoon, flooding brought about by poorly designed or blocked drainage, the frequent Discharge of untreated industrial effluent, including gas and oil spillage have assumed very frightening dimensions.
I believe there is no conference that is more fundamental than one which has direct bearing on our culture, our heritage and our environment without which human survival would not be possible. Only a couple of days ago, the Social media was awash with a litany of stories verging on flood cutting off Lokoja Road, disrupting the free flow of vehicular traffic for days; the not-too-distant flood disaster in Lagos which swept away humans and animals, property and habitations, and the 6 hour downpour in Port Harcourt- which led to the collapse of a flyover at the Elekahia- Air force axis. Now, a huge part of Bayelsa State was submerged only two days ago. Here and there, the flood disaster has become a national emergency. The list of such gory reports on flood, sitting, earth tremor largely occasioned by seismic activities of oil companies, the endless infernos of hell we call gas flares; the surging ocean waters , the savagery of endless discharge of sewage into marine life and frequent oil spillage-and its attendant depletion of biodiversity and degradation of the environment , one thing is sure: climate change is taking place because the ozone layer is being depleted and this is a catastrophic threat to our generation. We are indeed racing against time.
Let me most sincerely thank the organizer of this Conference and the publishers of The Envrronment Outtreach News Magazine for their resilience, focus and tenacity of purpose. The organizers deserve more than our thanks because they engage in an endeavour that seeks to address our present challenges but also aims at sustaining our collective survival as a people- our human race. It was against the background of the significance I personally attach to this event that I had to plead with my daughter to attend this event that event at the cost of celebrating her 8th birthday today. Indeed my daughter and I share 28th September as our birthday.
The theme of today's Lecture “The petroleum industry in Nigeria and the Niger Delta Environment: Blessing or Curse” is an old wine put in a new bottle in the light of contemporary events in the Nigerian State? The theme is apt because in several permutation, the raging controversies related to onshore/ offshore dichotomy, derivation, the push for the abrogation of obnoxious laws such as the petroleum Acts of 1969- as amended; the Land Use Act of 1978 as amended; and other contentious issues like the Local Content Law, its scope and application; the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB; and Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative , NEITI, These issues touch the solar plexus of our national survival as 95% of Nigeria's foreign exchange derives from crude oil. Successive administrations have not demonstrated robust political will to diversify the nation's economy by investing in tourism development and agriculture to create jobs opportunities. There is hope that this aspiration may not be long in coming.