Mkpoikana Udoma 22 February 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos – The Federal Government has pledged that it will successfully restore Ogoni environment to where it previously was in the next 20 years.
Minister of Environment, Mrs. Amina Mohammed, disclosed this during the launching of an integrated soil management centre to begin the United Nations Environmental Programme-recommended cleanup process in Ogoniland.
Mohammed, in the company of Minister of State for Environment and other officials of the Federal Ministry of Environment, said President Muhammadu Buhari was interested in the development of the Niger Delta region.
She said the Ogoni cleanup was part of President Buhari’s campaign promises to Ogoni people, adding that the project was not for sharing of money but for investing money for the development of the area.
“The development of Ogoni land is the priority of this administration started by President Buhari as one of his campaign promises. This project or the issue of cleanup is not only for Ogoni but for the rest of Niger Delta.
“In the next 20 years we will restore Ogoni land to where it was years ago. From the community leaders, youths, women, oil companies, civil society groups, everybody must play his or her part to ensure that we succeed,” he stated.
The minister also disclosed that the government would begin the cleanup exercise with the training of at least 1,200 Ogoni women, whom she described as carriers of the Ogoni burdens.
She also said that there would be no diversification of the economy of Niger Delta if the people continued to pollute the environment, and pleaded that the environment should be allowed to stay clean after the cleanup.