Nigerian Environment Minister on Ogoni land Clean-Up

The Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, says the clean-up of Ogoni land is just the beginning of many other clean-ups that the government will embark on in the Niger Delta region.

President Buhari will on Thursday, June 2, fulfill his campaign promise by launching the Ogoni clean-up project and Mrs. Mohammed stated that how to keep the Niger Delta clean from further pollution after the clean-up is most important to the administration.

“Technologies are available, whether we are going to deal with the soil or the air and the gas flaring or we are going to be dealing with the water which is so contaminated."

“I think there is a broad knowledge of what is going to happen.” the Minister said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday."

Reacting to questions about the possibility of totally restoring the polluted areas in less time than the stipulated 25 years, the Minister noted that fixing the pollution cannot not be achieved in few years considering how long the damaging activities have been going on in the region.

“You’re not going to fix it in few years, no matter what technology you have. You have massive areas of land. Remember I said Ogoni is going to be our starting point, the rest of the Niger Delta is also polluted in heavy ways, perhaps even more so than Ogoni land.

“Even though there have been no production in the last 20 years there are still illegal activities that again refill the pollution.”

She gave the assurance that the Ministry would be deploying all available technologies and wealth of expertise from across the world and also from scientists in Nigeria universities towards achieving the targets.

Mrs. Amina Mohammed also gave the assurance that the people of Ogoni will be an integral part of what the government hopes to achieve in their community.

The environment minister mentioned the provision of clean water as one of the emergency response measures being put in place after the launch of the clean-up.

“The past administration put a lot of sign posts to say ‘don’t go here don’t go there because they are contaminated’ but I can tell you everybody is there because there is no alternative."

The Minister of Environment also urged the Niger Delta Avengers and other militant groups in the region to stop blowing up oil installations and embrace the path of dialogue with the federal government.

According to the Minister, the act of blowing up oil installations is not only criminal but its impact on the environment cannot be quantified.