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Environmental Vanguards Demand Rights of Nature to be given just as Human Rights
Environmental Vanguards Demand Rights of Nature to be given just as Human Rights
By: Michael Mike
A group of environmental vanguards have demanded rights of nature to be inalienable given just as human rights are not allowed to be violated and protected by no other than United Nations and its several agencies.
Presenting their position in Abuja on Monday at the Nigeria Socioecological Alternatives Convergence (NSAC), the environmental vanguards riled out several demands in what they described as NSAC Charter which include: Access to water as a human right; Recognise the Rights of Nature; Inclusive policy development; Just energy transition from a polluting and epileptic dirty energy model to renewable energy; Job transitioning; Transition to agroecology; Ensure biosafety and biosecurity, ban genetically modified organisms.
Other demands are: Halt deforestation, promote reforestation; Protect our wetlands and halt indiscriminate land reclamation; Invest in flood control infrastructure; Enforcement of mining regulations; Decommissioning of mines and oil wells at end of life; Compensations for job losses and reparations for ecological damage to affected communities; Ecological audit — State of the Nigerian environment.

Also demanded are: Environmental remediation; Accessible and affordable clean energy. Energy democracy; Revamped emergency response mechanisms; Reject false solutions to climate change, including carbon offsets, geoengineering, etc; Halt gas flaring; Halt and reversal of divestments by IOCs and Declare no mining zones.
The Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey who presented their demands at the 2nd Nigeria Socioecological Alternatives Convergence held at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, on Monday noted that the fabric of the social and environmental conditions of Nigeria are literally stretched to the limit.
He stated that: “The threats emanate from local and global strands of the polycrisis wracking the globe. Exploitation, displacements, conflicts, climate chaos, socioeconomic inequities combine to threaten the tenuous fabrics holding our nation and peoples together.”

He stated that: “Desertification, deforestation, extreme water and air pollution, deadly floods, coastal and gully erosion, insecure farms and diverse ecological devastations all merit a declaration of national environmental security state of emergency? The widespread environmental challenges also provide clear platforms for collective work to salvage the situation in ways that political coalitions may not.”
He declared that: “Waiting before acting is a luxury the people cannot afford. The clarion call for action is urgent and critically existential. This reality inspired the Nigeria Socioecological Alternatives Convergence (NSAC). Regrettably at this second outing the conditions remain dire. We remain undaunted because we understand that the struggle for the change we need cannot be a sprint because it has to be a comprehensive overhaul of a system entrenched by indifference and lack of accountability. The socioecological alternatives we propagate must overturn the current predatory system of destructive extraction and shredded ecological safety nets. Our charter has to construct a Nigeria that is decolonial and post extractivist.”
Bassey said that: “In the maiden national convergence, we collectively agreed to a national charter for socioecological justice. Even as we achieved that major milestone we had hopes that at a future date, we would have participants from other African countries. That future has come faster than we expected. At this convergence we have participants from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. We also have other international partners. The reality of having an African Socioecological Alternatives Convergence (ASAC) is drawing near.”
He noted that there are sources to learn from in efforts to overhaul environmental governance in Nigeria, stressing that in Africa, Kenya and South Africa have constitutional provisions for environmental rights that we can learn from, the South American countries of Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela have constitutional provisions for the rights of Nature.

He explained that: “The Rights of Nature includes the right for Nature to be free from pollution. It also places obligations on human at a number of levels. The Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth is yet to be universally adopted.
“There is a strong campaign for the recognition of ecocide as a crime in the Rome Statute in line with genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, etc.
“We already have outcomes of litigations as well as reports that show evidence of ecocide in Nigeria and these could back up the urgency of the crisis,” explaining that: “Two of such reports are the UNEP Report ( Environmental Assessment of Ogoni environment, 2011) and the Bayelsa State Oil and Environment Commission Report (Environmental Genocide, 2023).”
Bassey noted that: “Delta State House of Assembly is working on a bill to recognize the personhood of River Ethiope. The 2014 National Confab had recommendations for justiciability of human and environmental rights.”
He stated that according to the NSAC Charter, ‘Our vision is of a Nigeria where ecological integrity, social justice, and economic wellbeing coexist. We must birth a Nigeria where the rights of nature are respected, where communities have control over their resources and enjoy resource democracy, and where everyone has access to clean air, water, and a healthy environment.”
He argued that: “The environment supports our life and exploitation of nature’s gifts must be conducted in manners that do not disrupt or breach the cycles of nature. As part of nature, humans have responsibilities and obligations regarding how we interact with our environment and other beings we share the planet with. Human activities contribute to the squeezing we are experiencing from desertification in northern Nigeria and the erosion washing away our communities on the coastline. Sixty-eight (68) years of extraction of fossil fuels has rendered the Niger Delta a disaster zone. Climate impacts and environmental genocide leave festering sores on the territory. Uncontrolled solid mineral extraction is poking holes across the land, and these combined with long abandoned but non-decommissioned mines are scars that we cannot ignore.”
He said: “Let us together ‘Yasunize’ and ‘Ogonize’ by demanding the protection of communities and territories with natural or cultural diversity against activities that cause serious environmental impacts, such as from oil and gas extraction, open cast mining, and other mega-projects. We must wake up and demand a change of mentality.
“Our leaders must Arise and be true compatriots, not lords or emperors, even if that anthem has been placed on the shelf. Oil for development has placed Nigeria on a treadmill surrounded by voracious and insatiable forces of exploitation, expropriation and extermination.”
He revealed that: “The major focus of this Convergence is Examining Relevant National Policies and Frameworks for Addressing Environmental, Climate Change and Socio-ecological Challenges.”
On his part, a Climate Change Specialist. Prof. Emmanuel Oladipo, in his key note address noted that the world is confronted with a number of development challenges – record unemployment, unsustainable fiscal deficits, low growth, among others.
He said. “All this in a context where environmental and climate concerns are becoming an increasingly important component of economic policy.”
Environmental Vanguards Demand Rights of Nature to be given just as Human Rights
News
VP Shettima Mourns Borno Terror Attack Victims, Says No Religion Endorses Killing Of Innocent Lives
VP Shettima Mourns Borno Terror Attack Victims, Says No Religion Endorses Killing Of Innocent Lives
By: Our Reporter
Ahead of his trip to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, Vice President Kashim Shettima , has expressed grief over the death of 25 persons killed in the multiple explosions in different locations across Maiduguri, the Borno State capital on Monday.
He pointed out that no religion sanctions the killing of innocent lives, as the sanctity of human life remains a core tenet of major world faiths.
VP Shettima, who spoke on Tuesday during the closing of the Annual Ramadan Tafsir at the State House Mosque, Abuja, prayed Almighty Allah to grant the souls of those killed in the terror attack in Maiduguri eternal rest, reward them with Aljannah firdaus and give their family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
Praying Almighty Allah to also vanish all agents of terror from the surface of the earth, the VP said, “May the lives of innocent souls – 25 of them – that lost their lives in Maiduguri last evening rest in peace. May Allah grant their souls eternal rest and reward them with His Aljannah firdaus, and may Allah also grant their families the fortitude to bear the irreparable losses.
“May Allah bring this madness to an end. No religion sanctions the killing of the innocent. Whatever that is motivating them, may Allah either guide them on to the right path or May Allah vanish them from the surface of the earth.”
The Vice President emphasised the need for all Nigerians to continue to pray for the country across every sector, as well as pray that the Almighty should continue to grant President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and members of his team wisdom, courage, sincerity and equity in service.
He noted that each season of Ramadan reminds Muslims of a truth that power often tries to hide from man, and that no sit is permanent, just as no office is ultimate and no human being stands above his dependence on his creator.
VP Shettima said, “In the presence of Allah, the distance between the mighty and the unknown vanishes. What remains is character, what remains is accountability, what remains is what we did with the trust placed in our hands.
“This is why gatherings such as this matters. They rescue public lives from arrogance; they retain soul to scale; they teach those entrusted with authority that the nation is not built by policy alone but by conscience; not by proclamation alone but by restraint; not by ambition alone but by fear of Allah.”
The VP called on the Muslim faithful to continue to live in the teachings and lessons of the month of Ramadan, as the final days of Ramadan begins to sleep through their fingers.
“The question before us is not whether Ramadan is ending. The question is whether its teachings will continue to live in us after the moon has changed.
“It is quite easy to cut the head when the atmosphere is charged with devotion. The harder task is to carry it into ordinary days, into the market, into the office, into the home, into the chamber of power, and into the private corners where only Allah sees what we are doing, ” he noted.
While drawing from the lessons of Ramadan, the Vice President said the holy month had thought the Muslim faithful that pity without mercy is noise and worship without service is incomplete.
“So, as we close this year’s Tafsir, let us not return to the habits that weaken our common lives; let us not go back to bitterness, to reckless speech, to indifference dressed as sophistication. A believer doesn’t spend the whole month learning only to become a captive again of anger, greed and division.
“Nigeria needs homes where children encounter good examples before good advice. Nigeria, indeed, needs leaders in every spare who understand that influence is a trust, not a license, ” VP Shettima said.
He paid growing tribute to the Chief Imam of the State House Mosque, Sheikh Abdulwaheed Suleiman Abubakar, and his lieutenant for conducting the Tafsir with wisdom, calm hearts.
Earlier, the Chief Imam prayed for sustainable peace and development of Nigerian and the success of the Tinubu administration’s policies and programmes.
The cleric emphasised the need for leaders at all levels to continue to discharge their responsibilities with the fear of Allah for the process and development of the country.
VP Shettima Mourns Borno Terror Attack Victims, Says No Religion Endorses Killing Of Innocent Lives
News
IGP Visits Maiduguri Bombing Sites, Assesses Security Measures
IGP Visits Maiduguri Bombing Sites, Assesses Security Measures
By: Zagazola Makama
The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Rilwan Disu, has visited victims of the recent IED explosions in Maiduguri and assessed the security situation at key attack sites, underscoring the force’s commitment to public safety.
The IGP visited the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), where casualties of the bomb blasts are receiving medical attention. He commiserated with victims and their families, assuring them of the Nigeria Police Force’s resolve to identify and dismantle networks responsible for the attacks.

Following the hospital visit, he proceeded to the Maiduguri Monday Market, one of the sites targeted by the terrorists, for an on-the-spot security assessment. The visit included interactions with local security personnel to review operational preparedness and strengthen coordinated response measures.
The IGP also visited the Borno State Government House and the State Police Command Headquarters as part of ongoing engagements to enhance collaboration between federal and state security agencies.

He emphasized that security has been significantly tightened across Maiduguri and its environs, with increased patrols, surveillance, and joint operational deployments aimed at preventing further incidents. Residents were reassured of the force’s commitment to safeguarding lives and property in the aftermath of the attacks.
IGP Visits Maiduguri Bombing Sites, Assesses Security Measures
News
Save us From Heavy Trailers Killing Our People… Muna Garage Residents Cry Out to Zulum
Save us From Heavy Trailers Killing Our People… Muna Garage Residents Cry Out to Zulum
By: Bodunrin Kayode
Residents of Muna axis after customs area in Maiduguri have called on Governor Babagana Zulum to save them from the excesses of heavy duty vehicles who deliberately clog the international highway leading to Gamboru Ngala council area on a daily basis.
Some of the residents who spoke to this reporter after a recent crash which almost killed all the occupants of a commercial “Keke” regretted that the road traffic authorities in the state have not given this international highway the priority it deserves in terms of traffic management due to it’s prominence.
A careless trailer which was parked along the road close to the Alkome police hospital had narrowed the road for another trailer and a Keke nappe which struggled for the little space remaining all driving towards the Muna Garage area when a brush occurred and a sudden bang from the back by a third trailer which almost killed all the occupants of the keke nappe.
Some of the commuters came out alive from the crushed Keke with minor wounds while a particular man had his forefoot crushed almost hanging away from the ball of one of that very foot.
It was a bloody weekend for the commuters as blood from one of them flowed freely into the Keke and on the tarred road leading to Muna while onlookers rushed to see if anyone survived the crash.
Since no security personnel showed up within the first 30 minutes of the crash, the wounded were rushed to a nearby hospital while the trailer cleared from the road to ease traffic movement.
Most of the eye witnesses were enraged by the incident with some blaming it on the Keke riders while others castigated the trailers who insist on parking on the shoulder of this international route which should be free from these kinds of challenges.
Baana, a vulcanizer who says he has spent over three decades on this axis of the town called on Governor Babagana Zulum to as a matter of urgency build a massive modern trailer park for the heavy trucks so that they will stop parking along the road while they wait for clearance in the morning to embark on their journeys to Ngala and beyond.
“Lack of a modern trailer park is the main reason why we keep recording lingering accidents on a daily basis here with countless of people being wounded and are not recorded in the government statistics.” He stressed.
For mallam Isa, a teacher inside the suburb behind Alkome police Hospital, the Governor should as a matter of urgency sign an executive fiat to stop trailers from parking on main roads like this one leading to Mafa,Dikwa and Ngala.
” We are calling on the Governor to invoke an executive order based on section 5 of the 1999 constitution by banning all trailers from parking on the trunk A roads leading to Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
” This is because, apart from endangering the lives of commuters, prolonged stay on the tarred roads cause a lot of damage to the roads which the Governor has dualized after destruction by insurgency.”
Mallam Isa also called on Federal and State Road Safety managers in the state to create a road side emergency station along this route that would be assisting them in clearing accident victims in the road throughout the week and even during the weekend.
“look at this accident that just happened, they are all guilty of one offence or the other. But I equally blame the Keke riders because if they have respect for human lives, they will not be contesting for right of way with heavy duty trailers.
” These trailers are very wicked people. They use their big structures to block and entrap people only to be begging for mercy when the damage has been done.
” Their excesses are as grave as that of the keke napep people. The Federal Road Safety and the Borno traffic management authorities should increase their fines further to serve as deterrent on the rest.
Save us From Heavy Trailers Killing Our People… Muna Garage Residents Cry Out to Zulum
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