From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Despite billions spent and diplomatic ties, Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, has claimed that Nigeria and other African countries are not benefitting from the Conference of Parties (COPs) on climate change.
Bassey, who spoke yesterday at the West Africa Climate Justice Roundtable held in Abuja, said the politics at COPs was affecting Africans as politicians continue to have their way and perpetrate pollution operations.
“If there is climate justice in Nigeria, there will be no gas flaring, oil spills would stop, and there would be an audit of the entire oil belt. If there were climate justice in Nigeria, how can oil be burning for five years, and the government is doing nothing about it? There’s no climate justice in Nigeria, so we’re demanding climate justice in Nigeria, just like we’re demanding for the whole West African region and the entire African continent.
“So if everything that’s being talked about at this international convention is about false solutions,” he said.
“Should we stop going? What should we do as a country and as a region? So we need to really see that the crisis is more on us.
“So it is not enough for Nigeria to go to the Conference of Parties and just participate and come back with nothing. I mean, at the last COP, we had the closing statement of the Nigerian leader, head of delegation, which was very encouraging, really calling the system out for what it is,” he said.
Also, he said the demands of Africa should be centred on the recognition and payment of climate debt because the continent has been exploited for hundreds of years, and it is time for someone to pay for it.
