….receives award for setting up International Commission of Oil Pollution
….calls on government at all levels to work for sustainable environment
By Haruna Salami
Former Governor of Bayelsa state and Chairman, Senate Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, Henry Seriake Dickson has again lamented the environmental degradation in the oil rich Niger Delta.
Dickson made this known Wednesday when Global Initiative for Climate and Environmental Sustenance (GICES) conferred him with “An Excellence in Environmental Leadership Award 2023” for his contributions and stewardship in sustaining a healthy environment while serving as Governor of Bayelsa State between 2012 and 2020.
According to him, as governor, “I got tired of the environmental degradation that I was seeing in Bayelsa on a daily basis, getting the reports and seeing first hand the effects on the communities, on the livelihood of the people and indeed on the lives of the people.
“I empaneled this high profile international commission of inquiry made up of political leaders, world leaders and experts, scientists of no mean repute drawn from around the world. I used my powers under the commissions of inquiry laws of Bayelsa state to enpanel and commission them to do an in-depth, thorough, comprehensive investigation and report.
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“They went to communities, took samples of spill sites, even blood samples of people in Bayelsa state. You will be shocked at the findings, the amount of heavy metals that the people of Bayelsa, Niger Delta and oil bearing communities carry in their bodies. Heavy metals in their systems from polluted water that they drink, from the fish that is polluted that they consume, and so forth over the years.
Dickson lamented that the oil companies didn’t cooperate with him, but instead they were fighting him, adding “I enjoyed this fight for justice and I didn’t mind them”.
He was confident that the government is continuing from where he stopped. “Today, I want to remind Nigerians about this report and urge people to get copies of it. Everything about the scientific details of pollution over the decades in Bayelsa and across the Niger Delta is documented here.
“This will also serve as a lesson for all those states that are happy now that they have joined the league of oil producing states. They are welcome to the fold. Let them come and see what we have been seeing for 60 – 70 years and feel what we feel. On all this is a call to further action.
“We should keep our eyes on preserving the trees that our ancestors did cut and left for us.
“I want to use this opportunity to call on the federal, states, local governments and federal agencies to pay attention to the reckless deforestation that is take place. I did my little to show what difference can be made.
Earlier The Global Initiative for Climate and Environmental Sustenance (GICES) presented an award of Excellence on Environment of the Senator.
The body said Dickson believes that “the Environment is the collective heritage”, so as governor, in his multi-pronged approach towards protecting and preserving the Bayelsa environment, employed 250 graduates as forest protection officers, that were recruited into the ministry of environment with the aim to monitor deforestation and stop the reckless fallen of trees in the state”.
“During his tenure as governor, he empaneled an International Commission on Oil Spills to assess environmental damages, determine responsibility, and develop a new legal framework for accountability and compensation.
“These team of world leaders brought together by Senator Henry Seriake Dickson includes: The former President of Ghana, Emmanuel Kuffour, the Archbishop of York Dr. John Setanmu, as well as notable academicians to address the harrowing issues of environmental despoliation as well as related challenges in the oil industry”, GICES said.
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