‘Implement Livelihood Programme In Ogoniland’

A civil society organization, the African Indigenous Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development (AIFES), has called on the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to begin the implementation of the livelihood programme as recommended in the report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on Ogoni environment.

It said implementing the livelihood programme, especially for youths in Ogoniland will go a long way to reduce the involvement of youths in illegal oil bunkering in the area.

AIFES executive director, Legborsi Pyagbara, spoke in Port Harcourt, yesterday during  meeting with key stakeholders, civil society organizations (CSOs) and community leaders, to mark the 2023 Indigenous People’s Day.

Pyagbara used the occasion to call on the federal government to sign on to the 169 and also sign on to the UN Right on Indigenous People as well as set up a national action plan on the implementation of the United Nations Declarations on Rights of Indigenous People.

He said, “During debate at the UN General Assembly in 2007, Nigeria abstained from voting in the UN Right for Indigenous People. We are still using the opportunity of this day  to call on the Nigerian government to sign on to R-Convention 169 and also sign on to the UN Right on Indigenous People.

“We are also calling on the Nigerian government to set up a national action plan on the implementation of the United Nations Declarations on Rights of Indigenous People.”

The AIFES executive director further called on the federal government to establish centres for the promotion of inter-generational dialogue, to enable elders have avenues interact with young ones and impact on them.

He said, “We are also calling for the establishment of centres for the promotion of inter-generational dialogue. Without inter-generational dialogue, we lost everything we thought we had as a people because it takes the elders in our communities to tell us young people certain stories that we don’t know particularly when it comes to traditional knowledge.”