ERA/FoEN tasks youth on rights awareness, others in oil sector

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has charged youths to actively engage in environmental field monitoring (EFM) as part of activities to protect the environment.

Its Executive Director, Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, stated this at the weekend during a youths training on rights, environmental law and conventions, organised by ERA/FoEN, stressing that every Nigerian has the right to development, clean environment and information.

Ojo, who emphasised the role of youths in environmental reporting, noted that youths engaged in field monitoring should have background knowledge of the environment, writing materials and a camera, as they have a right to clean environment that favours development.

In his paper titled: Participatory Environmental Field Monitoring: The Role of Youth In Environmental Reporting, he said youths should learn to take up the challenge to discover knowledge about their environment, particularly on EFM.

While admonishing the over 100 youths comprising students from secondary and tertiary institutions in the Niger Delta region, he said a lot of the devastation in the environment were man-made and could be addressed.He said some of the environmental problems caused by man included oil spillages, gas flaring, erosion, desertification and deforestation, among others, which he noted, had adversely contributed to climate change.

Ojo disclosed that the aim of the training was to, among others, expose the challenges of environmental degradation, draw government’s attention on the need to take action and what actions to be taken, as well as put pressure on multinational companies to be responsive to environmental issues.“We have not covered up to one tenth of the environmental problems in Nigeria. These problems are essentially caused by man and they are the result of negligence by individuals or companies. We must save our environment by participating constantly in field monitoring,” he added.