In a solidarity message delivered at the #RiseforClimate rally at the Ken Saro-Wiwa Peace Centre, Bori, Ogoni in Nigeria on Saturday, September 8, 2018, Director of the ecological think tank, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, says its time to rise for climate, and stand for justice
The floods are coming. Our coastlines are receding. Our creeks, streams and rivers are polluted by oil spills, produced water, toxic wastes and an assortment of wastes including plastics. Deforestation continues. Desertification is not slowing down. No water to drink. No fish in our waters. Our farmlands are barren. Violent conflicts everywhere resulting from shrinking access to the gifts of nature. Our people are sick! Life has become a mist!
It is time to Rise for Climate. It is time to stand for justice.
Nigeria continues to allow routine gas flaring. Deadlines are set, and goal posts are shifted continually. Sixty-two years of unconscionable pumping of harmful elements into the atmosphere. Sixty-two years of pretending we do not know that the diseases we see around us are not strange but are manufactured by our lack of conscience and our refusal to stop the continuous poisoning of our peoples.
It is time to open our eyes, shake off the pretense and Rise for Climate! It is time to stand for justice.
Changed weather patterns. The climate crisis is here and now. Failing agriculture. Many tragic events underscore these realities, yet rather than act and, whereas we should stop digging for and burning crude oil, we give room for false solutions like carbon marketing and dream we can solve the problem with carbon capture and burial and even through geoengineering.
Together we Rise for Climate. Together we stand for climate justice.
As the Lagdo dam in Cameroon and the Kainji dam in Nigeria send huge quantities of water down stream, our agencies raise the alarm and do little else. In 2012 we lost over 300 persons and over 2 million persons were displaced. As we speak, the scenario is repeating itself. Already over sixty communities have been submerged and at least one death has been recorded.
It is time to wake up, see the horrors and Rise for Climate! It is time to stand for justice.
Ogoni remains polluted. Oil spills are going on across the Niger Delta. Soot hangs like a blanket over Port Harcourt. We cannot wait until we perish before we rise? We shall not wait until we cannot breathe before we speak up? We cannot be silent until all our lands disappear in the ocean or are covered by the desert? The labour of our hero’s past shall not be in vain? No!
Ken Saro-Wiwa said “to be silent is treason.” He also urged action, adding “We shall do this peacefully, and we shall win!” Today we pledge to take real Climate action wherever we are. Today we pledge to stand with our peoples and fight climate criminals. Today we rise for climate and demand action. Today we rise for climate and demand justice.
