The Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey has advocated a safe and satisfactory environment suitable for the progress of Nigerians and Africans in general.

The environmental activist who made the demands in Abuja at the 10th anniversary conference of HOMEF with the theme: ‘Advancing Environmental Justice in Africa’, lamented that Africa is facing multiple ecological challenges which, according to him, have resulted in the “actions of entities that have seen the continent as a sacrificial zone.”

He also demanded an end to “destructive extraction no matter the appeal of capital”, in Africa and in Nigeria in particular.

While canvassing for collective effort in the fight against global warming as well as urgent shift from dependency on fossil fuels in Africa, the Executive Director demanded for “climate debt for centuries of ecological exploitation and harms.”

According to him, Africans must request “remediation, restoration of all degraded territories and pay reparations to direct victims or their heirs.”

He said: “The collective action needed to tackle global warming has been reduced to puny nationally determined contributions that add up to nothing.

He added: “Rather than recognizing and paying a clear climate debt, we expend energy negotiating a loss and damage regime to be packaged as a humanitarian gesture. Pray, who negotiates what is offered as charity?”

Bassey continued: “Today, Africa is facing multiple ecological challenges. All of these have resulted from the actions of entities that have seen the continent as a sacrificial zone.

“While the world has come to the conclusion that there must be an urgent shift from dependence on fossil fuels, we are seeing massive investments for the extraction of petroleum resources on the continent.”

He added: “And we must say that this investment comes with related infrastructure for the export of these resources out of the continent in a crass colonial pattern. A mere one percent of the labour force in the extractive sector in Africa is Africans. A mere five percent of investment in the sector is in Africa. More than 85 percent of the infrastructure for fossil gas in the continent is for export purposes.”

The environmental activist lamented: “Extraction of critical minerals for renewable energy is done without prior consultation with and consent of our people.

“The continent’s environment is being degraded just as it has been with the extraction of oil/gas, gold, diamond, nickel, cobalt and other solid minerals. The array of solar panels and wind turbines could well become markers of crime scenes if precautionary measures are not taken now.”

The environmental activist therefore urged African countries to be committed to issuing an annual “State of Environment Report to lay out the situation of things in their territories”; recognition of “the rights of Mother Earth,” and to recognize the fact that “codify Ecocide as a crime akin to genocide, war crimes and other unusual crimes.”

On food security in the Africa continent, Bassey advocated support and promotion of food sovereignty including adoption of agroecology, and recognition of “our right to water, treat it as a public good, halt and reverse its privatization.”

He also demanded for adoption and promotion of “African cultural tools and philosophies for holistic tackling of ecological challenges and for the healing and wellbeing of our peoples and communities.”