Edith CHUKU
As part of efforts to deliver a sustainable cleanup in Ogoniland, the Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project HYPREP, Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, has expressed HYPREP’s willingness to partner with universities and private sectors in Ireland.
Zabbey stated this on Tuesday when he received the Irish Ambassador, Mr Peter Ryan and his team, Mr. Paul Van Don Bergh, CEO of Verge Environmental Nigeria and Mr. Colm Doyle of Global Spectrum Energy Services, to discuss on how best they can contribute to environmental sustainability.
During the meeting, the PC reaffirmed his team’s determination to leave a legacy that would drive environmental sustainability in Ogoni, the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large, emphasising that HYPREP’s core mandate is to remediate oil impacted environment in Ogoniland.
He revealed that inline with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which he said priorities the clean up of Ogoniland, that HYPREP through the remediation project has given hope to Ogoni people.
According to him, in terms of capacity building, HYPREP has trained over 5000 of Ogoni youths in different skill areas, created over 7000 direct jobs for Ogoni youths and women, built capacity in mangroves restoration initiative in Ogoniland, promoted women inclusion and those living with disabilities.
Zabbey also noted that the project have being supporting education, providing grants and scholarships to over 300 post graduate students of Ogoniland.
He described the visit by the Irish Ambassador and his team as encouraging, stressing that partnership was important inorder to achieve the sustainability development goals.
His words: “today is a great day in the history of the project, having the Irish Ambassador and the member of his team coming to visit the project. I have provided his excellency with information about the project status. We are doing alot of work in Ogoniland.
“Our mandate is to remediate oil impacted environment in Ogoniland and to restore the livelihood of the people, so in doing that, we have different thematic areas; we are providing portable water for the people of Ogoni, we are restoring oil degraded mangroves, we are doing shoreline cleanup, we are mediating contaminated soil and ground water, we are building the centre of excellence for environmental restoration, we are building local capacity, we promoting peace building, transparency and accountability, we are also creating alternative livelihood opportunities for the people of Ogoni.
“We are approaching all our interventions with discipline and devotion, we are dedicated and we plan with the communities and I am delighted to inform your excellency that the Ogoni people own this project, they are the drivers of our mangroves restoration intervention in Ogoni, they are the ones that set up the nurseries, providing the seedlings, direct leaf planting, the mangroves and monitoring the mangroves, so they own the project and they are driving the project.
“We only provide the signs from behind and that is the basis of the sustainability of the project.”
Speaking on the ongoing construction of the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration CEER, the PC said that “the centre is expected to be a home for international researchers to come and conduct cutting edge, innovative research that will involve new technologies, will test theories and contribute greatly to advancing the knowledge of environmental remediation and restoration.
“HYPREP has been asked by the federal government to contribute to national food security, so this year we are going to embark on lots of agric based training for Ogoni youths and women. Last year December we trained 200 cassava farmers from Ogoniland, we are also about to start feasibility studies that will drive the establishment of an agro hub as we intend to establish special agro processing hub in Ogoni that will create green jobs in the area.
“We are willing to partner with universities in Ireland, even the private sector in Ireland to contribute to the work of HYPREP and to continue to build local capacity and advance knowledge. We will continue to discuss about how best we can contribute to environmental sustainability in Ogoniland and Nigeria as a whole.
“We are grateful for your visit, it’s motivating, it boost the morale of our team, we will continue to do the best. We already know that it’s a people’s project, we are working with the people and other stakeholders in ensuring that we deliver a sustainable cleanup in Ogoniland, we are passionate to leave behind a knowledge legacy that will drive environmental sustainability in Nigeria.”
On their part, the Irish Ambassador and his team commended HYPREP for the invitation and described the collaboration as a great opportunity.
Peter Ryan said “today is a great day, a great honour for me to be here and spend time with the project coordinator and his team, to learn more about the project they are working on; remediation project and the project they are doing is such a people focused project and it’s a great opportunity to build collaboration with Ireland.
“We have very deep roots in this part of Nigeria, it’s very special to us. Irish people have worked here; in schools and hospitals and today, Irish will be working in business here, so it makes perfect sense to be part of this journey together.
“I am so impressed with the Prof and his team, how highly motivated they are, they are not new people to the project, the Prof has given decades of work in service of the community here and I think it’s great to build collaboration with Ireland.”
On the particular areas of collaboration, Ryan said, “we are very fortunate that we have a couple of our private sector leaders who are engaged in some aspect of remediation project and I have an opportunity to be proud of one and I think when I hear about the global centre of excellence has been built and I think particular in the research and education sector.”
Also speaking, Mr Paul Van Don Bergh whose environmental company was established in Nigeria in 2016, revealed on his observations as regards oil pollution during his first visit to Bodo in Ogoni in 2012.
“I am very familiar with Ogoniland. My first trip was in 2012 to Bodo where I met with the king and chiefs of Ogoniland, so a feel of the contamination first hand; the mangroves banks and so on, I had a strong interest in the restoration of Ogoni land from day one and have been following the story ever since and have done some projects here with HYPREP in the past, so I am very glad to be here again today.”
