Stakeholders call for protection of aquatic ecosystems

Stakeholders in the Water and environment sector have called for an end to pollution of the Nigeria oceanic space and emphasised on the need for the protection of the nation’s aquatic ecosystem.

The stakeholders made the calls during a two day virtual School of Ecology Session on Politics of the Sea, organised by an organisation, Health if Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) recently.

The session which focused on the technicalities and politics of the Blue Economy, aimed at promoting a cross-sectoral understanding of the Blue Economy concept.

Addressing participants during the session, the Executive Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey said: “We want to protect our fisheries, we want to protect our aquatic ecosystem, and we want to call for an end to pollution, sea piracy and human right abuse from security agents in our waters. 

“We are calling for the use of marine resources for our citizens in a sustain-able way. We are calling for an end to seeing and treating our Ocean, Rivers and creeks as waste dumps. We are especially calling for a halt in investment in searching for new fossil fuels, expansion of oil wells in our water bodies and other frontal basins.”

Nnimmo Bassey in his paper presentation titled “Politics of Turbulent Waters” noted that the position of Africa at the center of the world, but the challenge of being in the center is that it is very accessible from every part of the world which makes it easy to be exploited.

 “Africa is extremely exploited, the amount of money that comes into Africa is less than the resources that leave to other part of the world. We are appealing that the young people become actively involved in nonpartisan politics and what I’d call the politics of listening.”
When the ocean warms up because of global warming, the fish that suffer and die because they cannot survive in that temperature, some migrate to colder regions and habitats, which means less catch for our fishers.

From right: The Governor of Kogi state, Mr Yahaya Bello and Executive Secretary and