Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, says the input of every member of the public is necessary in effectively managing the environment.

Governor Amaechi said this recently during the grand finale of the 2012 World Environment Day celebration with the theme “Green Economy: Does It Include You?” in Port Harcourt.

Represented by his deputy, Engr. Tele Ikuru, Governor Amaechi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), noted that “whether we want to go to the moon or build skyscrapers, our immediate environment is very important. We need to work together to protect it,” stressing that “every person needs to join the efforts at managing our wastes in such a way that it doesn’t affect our environment negatively”.

The State Chief Executive urged residents of Port Harcourt, the state capital to “focus on how to bring back its lost glory as the Garden City of Nigeria,” pointing out that “the process of protecting our environment is not the responsibility of the government alone. We should all be part of the process of managing our waste properly,” assuring that his administration would expedite action on enacting and enforcing all enabling environmental laws that would make the State the most serene place in the country.

Earlier, Chairman of the occasion and Chairman of the State Economic Advisory Council, Professor Nimi Briggs, said the World Environment Day was set aside to draw attention to issues concerning the preservation of the environment, urging all to contribute positively to the various efforts aimed at making our environment safe and habitable.

Delivering a paper titled “Green Economy and the Future we want in the Niger Delta”, the guest lecturer, Professor Dagogo Fubara, noted that an analysis of the 2011 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on Ogoni land entitled “Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland” very aptly shows that the Niger Delta’s vast oil and gas deposits were being unsustainably exploited without economic diversification for over five decades now.

Prof. Fubara explained that “Green Economy is the clean energy economy, consisting primarily of four sectors: renewable energy, green building and energy efficiency technology, energy-efficient infrastructure and transportation, and recycling of waste-to-wealth, scrap-to-wealth, and waste-to-energy, calling for greater investments in cleaner energy, natural resource efficient technologies and products, sustainable use of natural resources, enabling policy settings including regulatory environment, among others.

Chris Oluoh