The Irish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Peter Ryan, has expressed delight that the projects being executed by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project(HYPREP) in Ogoniland are all about the people, and commended the Project for the feat.

Ryan, who made the commendation during a working visit to the Project Coordination Office of HYPREP in Port Harcourt, said HYPREP’s projects and programmes can be impactful when they are owned by the people, thus, the small changes the Project is bringing about in Ogoniland are worthwhile, as they directly and indirectly benefit the people.

He noted that he and his team are also delighted to be part of what HYPREP is doing, the project being a multi-generational effort, stressing that Ireland would be exploring the potential of partnering with HYPREP in the research and education sector through its Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration for the project to achieve greater success.

Ryan said the work of the Project Coordinator is more like a vocation than a job, because, according to him, his community is depending on him to deliver, to do things properly and doing something at the world-class level that is sustainable, and urged HYPREP to carry out this noble task with diligence and be mindful of the high expectations and dependency from the communities to deliver a world-class project that is sustainable.

He noted that there are people in Ireland who are desirous of knowing the progress HYPREP is making and the level it has attained in the cleanup project, and praised the Project Coordinator, Prof Nenibarini Zabbey and his team for not being new on the Project, and for building immense collaboration networks across the world, describing them as people with global standard track record.

He hinted that his country could also partner with HYPREP and Nigeria in the areas of research, education, culture and business, in a bid to “be the best we can and do the best to impact on resilient communities, and address years of under investment, exploitation and other negative things that come with globalisation.”

He further indicated that his visit to Port Harcourt was significant and special in Ireland’s history in Nigeria, because the day of the visit was the first working day at the new Ireland Embassy in Abuja.

Ryan praised the strong connections between Ireland and Port Harcourt and the wider Niger Delta region, saying, “you don’t have to go very far to see the impact the Irish had here “.

He expressed joy that two Irish companies are working successfully on the cleanup project, devoting their time and efforts in contributing to the development of Ogoniland, stressing that just as his wife had noted, what they were missing when they were still in Ireland were the people of Nigeria and not the food, the weather and the mangroves.

According to him, Ireland is willing to partner with HYPREP to actualise the Project’s mandate for the future of Ogoni, as the project is all about the people.

He said the visit had given him an opportunity to appreciate the pace of the Ogoni cleanup project ,which is focused on the people.

He noted that as the 17th Irish Ambassador to Nigeria, he has come to the country not to invent the wheel but to stay true to the legacy of his predecessors and other Irish people who had worked in Nigeria for over 40 years.

“I am the 17th Ambassador to come to this country.But I am not coming as the first.While we might not have a lot of missionaries today, there a lot of people who remember those connections between Ireland and Nigeria in Ireland. And to me, those connections are what we can build so many other contemporary connections on,” he said.

In response, the Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Prof Nenibarini Zabbey expressed delight over the visit, and the opportunity to inform the ambassador about the ongoing and completed projects, including the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration; the Ogoni Specialist Hospital; the Buan Cottage Hospital; the Ogoni Power Project; the shoreline cleanup; the water projects; and the mangrove restoration project; among others.

While describing the envoy’s visit as very special and motivating, Zabbey said it had boosted the morale of the HYPREP team.

He noted that while the core mandate of HYPREP is to remediate oil spill impacted sites in Ogoniland and restore the livelihoods of the people, it is also the responsibility of the Project to transform seemingly bleak situations to opportunities, considering the fact that the Ogoni environment consists of wetlands.

The Project Coordinator further hinted that HYPREP is building a world-class Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration, which is expected to be a hub for international research, where researchers would conduct cutting-edge innovative research, adding that it is a centre every stakeholder would be proud of.

He disclosed that HYPREP is going to partner with universities in Ireland and the private sector in Ireland to contribute to the work of the Project, and to also build local capacity as well as advance knowledge, and assured that HYPREP and the envoy would continue to do the best, to contribute to environmental sustainability in Ogoniland.

Zabbey noted that the basis for the sustainability of the project is the fact that the people are the drivers of the HYPREP’s mangrove restoration intervention in Ogoniland.

He emphasised that the focus of the cleanup project at the moment is Ogoni, stressing, however, that HYPREP is building a template that would be replicated in other parts of the country.

He explained that HYPREP is passionate about delivering a sustainable cleanup in this region, “which all of us will be proud at,” saying, “we will continue to do our best to leave behind a knowledge legacy that will drive environmental sustainability in Ogoniland.”