The Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Edo State Office, Mrs. Mercy Babawale has declared that the commission’s tree-planting awareness campaign programme was a demonstration of the long-term commitment to environmental protection and ecosystem preservation.

According to her, It is also aimed at promoting environmental consciousness among the young ones, including pupils and students across the Niger Delta region.

Mrs. Babawale who made the declaration at a one-day sensitisation workshop and tree-planting campaign with the Theme, “Reawakening The Practice Of Tree Planting Across The Niger Delta Region” held in Benin city, the Edo State Capital said, the programme is designed to mitigate the effects of climate change across the Niger Delta region.

She said the NDDC tree-planting campaign in Edo State was being carried out in collaboration with the Foundation for Sustainable Development Options (FOSDO) in the nine Niger Delta states

She emphasised the critical role trees play in absorbing carbon dioxide and improving local air and water quality, underlining the commission’s intention to continue raising awareness in communities across the Niger Delta.

According to her, “We want to create a region that has the ecology to regenerate itself, so, this would help us not only to sustain our own time even for our children and our grandchildren.

“Our managing director, Chief Samuel Ogbuku has a passion for the region, he is prepared to do good things for the region and he is also keying into the president’s renewed hope agenda.

“And of course, we have to have hope in ourselves, in our nation, in our region and we need to rekindle our hope, our hope that is dwindling needs to be renewed, of course there is a future for us.

“It is not just about now, we are envisaging a Niger Delta that will be like Dubai and Canada in the future, although things are hard presently, things may be difficult now but what are we doing to ensure that the future is better than the present?” This is part of what we are doing” she said.

Also speaking, Osakue Ize-Iyamu, HOD Environmental Protection and Control, Edo State NDDC said in his opening remark that the commission would take the message to schools, churches and, markets to ensure that citizens understand their role in protecting the environment.

In his keynote address, titled, “Climate Change Is Here, Observable Facts and Figures” Dr. Victor Aghimien noted, “climate change is not a distance or hypothetical problem, it is something we are experiencing right now, and its effects are evident all around the globe”.

According to him, There are a number of observable facts and figures that clearly demonstrate the reality of climate change.

“This includes the fact that the earth, is getting warmer which has increased the global average temperature by about 1.2C (2.2F) since the late 19th Century.

“The global sea levels are rising due to melting ice caps and glaciers and thermal expansion of seawater”

“Other observable facts, are that climate change is driving an increase in extreme weather events, including heatwave, storms, droughts and heavy rainfall, among other things” he said.

Also speaking, Suv. Gaius Asoh, NDDC Consultant, noted that the
programme was excellent in everything because the interest that was displayed by the participants was encouraging.

He observed’ “I could see that people are ready to cause things to happen in the environment where they find themselves.

“The programme has brought to limelight that a lot of things are not coming out right, so, they are now making themselves available to ensure that the change they are envisaging is on course and is achieved”.

On the sustainability of the programme, Asoh said, sustainability comes with interest and the interest they have expressed here is what will make it happen.
“What would have made it difficult would have been if the impression they came with initially was that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that things work but this programme has brought to limelight that it is everybody’s responsibility.

“And so, everybody is awake, so, that knowledge that they have a role to play to the point where there was a comment that was made that if we see things going bad we should indeed intervene and insist on getting it right and we should not be keeping quiet any longer”

He however commended the NDDC for its intervention in climate change project, adding, “it is interesting because the commission welcomes this project when it was sold to them, and they bought into it and they were available to see it come through in this way. Making resources available to go to all 9 Niger Delta states. We have been everywhere and with that availability to ensure that things get better and you can see that NDDC is ready to begin to make things happen in this region”.

The high point of the event was the planting of trees by the director of NDDC, Edo State office, Mrs Mercy Babawale at the NDDC office along Airport road, Benin city with other officials of the commission.