Mid-year greetings to you all. This first half of 2024 has been characterised by many empowering activities.
There are indications that the remaining half will be nothing less; if anything, there are signs of even more momentous activities and events in the second half of 2024.
Guided by the ‘Culture of Life,’ which is our theme this year, we continue to escalate our advocacy on the urgent need to wean the world from fossil addiction and heal our communities from the pollution and devastation brought upon us by fossil extraction, which has been ongoing for almost seven decades in Nigeria. The report from one of our School of Ecology (SoE) sessions dedicated to this cause is shared
with you here.
The burning issue of divestment, especially the recent announcement by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPCD) to sell off the company to Renaissance, a consortium of five companies, is featured in
this edition. If Shell’s divestment plan sails through, it would see the multinational leave the country without addressing the decades of destruction of farmlands and contaminated water bodies. It would mean gross abandonment of impoverished communities and failing livelihoods and public health wrecked by decades of inhuman extractive onslaught on communities by the oil companies.
Civil society organisations, including HOMEF and other concerned Nigerians, on Tuesday, 21 May 2024, protested the SPDC’s planned divestment at SPDC’s head office in Lagos State. Coincidentally, the next day, on Wednesday, 22 May 2024, the House of Representatives took the highly commendable step of adopting the motion that oil multinationals exiting Nigeria be disallowed from divesting their assets without remediating environments degraded by their years of oil exploration and exploitation in the country. These issues are critically evaluated in articles published in this exciting edition.
This edition also discusses other Big and Hot Topics of interest to our readers. For example, in light of the forward leap in the fight against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), this 44th edition features articles that explain how GMOs are connected to issues of biosafety, human rights, and the hunger crisis. Armed with these evidence-supported insights, we reiterate that agroecology remains the viable solution to the hunger crisis. Similarly, this edition contains an article on bush burning and its link to the impoverishment of soil and the mounting food shortages in our local communities.
One of the articles details the story of a youth from Makoko, a challenged fishing settlement in Lagos, Nigeria, who shares her experience as a participant in the April 2024 ‘One Ocean Week’ event held in Norway, outlining her action plans going forward. We also share with you a report from the last general strategy meeting of the Africa Climate Justice Collective, in which HOMEF participated.
As you know, we never leave you without some hope-filled pieces. Enjoy the poems and the exciting story “Animi and the Fatalities in Orira” that continues from the 43rd edition of our Eco-Instigator.
It’s always a delight to hear and read from you. Please know that we never stop looking forward to receiving your feedback, stories, articles, poems, or photos. Continue to share with us at [email protected] or [email protected].
Until Victory!
