Association of Environmental Lawyers of Nigeria

Association Tasks Fubara On PH Garden City Status As a way of marking this year’s World Environment Day, the Association of Environmental Lawyers of Nigeria (AELN) organised an inaugural seminar and other activities in Port Harcourt on Monday to give meaning and expression to the global event. It is, therefore, against this backdrop that the body has called on Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State to set machinery in motion to commence the processes of restoring Port Harcourt to its Garden City status. The National President of AELN and Professor of Energy and Comparative Environmental Law at the Rivers State University, Prof Samuel Chisa Dike, who made the call in his address at the occasion said there is need for the Rivers State Government, which recently promised an inclusive and sustainable development trajectory, to commence the process of restoring Port Harcourt to its Garden City status, with minimal and acceptable levels of pollution to a green city which will not only attract tourists and investors but ready to promote security and welfare of citizens in tandem with the social contract between the government and the people of the State. Dike noted that the association which was incorporated in 2019 to address all shades of environmental degradation and to raise awareness on the roles of the citizens and societies to the problems of environmental pollution, as a non-profit organisation that depends on charity, had established chapters in Bayelsa, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Borno and Ekiti States, among others. He further indicated that the association had also established in Rivers State Environmental Clubs in some universities, colleges and Green Advocates in secondary schools with the aim of broadening the conversation of environmental advocacy by the most vulnerable in the society. The Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law of the Rivers State University also hinted that the association has equally carried out various awareness programmes, advocacy, radio and television talks, tree planting sessions and community mobilisation in the State as well as proposed, through its Research and Advocacy Department measures for the eradication of soot in the State. Dike described the theme of this year’s World Environment Day, “Beat Plastic Pollution”, as epochal and vital because, as he put it, plastic pollution affects both green, blue economy and sustained development of a nation, stressing that plastic pollution is dangerous and cancerous because plastics wastes are non-biodegradable. Also speaking, the Chief Judge of Rivers State and chairman of the occasion, Justice Simeon Amadi highlighted the need for prompt and urgent actions to be taken to address environmental pollution in the State. Represented by a Judge of the High Court, Justice( Mrs) Elsie Thompson, Amadi said the time to address the challenges posed by environmental pollution is now. He, however, indicated that there is need to muster the necessary political will.