As Nigeria joins the international community to mark the 2026 World Earth Day (WED), participants at a summit held at the oil-bearing area of Ntak Inyang, in Esit Eket local government area of Akwa Ibom State, have expressed concerns over the devastating impacts of oil spills, gas flaring and other associated maladies plaguing the Niger Delta region.
They made a case for a holistic remedial action to curb the scourge through deliberate policies of clean and green energy innovations.
They lamented that gas pollution, oil spills and environmental degradation caused by the exploration activities of indigenous and International Oil Companies (IOCs) have seriously affected the population, causing cancer, blindness and other air-borne diseases.
Addressing the forum, the executive director of a civil society organisation (CSO), Network Advancement Programme for Poverty and Disaster Risk Reduction (NAPPDRR), Hon. Emem Edoho, stressed the need for urgent intervention to protect the earth from persistent assaults in the interest of humanity.
Welcoming the stakeholders, including the chairman of Esit Eket LGA, supervisor for Environment, the village head, elders of Ntak Inyang, the principal, staff and students of Model International Secondary School and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Edoho alerted that “real earth action must begin where the earth is most wounded.”
“For over 60 years, the Niger Delta has fueled Nigeria through oil and gas extraction. But host communities like Ntak Inyang have suffered disproportionate harm.
“We live under gas flares that change our weather. We farm on soil weakened by spills. We drink from water sources under threat. We face floods and heat made worse by a changing climate.
“Climate change is not neutral. It hits hardest where poverty meets pollution. Our children miss school to floods. Our farmers harvest less. Our families spend more on illness. This is environmental injustice. World Earth Day 2026 calls us to confront it – and to correct it,” he noted.
Urging students to be in the vanguard of remediating the earth from years of exploitation, he reminded that, “You are not future leaders; you are present defenders. You breathe this air, you walk these roads when it floods. You see the black soot on your white uniforms. That lived experience makes you the most credible voices for change.”
“Across the world, the biggest shifts in climate justice began when young people said “enough” and planted solutions,” he stressed, and enjoined the people to move from words to action, by engaging in tree-planting awareness and sensitisation activity.
He said, “Trees are not just decoration; they are protection. They clean the air we breathe. They hold soil against erosion. They cool our classrooms. They are living proof that restoration is possible.”
In his goodwill message, Mr Jack Jack, the vice principal of Model International Secondary School (MISS), Ntak Inyang, who represented the school principal at the event, commended NAPPDRR for the landmark environmental and climate justice action in the school, assuring that “the school will always collaborate with the NGO towards environmental sustainability activities.”
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