Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, has today inaugurated the second Governing Council of the Hydrocarbon pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, and Board of Trustees, BoT, of Ogoni Trust Fund.
The inauguration of the project, the president said, is for the benefit of the impacted communities in Ogoniland and the nation at large.
In a keynote address delivered at the event, the President said that he recalled that during his campaign tour of Rivers State in 2015, that he promised the people of Ogoniland if elected, he would ensure that the Report of the United Nations Environment Project (UNEP) is implemented for the benefits of Ogoni people and the ecosystem.
He noted that, after taking office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and in fulfillment of his campaign promise:
“I flagged-off the Project for the remediation of hydrocarbon impacted Sites in Ogoniland and provision of potable water and alternative livelihoods to impacted communities on 4th June 2016 and have been monitoring implementation progress over the years.
“Though some milestones and timelines could not be accomplished circumstantially, we are nevertheless determined to recover lost grounds and achieve our goals through deliberate efforts to reinvigorate our processes and the machinery of delivery.”
The president also recalled that, “at a meeting held on 3rd March 2021, the Federal Executive Council approved the award of contracts for six (6) water supply schemes at the total cost of about N6.05 billion to facilitate the provision of potable water to the impacted communities in Ogoniland, in a firm demonstration of its commitment to improving their socio-economic conditions pragmatically.”
Buhari said that after being informed by the Honourable Minister of Environment that remediation of polluted land is progressing in various parts of Ogoniland, he approved the Minister’s request to further rejig and restructure HYPREP in order to create an environment for enhanced structured and focused delivery of the Project, and therefore, the need for the new appointments.
While urging the BoT members to live up to the expectation of their new positions, the president also rolled out their duties:
“Your appointment therefore, is part of this deliberate effort and I hope that you will live up to expectation accordingly. We have carefully and painstakingly considered your backgrounds profiles and competences in affording you the opportunity to serve in these offices. You are therefore being inaugurated today as Representatives of the Federal Government on the platform of HYPREP and I strongly appeal to you to take this trust bestowed on you with all sense of responsibility and commitment. You should see your appointment as a patriotic national duty and a clarion call to service. You will be required to promote transparency, propriety and integrity in the operation of HYPREP to ensure optimal and satisfactory delivery of the required services. In addition to your roles and responsibilities, as stated in the HYPREP Gazette of 2016, I expect you to proffer solutions to the challenges of community disruption due to land disputes, leadership tussles and unnecessary pressure on the Contractors. If these bottlenecks are removed, work will progress freely and we will regain lost timeliness.”
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