ELVIRA’S PEN

The call to preserve and revive indigenous languages as repositories of cultural wisdom and tools for addressing environmental challenges took centre stage at the 2026 Wisdom Gathering Session held in Kaani, Ogoni, Rivers State. The gathering, organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) in collaboration with Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative (MEDI), brought together stakeholders to examine the role of language and indigenous philosophies in advancing socio-ecological justice. Speaking at the session, Executive Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey, linked the loss of indigenous knowledge and the persistence of environmental injustice in the Niger Delta to the manipulation and erosion of language. Bassey said, “All the environmental injustice meted out on the people of Niger Delta have been achieved through the manipulation of language to confuse the common people and sell false solutions to them.” He urged participants, particularly young people, to return to the...

The Bonny Lawyers’ Forum has demanded a transparent account of gas-flaring penalties applicable to petroleum operations affecting Bonny Kingdom, insisting that funds collected under the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, should translate into environmental remediation and meaningful relief for affected host communities. The Forum also called for the establishment of a Federal Medical Centre in Bonny Kingdom as a sustainable medical-relief intervention for communities living within the petroleum-producing and industrial environment. The position was contained in a statement by the Bonny Lawyers’ Forum signed by its Chairman,  Pepple Victor Frederic , which commended the member of the House of Representatives representing Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency, Hon. Cyril Hart, for bringing the issue of the application of gas-flaring penalties for the benefit of affected host communities to public attention. The Forum said the matter should be examined from the perspective of environmental jus...

WHEN THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS - Elvira Jordan Good Morning Beloved 😘 Have you ever had a perfect plan?  I mean that kind of plan you have checked and rechecked to be sure you’re doing it right. To be sure you have all boxes checked, you may even come up with a plan B to support your plan, and even a plan C in case plan A and Be doesn’t work. Yea…yea! Some of us are master strategists like that.  Before taking decisions or embarking on projects, the right thing to do is to come up with a game plan or strategy, as many as possible, to see us through it. In some other cases, our moves are planned through some possible outcomes. We just look at what we want to do and tell ourselves how it may turn out to be. Either this way, that way or the other way. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where nature surprises you and your plans?  I mean when all your possible outcomes did not work out. Even plan B, C and D failed. Such situations can be so frustrating! I’ve had a coupl...

Nigeria’s huge natural gas reserves should be used to tackle the country’s persistent electricity crisis and improve living standards, development experts and environmental stakeholders have said, warning that energy policies must prioritize citizens and communities over commercial interests. The stakeholders made the call on Thursday, August 20, 2026, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at a programme organized by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in collaboration with Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN). The programme, themed “Who Controls Our Energy? Energy Access and Social Justice,” focused on Nigeria’s energy inequality, ownership of energy resources and the social justice implications of the country’s transition to cleaner energy. Speaking on “Mapping Our Reality – Energy: Access Inequality and Democracy,” Executive Director of Policy Alert, Tijah Bolton , expressed concern that Nigeria continues to waste enormous quantities of natural gas through flar...

The Department of Adult and Non-Formal Education, Faculty of Education, University of Port Harcourt, in collaboration with the Centre for Social Studies and Development (We the People), has called for a shift from environmental awareness to practical action as part of efforts to address Nigeria’s growing ecological challenges. The call was made at the Environmental Education Summit, at the Faculty of Education Auditorium, University of Port Harcourt, under the theme, “From Literacy to Action: Developing a Blueprint to Strengthen Environmental Education for Achieving Environmental Sustainability in Nigeria.” The summit brought together academics, environmental experts, policymakers, development practitioners, civil society organisations, students, youth leaders and indigenous knowledge holders to examine how environmental education can contribute to sustainable development. Participants identified pollution, biodiversity loss, climate change, deforestation, flooding, coastal degradation...

NOBODY TO BLAME - Elvira Jordan (Revised) Good Morning Beloved 😊 In our journey through life, we have all gone through difficult situations, and as the typical human mind works, while reflecting on the situation, we look for the causes, who to blame, what to blame and where to transfer our aggression. It is often a common feeling, and blaming our problems on someone or something will most times make us feel better about ourselves and about our situation, but doesn’t guarantee that the negative circle will end or lessons will be learnt.  I have seen friendships end, relationships broken, good contacts savored because someone had to take the fall or be blamed for something. There was even a pattern on social media, especially on Twitter; whatever blame we cannot direct at someone or something, we can always blame it on Desmond Elliot. Right now, we can just blame it on Tinubu 😂 (Just for fun.) The blame game makes people feel better about what has happened to them or what they are ...

Environmental advocates and stakeholders have called on the federal government and oil extracting companies to extend the ongoing environmental cleanup efforts in Ogoniland to all oil-producing communities in the region, citing persistent oil spills, pollution and environmental degradation. This was established at the Regional Dialogue on the Niger Delta Environmental Cleanup: Issues and Ways Forward, organised by the MIIDEEKOR Environmental Development Initiative (MEDI) in Port Harcourt on August 13, 2026. Renowned environmental activist and Team Lead of MEDI Comrade Celestine Akpobari while presenting his opening remarks at the meeting said the cleanup being undertaken in Ogoni by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) should not be regarded as the end of efforts to restore the wider Niger Delta environment. According to him, decades of oil exploration and exploitation have left communities across the region heavily polluted, while the divestment of internatio...