Nnimmo Bassey
Environmental Rights Action executive director Nnimmo Bassey stated yesterday that, ”There must also be a comprehensive probe of scams that have dogged the water sector (in Nigeria) as well as enactment of laws that guarantee the right to water. The era of politicizing an indispensable common good is over. …ERA wants government to go beyond mere pronouncements by domesticating the right to water which it ratified along with 121 other countries in 2010 if it is serious about tackling water shortages which has inflicted hardship and avoidable diseases on the citizenry. …What is most disturbing…is the fact that all levels of government are still complacent in reversing the status quo even after Nigeria ratified water as a human right.”
Bassey adds, “We are also profoundly disturbed that our government, with the huge resources generated from oil, rather than provide its people water, have perfected the art of running to donor agencies to fund water projects. The abdication of this all-important responsibility by government has paved the way for big businesses and multinational corporations that fleece our people.”
Bassey is also the elected chair of Friends of the Earth International. He is one of Time magazine‘s Heroes of the Environment 2009, and won the Right Livelihood Award (known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) in 2010.
His comments can be read at http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1103/S00801/why-were-clamouring-for-water-as-human-right-in-nigeria.htm.
