THE ERADICATION OF TOXIC WASTES AND POLLUTANTS IN OGONI LAND: AN IGWEBUIKE APPROACH

Résumé

Ogoni land, in Rivers State, Nigeria, is one of the areas mostly affected by modern technology associated with anthropogenic release of green house gases and chemical pollutants leading to environmental degradation with serious health, economic, and social implications to the people of the community. The loss of biodiversity to maintain a balance of the ecosystem by restoring soil nutrients, protecting water resources and stabilizing the climate has led to the extinction of marine life, killing the tourism industry which was a means of economic empowerment for the people. Land and water pollution especially through oil spillages have made it impossible for the people to have potable water. Fishing and farming is now a mirage and this has compounded the menace of unemployment and youth restiveness in the region, cumulating in low standard of living. This Paper, which adopts socio-phenomenological and descriptive methodologies, emphasises the necessity for an Igwebuike approach in order to establish a lasting solution to the menace. The Igwebuike philosophy is the Igbo traditional philosophy which extols the virtue of employing united efforts towards achieving goals. The application of the Igwebuike perspective is imperative here because in order to change what is going on in any society or to help that society develop, it is expedient that the mindset of the individuals that make up that society is trained in a way that is geared towards self and societal improvement and development. The Igwebuike approach is not foreign to the Ogoni people, judging by their socio-political and cultural milieu. A call for its application is only to facilitate a reawakening of this philosophy in the people’s hearts so that their innate altruistic and united way of living (that is gradually eroding as a result of acculturation and adherence to global trends) can be used as an effective tool, positively exploited to solve myriads of problems beleaguering the people; especially in tackling the problem of toxic waste and pollutants in Ogoni land.