A non-governmental organisation, the Media Awareness and Justice Initiative, has called on the Federal Government to adopt data-driven strategies in addressing escalating environmental challenges in the Niger Delta.
The NGO, which centres on environmental awareness campaigns, made the call on Friday at a validation session to review a real-time Environmental Fact Sheet tagged “The Invisible Threat”, held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Speaking to newsmen on the sidelines of the event, Executive Director of the Initiative, Okoro Onyekachi, stressed the urgent need for government and key stakeholders to integrate data-oriented tools into environmental monitoring systems, especially in remote and underrepresented communities.
“Our overall aim is, at the end of the day, for the government to start adopting data-oriented processes in environmental monitoring.
We understand that they are already doing a lot, and we understand there are already existing policies, but we want them to incorporate data use because there are places where government officials may not get to, either because of a lack of manpower (or) available finance,” Onyekachi said.He emphasised that using low-cost technological tools can bridge the gap in data collection from hard-to-reach areas, ensuring inclusiveness in national conversations around climate justice.
“We are asking that key stakeholders like government, media, and CSOs to adopt and deploy technological tools in areas that are hard to reach, so that they can also collect data from those places and the people living in those places are not left out in the discussion around climate justice,” he added.
Onyekachi maintained that proactive data use is essential if the government is to anticipate and respond effectively to environmental threats.
“The government should start incorporating data into their work, start becoming proactive, they shouldn’t be reactive. In putting these data tools out there, it will give them free knowledge and insights into potential challenges that can help them make informed decisions that can protect the lives and livelihoods of communal people living within and outside the Delta.”
Explaining the rationale behind the “Invisible Threat” Fact Sheet, he noted it was the outcome of a months-long monitoring effort utilising low-cost sensors deployed across Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and Bayelsa States.
Onyekachi said, “This Factsheet is a documentation and compilation of information that has been gathered over a five to six-month period. These threats are not seen, and because they are not seen, it might not be taken seriously by either rural communities or the government.”
“The report includes visual data, field observations, and targeted recommendations intended to improve environmental governance, monitoring, and advocacy.
“We believe that these recommendations will help to improve environmental governance, help to improve environmental monitoring, help to improve documentation of data which is key to the discussion around environmental and climate justice,especially for communities that are demanding for compensation or demanding for repatriation of loss that they’ve had,” he concluded.