In a world battling the devastating impacts of climate change, activists, community leaders, and policymakers have gathered in Benin City, Edo State for the Climate Justice Assembly, to chart a people-centered path towards ecological justice and sustainable energy future.
The Climate Justice Assembly carried a central message: “Yasunize and Ogonize the World” — a call for communities to reclaim their power, protect their land, and reject extractive activities that destroy ecosystems and livelihoods.
For more than six decades, oil and gas exploration in the Niger Delta has come with severe consequences: polluted waters, destroyed livelihoods, and deep social scars. Amid renewed plans to resume oil production in Ogoniland, activists say it is time to resist further exploitation and demand a just, people-centered energy future.
The call for real climate justice rechoed once again at this Climate Justice Assembly convened by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)
with a bold and urgent message: “Don’t burn the planet! Climate Justice now.”
The Assembly drew inspiration from the courage of the Ogoni people of Nigeria, who in 1993 expelled Shell Petroleum from their territory after years of pollution and exploitation and from the people of Yasuni in Ecuador, who voted overwhelmingly in 2023 to keep oil in the ground.
These landmark actions, participants say, are symbols of resistance against the unending pursuit of profit at the expense of people and the planet.
HOMEF’s Founder and Director, Nnimmo Bassey, emphasized that real climate action must be collective, driven by communities who understand the value of their environment.
Participants at the assembly drawn from frontline communities, civil society, youth groups, and spiritual leaders discussed ways to center communities in energy transition plans, challenge false climate solutions, and promote healing in traumatized regions.
They also called for the enforcement of laws that hold extractive companies accountable while protecting host communities.
The assembly concluded with the launch of the “Yasunize and Ogonize the World” social media campaign, a global call to action that will feed into climate justice demands at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Brazil.
(Editor: Nkoli Omhoudu)
