PORT HARCOURT — The Nnimmo Bassey Port Harcourt lecture delivered a blunt message to Nigeria’s electorate: any political candidate without concrete plans to remediate and restore the country’s damaged environment should not receive a single vote. The climate justice activist made the call on 17 October 2026 while delivering the guest lecture “Leadership for Environmental Justice in the Niger Delta” at the 8th graduation ceremony and annual leadership lecture of the Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre and Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre-LSD) Leadership School in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
What the champion told the graduating class
Addressing graduates, new students and guests, Bassey — executive director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) — said political candidates must explain how they will deal with oil spills, gas flaring and environmental damage before they ask for votes.
“Any candidate that does not have concrete plans for the remediation, and restoration of the deeply damaged environment should not be given a single vote by the electorate,” he said, according to the published text of his lecture.
He pointed to three ongoing disasters in the Niger Delta which, in his words, should guide voters’ choices:
- the fire at the Ororo-1 oil well off the Awoye community in Ondo State, which he said has persisted for over six years;
- gas eruptions threatening residents of the Bille community in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State; and
- a crude oil fire burning on the water surface at Oil Well 9 (OML 18) in the Ofiomina-Ama Alakiri community of Okrika Local Government Area, Rivers State.
Nnimmo Bassey Port Harcourt lecture: the key demands
Beyond the ballot box, Bassey set out what he called the logic of environmental justice. He warned that Nigeria’s growing critical-minerals industry could repeat the damage caused by decades of oil extraction. According to media reports, Nigeria signed an agreement with the United States in September to attract American investment into the country’s mineral sector, estimated to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
“Changing the energy source without changing this underlying logic will not deliver justice,” Bassey said. He cautioned that mineral extraction could bring the same dispossession communities suffered under the oil industry, unless it is built on environmental protection, community consent, public accountability and fair sharing of benefits.
He recalled the 2010 lead-poisoning crisis from artisanal gold mining in Zamfara State, which killed hundreds of children, as well as deadly mining-pit collapses in Plateau State and the deaths of young mining suspects in custody in Niger State — incidents he presented as evidence of weak leadership in managing natural resources.
Bassey also called for stricter oversight of the Petroleum Industry Act’s Host Communities Development Trusts, under which oil companies are required to contribute three percent of their actual annual operating expenditure to developing host communities. He questioned the arrangement that lets oil companies choose members of the trusts’ boards, and the rule allowing funds to be used to repair oil infrastructure damaged by third parties.
In the lecture text published on his own website, Bassey put the scale of the Niger Delta crisis at 240,000 to 260,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the region’s environment every year, alongside routine gas flaring he said has ravaged the region for decades.
Leadership beyond titles
The second half of the lecture, titled “Leadership Beyond Titles”, argued that environmental leadership is not confined to public office. Bassey pointed to women organising to defend their water sources, young people documenting oil spills, fishers insisting that polluted waters be investigated, and residents refusing to accept environmental destruction as the price of survival.
“True leadership listens before it speaks,” he said, adding that communities possess knowledge and experience that should guide development decisions rather than being treated as passive recipients of government or company policies.
He urged the graduating students to measure leadership not by roads, buildings, public revenue or economic growth, but by whether people can breathe clean air, drink safe water, feed themselves and live without fear of environmental harm — and to use their training in public offices and communities to advance accountability and public service.
Bassey, a longtime climate justice campaigner, was recently honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Environmental and Climate Justice at the 2026 Courageous Scientists Awards in Vienna. Read Watan News’ earlier report on the Vienna honour here.
FAKTA
- Who: Nnimmo Bassey, executive director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), speaking at the Kebetkache/Centre-LSD Leadership School graduation in Port Harcourt.
- When: 17 October 2026; reported in Nigerian media on 19–20 October 2026.
- Core demand: no vote for candidates without concrete environmental remediation and restoration plans.
- Examples cited: the Ororo-1 well fire (6+ years), Bille gas eruptions, and the Oil Well 9 (OML 18) fire in Okrika.
- Policy target: stricter oversight of the Petroleum Industry Act’s Host Communities Development Trusts.
