By Elvira Jordan
A former Commissioner in Bayelsa State has urged stakeholders in the Niger Delta to mobilise voters across the region to adopt a “No Clean-Up, No Votes” campaign ahead of the 2027 presidential and governorship elections.
The former Bayelsa State Commissioner for Environment, Iniruo Wills, a legal practitioner, made the call in his keynote address at a programme organised by the Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative (MEDI) in Port Harcourt.
Wills urged Niger Delta residents to scrutinise the environmental commitments of political candidates and vote only for those who demonstrate a clear and credible commitment to cleaning up and restoring the region’s heavily degraded environment.
According to him, candidates seeking the offices of President and governor should be required to either demonstrate that they have initiated environmental clean-up efforts or present a Niger Delta-wide programme agreed upon by stakeholders, backed by funding and accompanied by a personal commitment to its implementation.
“For president and governors’ elections, Niger Deltans should be vigorously sensitised and mobilised to vote only for candidates who have caused a cleanup or have a Niger Delta-wide stakeholder-agreed programme and personally-signed commitment to cleanup the ecologically-bombed Niger Delta region,” Wills said.
He warned voters against supporting candidates who make promises without providing clear financial and implementation plans for environmental restoration.
“Don’t vote for any candidate or charlatan who cannot show you a cash-backed path to a remediated, regenerated and ecologically restored Niger Delta region,” he said.
Wills also challenged civil society organisations and environmental non-governmental organisations in the region to develop and implement a coordinated campaign ahead of the elections.
He said the campaign should serve as a test of the region’s ability to collectively demand accountability from political leaders and ensure that environmental issues become central to electoral decisions.
“The CSO and E-NGO community should set to work on the strategy and execution for just such a campaign, pronto. That is a test for us to pass and hold ourselves accountable for,” he added.
‘Nigeria Has Failed to Clean Up After Oil Extraction’
The former commissioner criticised the manner in which Nigeria has managed its petroleum and mineral resources, arguing that decades of extraction have left communities with extensive environmental damage without adequate remediation.
“No forward-looking country or sensible government in the world runs its petroleum or minerals sector the way Nigeria does. Seventy – actually over a 100 – years of drilling, plumbing and polluting, without cleaning up after you,” Wills said.
He maintained that environmental restoration should no longer be treated as a peripheral issue but as a major political and electoral concern in the Niger Delta.
The former commissioner’s position comes amid renewed demands from environmental groups and community stakeholders for comprehensive remediation across oil-producing areas of the region.
Stakeholders have repeatedly raised concerns over oil spills, contaminated waterways, destruction of livelihoods, gas pollution and the degradation of ecosystems in Niger Delta communities.
Wills therefore urged environmental groups, community leaders and residents to begin mobilising ahead of the 2027 elections, insisting that political support should be tied to measurable commitments to environmental restoration.
The proposed “No Clean-Up, No Votes” campaign would seek to make environmental accountability a major criterion for evaluating presidential and governorship candidates in the region.
