By Ephraim Oseji

Environmental advocate, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has reaffirmed commitment to the ongoing campaign against widespread deforestation across the Niger Delta, declaring that he “will not stop the campaign against deforestation in the Niger Delta until the job is fully done.”

Onuesoke expressed deep concern over the alarming rate at which forests in the region are disappearing.
According to environmental reports, Nigeria loses between 350,000 and 400,000 hectares of forest every year, making it one of the countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world. The Niger Delta accounts for a significant portion of this loss due to illegal logging, unregulated land conversion, and industrial pollution.

Onuesoke noted that forest destruction has intensified flooding across Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.

He said: “This fight is not political theatre. It is a duty to the people and to the future of the Niger Delta. I am not going to stop this campaign until we achieve meaningful action, real enforcement, and sustainable reforestation.”

He criticised policymakers who make “paper policies without implementation,” noting that Nigeria’s forestry laws have an enforcement compliance rate of less than 25 per cent, according to environmental watchdogs.

He stressed that the region needs practical, measurable environmental governance, including strict enforcement against illegal logging, community-based forest surveillance, government-funded reforestation programmes, among others.

Onuesoke added that deforestation remains a major driver of poverty and displacement.

“We must protect our remaining forests before they vanish completely. Future generations will not forgive us if we fail to act now,” he said.

He called on the Federal Government, state governments, environmental agencies and traditional institutions to collaborate on a unified strategy to restore the dwindling forest reserves of the Niger Delta.