The Senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District, Distinguished Senator Prof. Dayo Faduyile, OON, has taken the plight of the vanishing coastal communities of Ondo State to the global stage at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, declaring that Ayetoro is bleeding and the world must act now.
Speaking at the Nigeria Pavilion during the event tagged “Saving the Vanishing Coast: The Just Transition for an Oil-Producing Shore”, the Senator, a medical doctor, said when a patient is bleeding, you do not wait for a committee, you act immediately. He lamented that about 80 per cent of buildings in the historic town of Ayetoro have been lost to the sea, with homes, schools, health facilities and places of worship submerged, while families have been displaced and fishermen have lost their livelihoods.
Senator Faduyile informed the global audience that on October 22, he moved a motion on the floor of the Senate on the urgent need to save Ayetoro and other coastal communities, and the Senate spoke with one voice. He said the Senate called on the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Environment and the NDDC, to work with the Ondo State Government and OSOPADEC on a comprehensive and properly funded shoreline protection programme, called for a transparent review of past and ongoing shoreline contracts in Ayetoro, asked NEMA to bring humanitarian relief to victims, and urged the Federal Government to seek international climate adaptation finance for the coast.
While commending the Executive Chairman of OSOPADEC, Prince Olabiyi Poroye, for bringing the coast to Antalya not only with a problem but with a plan, Senator Faduyile told development partners that the communities of Ilaje and Ese-Odo are not asking for pity, but for partnership.
He assured that he will continue to use the legislative oversight of the Senate to follow every resolution through, so that whatever support comes to the coast reaches the people it is meant for, noting that the people of Ayetoro once built their own boats and generated their own light, and with partnership, they can do it again.
