Academics drawn mainly from the University of Port Harcourt have stepped up calls for the protection and preservation of the environment for healthy living.
Speaking in Yenagoa at the celebration of literary icon Gabriel Okara who recently clocked ninety six years, they called for a more humane treatment of a fragile environment much bastardized by oil exploration and exploitation activities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
TVC NEWS Correspondent Ovieteme George reports that Okara’s 1950 poem “The Call Of The River Nun” won the Festival of Art Prize in 1953.
As one of the first generation Nigerian writers in English, Okara has made inimitable contribution to the evolution, growth and development of Nigerian Literature, delving into the area of nature and the need to protect no preserve the environment.
“The Fisherman’s Invocation” published in 1978 which jointly won the Commonwealth Poetry Award. Okara’s literary works are still celebrated by the literati.
Celebrating Gabriel Okara at 96 came with an open display of the rich cultural heritage of the truly Izon homogeneous state.
