A Civil Society Organisation, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has applauded Dr Nnimmo Bassey for receiving the 2024 Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan, United States.
CAPPA congratulated global environmental activist and Executive Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) Bassey for the laurel. CAPPA in a statement on Wednesday by Robert Egbe, its Media and Communications Officer lauded the renowned environmentalist for delivering the 29th Wallenberg Lecture.
According to the statement, the lecture was titled: “We Are Relatives,” and focused on love, humility, dignity and respect in his vision of a liveable future for all beings. At the lecture, Urban Ahlin, Ambassador of Sweden to the United States, discussed the life of Raoul Wallenberg.
“Wallenberg is the University of Michigan alumnus and Swedish diplomat whose legacy the Wallenberg Medal commemorates by honouring humanitarians across generations. The Wallenberg Medal is awarded by the University of Michigan to outstanding humanitarians whose actions on behalf of the defenceless and oppressed reflect the heroic commitment and sacrifice of the late Swedish diplomat.
“Both the Award and Lecture honour the legacy of Raoul Wallenberg, who graduated from the University of Michigan College of Architecture in 1935 and saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews near the end of World War II. In 1944, at the request of Jewish organizations and the American War Refugee Board, the Swedish Foreign Ministry sent Wallenberg on a rescue mission to Budapest,” the statement read in part.
The statement recalled that in six months, Wallenberg issued thousands of protective passports and placed many thousands of Jews in safe houses throughout the besieged city. The late diplomat confronted Hungarian and German forces to secure the release of Jews, whom he claimed were under Swedish protection and saved more than 80,000 lives.
The statement also quoted Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of CAPPA as congratulating Bassey on his well-deserved recognition as the recipient of the prestigious 2024 Wallenberg Medal. Oluwafemi noted that Bassey is the first Nigerian and 5th African to be so honoured.
Bassey’s honour comes after South Africa’s Helen Suzman and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rwandan Paul Rusesabagina, and Congolese Denis Mukwege.
“This award affirms global recognition of Dr. Nnimmo Bassey’s exceptional impact. Bassey is synonymous with pristine work and relentless pursuit of environmental justice and accountability. The sides notwithstanding formidable challenges, especially in addressing the root cause of issues driving climate migration, environmental and social impacts of extractive production, and hunger.
“CAPPA, alongside environmental advocates in Africa and across the world, is excited to celebrate this recognition.” the statement quoted Oluwafemi as saying. Bassey, an architect, holds the Nigerian national honour of Member of the Order of Federal Republic for Environmental Activism.
He is a member of the steering committee of Oilwatch International, a network resisting the expansion of fossil fuel extraction in the Global South. He chaired Friends of the Earth International from 2008 to 2012, was a co-recipient of the 2010 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” and received the Rafto Human Rights Prize in 2012.
He received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of York (U.K.) in 2019 and York University (Canada) in 2023. Bassey’s books include “To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction” and “The Climate Crisis in Africa and Oil Politics: Echoes of Ecological War.” His poetry collections include “We Thought It Was Oil But It Was Blood,” “I Will Not Dance to Your Beat” and “I See the Invisible.”
