♛elotiTV♛ World Environment Day: Assessing the home front: Greg Odogwu | credits: File copy “Planet Earth is our shared island; let us join forces to protect it.” – UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon Today is World Environment Day. This year’s theme is, “Raise your voice, not the sea level”. The WED is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years, it has grown to be a broad, global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated by stakeholders in over 100 countries. It also serves as the “people’s day” for doing something positive for the environment, galvanising individual actions into a collective power that generates an exponential positive impact on the planet. In support of the UN designation of 2014 as the “International Year of Small Island Developing States”, a.k.a. SIDS, this year’s WED will adopt SIDS in the broader context of climate change as its theme. It must be noted that most of these small island countries are at great risk of being totally submerged by rising sea level. In fact, as you read this, countries like Maldives and Tuvalu are already making preparations on how to relocate the whole population to safer locations when the sea eventually envelopes their entire lands! However, it is my view that today, we, as Nigerians, should take stock of how we are faring in nurturing our environmental infrastructure as a country. Though our country is also a part of the developing nations that are of concern, alongside small island nations, as it concerns future fears of climate change. We have to raise our voice not only in respect to the level of global climate change – and rising sea; but in our indigenous structural set up in this fight against climate change. More so, ours is a country where individuals, instead of institutions, define the governance processes. And we now have a new person at the helm of affairs at the Ministry of Environment. Certainly, expectations are high that the new minister will take concrete steps to address the daunting challenges facing the ministry and the Nigerian environment. Critical issues requiring urgent ministerial attention range from corruption in the system, lack of office accommodation, poorly motivated workforce and dilapidated office furniture whose life span has long expired and now constitute an eyesore all over the Ministry. The most fundamental challenges in the sector have to do with the huge debts, reported to be over N10bn, hanging on the neck of the ministry; the oil spillage in the Niger Delta and particularly in Bonga which has affected shoreline communities in Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa states among others; the massive erosion threatening the entire South-East; and the lead poisoning in Zamfara State, which has yet to be comprehensively tackled. Other problems have to do with drought and desertification threatening the extreme end of Northern Nigeria; poor implementation of the Great Green Wall project; and challenges facing the National Parks. Of equal importance is the issue of flooding in parts of the country occasioned by the consequences of climate change as well as issues of pollution control and waste management, environmental health. We must also remember that gas flaring must be stopped at all costs, with no shift in date. Interestingly, at the core of this rot is the poor funding of the sector and low internally generated revenue, which makes the situation a veritable vicious circle. Recently, the Minister of Environment lamented that the ministry had just N7bn for its entire budgetary allocation for the year 2014. Therefore, considering that budget is the ministry’s lifeblood, the minister must start now to fight for the 2015 budget for key projects in the sector. While processing for more funds in next year’s budget, she must also press hard to get the Federal Government to meet her obligation for the counterpart funding of the Great Green Wall and other projects. Perhaps, the Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Great Green Wall, and who is from the same state as the minister, might support this vital effort. Another avenue to be utilised is the window on supplementary budget to get more funds. While pressing at full throttle for funding, the minister should also learn from the mistakes of her predecessors who lost most of the plants they planted under the Great Green Wall project to drought and desertification. These plants died because there was no maintenance agreement or arrangements which government would have secured with the various contractors handling the planting for at least two years to ensure that the trees are nurtured sufficiently to maturity level before being handed over to the ministry. It is also important for the minister to embark on adequate sensitisation programme for host communities who should also be availed enough tree seedlings to plant. The host communities should be made to own the Great Green Wall project. Taking ownership is the best way to guarantee rapid planting, and maintenance of the expected forests that will spring out of the project. Other less endowed countries such as Mauritania and Mali have succeeded in this project. It beats one’s imagination why Nigeria cannot. Another area of grave concern which no Minister of Environment has ever confronted head-on is the issue of gas flaring. The starting point for the minister is to visit the Niger Delta area, specifically the oil installations and production facilities, to see firsthand the amount of gas being flared into the atmosphere. This will enable her appreciate fully the environmental consequences of these activities. Like I mentioned in another piece, this is an opportunity to write her name in gold. The next challenge is the consistent and monumental oil spillage that has ravaged host communities of the Niger Delta. The most recent is that of the Bonga Oil Spillage. Granted, the minister started well by attempting to bring warring stakeholders, Shell and host communities of the shoreline, to the table to seek amicable resolution of the problem, but she has to pursue this to a logical conclusion. Of equal importance is for the minister and oil companies operating in the Niger Delta to carry out sustained sanitisation campaign within the affected communities with a view to discouraging people from the host communities from acts capable of causing oil spillage. If pipeline vandalisation is curbed, oil spillage can be minimised by a large margin. The people must be made to know the environmental consequences of oil spillage on their lives, crops and health. Where oil spillage is occasioned by deliberate sabotage, culprits must be apprehended and brought to book. Where operating companies are responsible, prompt and adequate compensation must be paid to affected persons and communities. Another area of worry is the issue of the embarrassing debt profile hanging on the neck of the ministry. It was revealed that some contractors have already obtained court injunctions. To avoid the looming embarrassment, the minister should engage the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to verify these contracts. Those found to be genuine should be paid promptly, while those found to be fraudulent should be made to face the law. Other environmental challenges that constitute a hydra-headed monster for the nation include erosion, flooding, pollution and the rapidly changing global climate. The minister should commence efforts at carrying out a comprehensive National Environmental Sensitisation programme to create the necessary environmental consciousness in the citizenry. Issues such as waste disposal, bush burning, vehicular emissions, radiation from refrigerators and related harmful ozone substances, industrial waste disposal, kerosene lanterns and deforestation should all be part of the components of the national campaign. There is no better way than this for the people of Nigeria to join the global community to “raise the voice and not the sea level”. Original link Read More goo.gl/065RcT (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 12:47:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015