By Gabriel Ewepu & Funmi Olasupo
With the coming on board of the Minister of Environment, Mrs.
Laurentia Mallam, and her familiarisation tour of parastatals and agencies
under the Ministry, 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 to lack of office accommodation, poorly motivated
workforce and dilapidated office furniture whose life span have long expired
and are now an eye-sore all over the Ministry.
The most fundamental challenges in the sector have to do with
the huge debts of over N10 billion 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, and among others, the massive
erosion threatening the entire South East and the lead poisoning in Zamfara
State, yet to be comprehensively tackled.
Other problems have to do with drought and desertification
threatening some parts 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. Gas flaring must
be stopped at all cost, with no shift in date.
At the centre of all of these challenges is poor funding of the
sector and low internally generated revenue.
It is worthy to note that the Minister has already acknowledged
the fact that paucity of funds had hampered the performance of the Ministry.
Recently, she lamented that the Ministry was only allocated N7 billion for the
entire budgetary allocation for 2014.
It is imperative to state that without delay, the Minister
should come up with the 2015 budget for the ministry in order to make adequate
provision of funds for capital and key projects in the sector.
The Great Green Wall project should be a major focus and as one
of the priority project, which the Minister is expected to convince the Federal
government to adequately meet up with its counterpart funding. This is in
addition to other key projects that are presently lying fallow.
Another option is for the Minister to utilise the area of
supplementary budget to fund major projects that have direct bearing with the
lives of Nigerians as far the environment is concerned.
Still on the Great Green Wall project, it is worrisome seeing
plants cultivated to arrest desertification left unattended to. These plants
eventually wither away as a result of lack of proper maintenance arrangement
put in place with the contractors to nurture them to a level of maturity and
handing over the ministry.
It is also important for the Minister to embark on adequate
sensitisation programme for host communities who should also be involved in
tree planting by providing enough tree seedlings to support the government’s
drive to ameliorate their plight. They should understand that as host
communities, they own the Great Green Wall Project.
Now that the rainy season has come, the Minister should make
deliberate effort to identify with communities ravaged by desert encroachment
by planting trees to keep the Great Green Wall project alive and make them have
a sense of belonging. She should endeavour to plant at least 1, 000km out of
the estimated 1,500km to be covered by the project. And it will be a major feat
achieved by the minister.
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. Why can’t the giant of Africa, Nigeria, achieve it?
Another area of grave concern which no Minister of Environment
has ever confronted head-long is the issue of gas flaring. The starting point
for her is to visit the Niger Delta region, and specifically oil installations
and production facilities to see the degree of gas being flared since oil was
discovered in 1956 into the atmosphere.
This will enable her understand fully the environmental
consequences of these dangerous and deadly activities carried out by oil
companies. But the huge challenge to the Minister will be the influence and
courage to be mustered to stop the untamed evil by powerful oil multinationals,
or will she chicken out as her predecessors?
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