By Obiabin Onukwugha
The Minister of the Environment, Malam Balarabe Abbas Lawal was among government officials listed as being performer by a political group (APG3).
He was adjudged as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s best performing minister.
The Tinubu’s administration, recently celebrated its one year in office. The celebration gave the government and different ministries and agencies the opportunity to look back and take stock of their activities, one year after.
It was on this light that the NatureNews take a critical look at the performance of the Ministry of Environment, headed by Malam Balarabe Abbas Lawal.
Recently, the ministry listed over 20 achievements in the last one year.The ministry in its stewardship release tagged: “Achievements of the Honorable Minister of Environment, Malam Balarabe Abbas Lawal”, categorised the achievements as those already launched, ongoing and those initiated by the ministry, respectively.
According to the ministry, its achievements during the period under review included; contract signing for technical assistance to restore 350,000 hectares of degraded lands under the Agro-climatic Resilience in semi-Arid Landscape Project (ACReSAL), commissioning of the Teraboo Water Scheme Project and Flag-off of the Ogoni Medical Outreach Programme, as well as restoration of over 1.5 million hectares of degraded forests and landscapes through afforestation and reforestation programs.
The ministry listed some of its initiated projects to include efforts towards recharging the Lake Chad to prevent catastrophic implications for the sub-Saharan region, advancing the Great Green Wall to halt the encroachment of the Sahara Desert and collaborating with the UK and EU governments to meet Nigeria’s clean energy objectives.
It further listed some of its achievements during the period under review to include signing of bilateral Cooperation Framework Agreement on Trans- boundary Ecosystem Conservation and Sustainable Management of Forestry and Wildlife Resources between the Governments of Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroon.
Strengthening of the National Park Guards to rid National Parks of bandits and forestall poaching and illegal logging, is another laudable initiative of the Ministry in the past one year, according to a release.
The Environment Ministry also listed the launch of the 50×2030 Initiative to minimize data gap, build national statistics systems, and promote evidence-informed agriculture in 50 low, lower-middle, and middle-income countries by 2030, the Launch of National Clean Cooking Policy to promote sustainable cooking practices and the supervision of the production of 45 million assorted tree seedlings for afforestation programs across the country.
Others includes fostered collaborative efforts with the Ministry of Agriculture to promote climate-smart agriculture for food security, convened stakeholders to develop a sustainable plastic waste management framework and unveiled the Nigerian Circular Economy Roadmap.
The Ministry further revealed that the training of lawyers and judges on handling environmental crimes and establishing an Environmental Tribunal, ensuring proper management of Nigeria’s coasts and coastal development in collaboration with sub-national governments and the World Bank and implementing policies in Rain Harvesting to turn flood crisis into flood prosperity, are other of its laudable achievements in the last one year.
Aside that, ongoing initiatives are also the collaboration with critical stakeholders, including the Nigerian Army, to plant 1 billion trees in the next two years.