By Obiabin Onukwugha
For sometime now the need for environmental restoration has been in the front burner of talks and meetings among world bodies.
Particularly, world bodies like the United Nations, the African Development Bank, amongst other have continued to come up with programmes and support geared towards tackling environmental degradation, especially for developing countries.
Environmentalists on their part have continued to push for environmental justice owing to the fact that most of the pollution have been caused by developed countries and the global north.
In Nigeria people wake up every day to the realities of one pollution or the other. In the past few months, over 12 states have been ravaged with flooding.
Also in K-Dere community in Rivers State and Peremabiri Community in Bayelsa state, there were oil spills that have once again destroyed sources of livelihood for the people.
These challenges continue to negatively impact the lives of the people, especially women and children. Life expectancy has drastically reduced, with the health of the people now hanging in the balance. This is coupled with hunger arising from food shortages.
In many communities of the Niger Delta for instance, women reach early menopause and strange diseases are experienced every day without help in sight.
The youths are not left out as those who should ordinarily engage in farming, fishing and other agricultural sources of livelihood are being shortchanged. For them the future is bleak and many have resorted to crimes, while others have lost their lives in illegal bunkering and mining activities.
Recently, the Minister for Environment, Alhaji Balarabe Abbas Lawal, while assuming office promised that the ministry under his leadership will deliver a cleaner and greener Nigeria.
The Minister also stated that his appointment is an opportunity to create a legacy of environmental stewardship for future generations.
He highlighted the significance of a clean and healthy environment, noting that it is a fundamental right of every citizen of Nigeria to live in a habitable and sustainable environment.
He slso identifyed climate change, deforestation, air and water pollution, and the loss of biodiversity as some of the major challenges that demand immediate attention and decisive action.
Lawal said, in aligning with the President’s vision and commitment, his Ministry will prioritize projects such as ‘The Great Green Wall,’ which is aimed at halting desert encroachment in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.
However, in an interview with Naturenews, the Executive Director, We the People, Ken Henshaw, underscored the need for the Minister for Environment to take a holistic approach in tackling environmental issues in the country.
He said the responsibility of the minister goes beyond environmental issues to address in its entirety, climate change and its effect.
He said: “The minister of environment is not responsible for environmental issues alone, but is to large extent also responsible for the impacts of climate change and they are right here with us every day.
“We are not just talking about the Niger Delta. As we have environmental problems, which includes oil spill, gas flaring and other ecological damages, we have same impacts everywhere. If you go to the Middle Belt, there is Lead poisoning, there is mining activities that is leading to environmental degradation.
“If you go to other parts of the Niger Delta, like Cross River State, there is massive deforestation. If you go to up North there is desertification in Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, there is drought. On the Borno axis which is eastern part of north the Lake Chad is going extinct. And then there is flooding, there is ocean surge, there is plastic pollution; a plethora of environmental problems here.
“I just hope that the minister understands the deep importance and intricacies of that portfolio and that job and that it’s not just another appointment to compensate people.”
Henshaw also highlighted the need for civil society organisations to be in the forefront of bringing the needed solutions to environmental issues in the country by coming up with a blue print that gives policy direction to the presidency and monitor same to ensure implementation.
“Civil society have a role to play in this and I think that it is time that Civil Society Organisations come together and prepare an environmental agenda for the next four years and present it to the minister and the president.
“There needs to be a clear blue print that stems from environmental challenges in the country, including climate change, including impacts of climate change, including oil extraction and impacts of oil extraction, up to deforestation, desertification. We can use that agenda to gauge the minister for environment so that when he deviates from that agenda we know that he is failing already.”
Also, the Project Lead, Fossil Policy for Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Stephen Oduware, regretted that in the past, Environment Ministers have not helped the federal government solve Nigeria’s environmental problems.
He called on the minister to embark on an environmental audit to have first-hand knowledge of the many environmental problems in different parts of the country so as to adequately tackle them.
Oduware said: “The Niger Delta is heavily polluted, the corporations are not being regulated, so the minister should first of all, come and have a health audit in the Niger Delta, and in other places where mining acitivities are going on.
“They should go and clean up areas that have been polluted; they should clean and remediate it, they should also restore the livelihood of community people who have been impacted by their activities for over sixty years of exploration and exploitation activities in the region and in other places in Nigeria.”
The time therefore has come for Nigeria to go beyond policies and statements, to actually taking decisive steps that holistically address the plethora of environmental issues in the country.
Nigeria has been beneficiary to funds that address Climate Change and Environmental issues such as the Great Green Wall and ACReSAL programmes in the North and South East Nigeria.
In the Niger Delta, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), and as well the 13% derivation fund, are all geared towards mitigating the suffering of the people through developmental projects.
But the impact is not felt. The approach has rather been reactive instead of proactive and while we hear billions of naira and dollars being expended on environmental projects, there are no visible impact that justify such amounts.
Nigeria must go beyond policies and statements, to actually taking decisive steps that holistically address the plethora of environmental issues in the country. And the time is now so as to save the environment for future generations. The earth is our mother and we must nurture mother earth for our good.