By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
The Minister of Environment, Hon. Balarabe Abbas Lawal says the Federal Government will enhance community engagement in the ongoing Ogoni clean-up exercise.
The Minister stated this during his median parley with the Press Corp of the Ministry in Abuja.
Lawal said an enhanced engagement with the people and Companies operating in that area will bring a lasting solution to the Ogoni pollution menace, and quick completion of the clean-up.
“We are going to start a new community development in Ogoniland where we will get the community involved in the cleanup–the traditional institutions, youths and stakeholders.
“Ogoni is just one out of other places in the country that has these issues of environmental pollution,’’ he added
The minister also advocated for the return of Sanitary Inspectors in households and industries like it was in the 60s and 70s to kick out open Defecation and pollution among other things in Nigeria.
Hon. Balarabe traced the increase in open defecation to the absence of Sanitary Inspectors.
The minister said the recycling economy will address pollution and climate change issues in Nigeria.
The minister stated that his ministry would ensure that garbage was turned into wealth and would also collaborate with the state governments on waste management.
Lawal urged residents to take care of their environment by ensuring it was rid of dirt.
He said, “One area very close to our heart is a cleaner economy which has to do with the issue of pollution, the last time I was going through, we were rated very bad in the area of pollution, garbage and the rest of it, what we are trying to do is that we are trying to turn garbage into wealth, we are trying to create an economy that will not allow garbage and turn around to take that garbage and make it into wealth.
“Recycling economy is also what we are looking at, that something concrete will come out of it, recycling economy is now new, so I think it is going to address some of our pollutions because you can see we are doing badly in the area of pollution. In that area, we are going to engage with the state government very closely. So we want to come up with a policy that will take care of our immediate environment.
“The issues of climate, sometimes naturally, there is nothing we can do about it, but sometimes we are the ones that cause the environmental issues, all these things are things we can avoid or things we can control. So we will make sure people are educated properly. ” He Said.
Balarabe also added that he would collaborate with relevant stakeholders to deliver on its mandate.
“We are going to be aggressive with the implementation of the projects in the environment ministry.”
