An environmental memo to President-elect Buhari

After the general elections, in your first public speech while collecting your certificate of return from INEC you said you will work to reduce the impact of climate change on the country. That singular pronouncement by you gave stakeholders in the environment sector great joy and the confidence that Nigerians didn’t vote for you in […]

After the general elections, in your first public speech while collecting your certificate of return from INEC you said you will work to reduce the impact of climate change on the country. That singular pronouncement by you gave stakeholders in the environment sector great joy and the confidence that Nigerians didn’t vote for you in vain.
Your mention of climate change and its impact on Nigerians shows that you are one of those following environmental issues facing the country.
It is therefore important to bring to your notice the fact that each region of the country has its own peculiar environmental challenges some of which include desertification in the North, erosion menace in the East, ocean surge in the South and flooding in the West.
Previous governments set aside low allocation for the environment ministry ensuring that the ministry went cap in hand begging international organisations and donor agencies to fund its activities.
The environmental challenges confronting the nation, especially flood and erosion ravaged most parts of the country in the last three years and left behind tears and pains. President Jonathan set up various committees to provide relief or rehabilitate the victims but it became a case of the more you look the less you understand.
Chronicled below are some of the issues that the out-going government failed to address but citizens are demanding answers to:

N17 billion 2012 flood fund:
After the 2012 flood which killed scores across the country and destroyed property valued at over N3 trillion, the out-going government inaugurated a Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation headed by business mogul Aliko Dangote and Human Right activist Olisa Agbakoba to raise money from the public and rehabilitate the victims.
The committee ended up raising about N17 billion but failed to rehabilitate the victims of the flood who lost their houses and sources of livelihood, and no account was given of how the money raised was expended.

N631m Bagega remediation funds:
In 2013 the federal government released N631 million for the remediation of Bagega town in Zamfara State after illegal mining activities in the town resulted in the death of many children. The deaths which were widely publicised by both foreign and local media compelled the government to intervene in the crisis after about two years. But how well the money was used remains a story for another day as children are still digging and processing gold.

N9.2 billion clean cook stove intervention:
The federal executive council late last year awarded the contract for the procurement of 750,000 clean cook stoves and 18,000 wonder bags at the cost of N9.2 billion as an intervention to prevent women from dying while cooking for their households as well as save the forests from the massive deforestation that is currently going on in the country.
The Ecological Fund was mandated to provide the N9.2 billion to the Ministry of Environment for the procurement. The fund as of last week had already released the sum of N5 billion to the ministry and the ministry also released N1.3 billion to the contractor who brought in about a 100,000 of the stoves.
What became of the rest of the stoves is still a subject of discussion as even the Environment minister, Mrs Lawrencia Mallam, could not account for them and the contractor said, point blank, that none of the wonder bags has been brought in as the ministry backed out of the plan to issue them wavier for the purchase.
So as it stands, money have been released but no stove has reached the rural women who continue to die from indoor smoke while deforestation is still on the high side.

Ogoni oil spill report:
About two years ago, the United Nations Environment Programme conducted a study commissioned by the federal government on the incessant oil spill in Ogoni land and came up with a mind blowing report.
The study contained various sets of recommendations that the federal government was to urgently undertake as scientific test on the soil and water in the area suggested that the entire Ogoniland was not conducive for human habitation but nothing was done except that government set up a committee to look into the study.

Participation in international conferences:
Nigeria has come to be recognised at international environment conferences such as the annual climate change meetings as a country with one of the highest number of delegates.
The large number of delegates at the meetings, however does not translate to effective attendance or participation but only the allowances the officials collect.

Great Green Wall implementation:
The Great Green Wall programme was sold to the African Union by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as one of the continent-wide initiatives to tame desertification and cushion its impact on Africans along the Sahel region but unfortunately, other countries have since institutionalised the programme with the creation of an agency to operationalise the convention.
Nigeria is still struggling with the law to establish and empower her own agency created in 2014.

National Environmental Sanitation days:
National highways and drainages have become dumpsites for refuse all over the country and this has aggravated the occurrence of flood even in states that hitherto had no history of flooding.
Nigerians are waiting for you to reintroduce the monthly national environmental sanitation exercise.
The issues that would be confronting you in the sector seem endless but you can address more than half of them with the appointment of an environmentalist or someone with deep understanding of environmental issues. Since the creation of the ministry it has never had the right person at the helm of its affairs and this has affected the country at the global arena as we continue to sign international treaties and conventions but find it very difficult to implement or domesticate them.