Stakeholders pledge to champion Federal Government’s environmental plan

Stakeholders have pledged to champion environmental programmes of the government to make Nigerian cities clean and healthy in line with the existing regulations.

At the National Environmental Compliance Award organised by NESREA in Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari said it is on record that from 2007, several compliance monitoring have been carried out in states and Abuja.

Represented by his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Buhari explained, “In our midst are passionate stakeholders within and outside Nigeria whose roles on matters of enforcement, standards, have upgraded the quality of environment.”

He emphasised voluntary compliance to environment regulations as set out in the NESREA Act, saying, government will continue to strengthen its enforcement mechanism as part of panacea to land, floods emission, pollutions and others.

The President therefore congratulated the awardees, UAC Foods PLC, Lagos, Grand Cereals Limited, Jos; Zartech Farm, Oyo State; Chi Limited, Lagos; Nigerian Breweries PLC, Enugu and Lagos, respectively; Notore Chemical Industries, PLC, Rivers.

Others are: W.J.Bush and Company Nigeria Limited, Kano; Inter Color Paint Industry, Enugu; Viva Metal &Plastic Industries, Kano; Royal Foam Products Nigeria, Kano; Mamuda Industries Limited, Emenite Limited, Enugu; Mother Cat Quarry, Katsina; HIS Nigeria Limited, Lagos and ATC Nigeria Wireless Infrastructure Ltd, Lagos.

Also, speaking on the occasion, Minister of Environment, Barr.Abdullahi Mohammed proposed the conferment on Mr. President a lifetime award and Patron of NECA in his recognition of environmental enforcement efforts.

Mohammed equally saluted the courage of the awardees who worked tirelessly from the days of the Harmful Waste Decree 42 of 1988 to 2007 when NESREA was established to ensure clean and healthier environment, as well as promote personal and collective responsibility.

“Over the years, the Agency has recorded modest achievements despite challenges such as nationwide compliance monitoring, putting 35 national environmental regulations in place, bordering on both brown and green environment,” he remarked.

Contributing, Director-General of NESREA, Prof. Aliyu Jauro hinted that, in the last three years, they have undertaken the issues of compliance and monitoring over 10,000 corporate facilities, out of which 160 were sealed for various offences.
Jauro declared: within the same period, a total of 1,453 awareness programmes were carried out, and 703 public complaints were handled, adding, the sixteen awardees have satisfied the standards by complying with their regulations.

Responding, one of the awardees said they would not rest on their oars but would continue to work with the various governments so that the country will be pollution and emission-free, thereby promoting a healthier environment.