Sharon Ikeazor, a lawyer and technocrat, is the Minister of State for the Environment. In this interview with Legal Editor JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU, she speaks on the World Environment Day, strengthening environmental laws, national and global environmental impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, solutions to challenges and why Nigeria needs a Climate Change Bill as a legal framework to mainstream climate change responses into government’s policy formulation and implementation. Excerpts:
You have been the Minister of State for the Environment for almost a year, what have been the challenges?
It has been nine months since my assumption of office. I do not dwell on challenges but solutions. Life is not without challenges, but I am an incurable optimist, I rather not dwell on challenges but see opportunities in challenges and focus on solutions.
COVID-19 pandemic, no doubt, has brought a lot of pressure on natural resources, especially water for washing hands in the cities. How have you managed this, especially in rural communities?
Environmental issues are integral to all sectors. However, there is a delineation of roles and responsibilities hence, there is a Ministry for Water Resources charged with the responsibility of managing water resources; and the Minister has been working assiduously to ensure the availability of water even in this era of COVID-19 pandemic.
And in continuation of the WASH (Water Hygeine and sanitation) campaign, an inter-ministerial committee on Clean Nigeria was inaugurated by the Vice President on May 28, which is an initiative of the Ministry of Water Resources and the Federal Ministry of the Environment is a member and collaborating with them, the era of Ministries, Departments and Agencies working in solo should be over for us to achieve our common goals of sustainable development.
This way, we maximise the scarce financial and material resources available to build synergy and avoid duplication of efforts towards the delivery of basic necessities of life which are water and sanitation as one Nigeria. Our environmental sanitation inspectors do their part by monitoring.
Addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in the country somehow raised the need for inter-agency collaborations, especially those in environmental health, logistics/ transportation, interment of dead COVID-19 victims and even the media. How do you manage the entire process?
I wish to reemphasise that environment is integral to all sectors (health, water, education, humanitarian affairs, agriculture, transportation etc) and this explains why Mr. President has set up a Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 which comprises several line ministries, including environment and agencies.
The task of combating COVID-19 cannot be contained by just one ministry, but requires diverse stakeholders’ taking up different roles and responsibilities to deal with the situation.
In this regard, the Ministry of Environment, as a member of the PTF COVID-19, is not working alone but in close collaboration with several other line ministries and stakeholders to decontaminate and disinfect public places, incinerate used personal protective equipment and appropriate disposal of medical wastes.
But, the ministry through the Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) sanitation inspectors, under the Department of Pollution Control, offer technical support.
You must have seen them decontaminating offices and aircraft. NESREA has also issued guidelines and sensitised medical personnel on the disposal of medical waste
What lessons would you say we learnt from this COVID-19 pandemic; how do you think we can sustain the positive lessons after the pandemic?
We have learnt that we cannot destroy nature’s habitat and not be affected, we must restore, conserve and protect our ecosystem and its biodiversity and live in harmony with nature.
COVID-19 is global and it has shown humanity that we have one planet and there is no planet B. This is not the first zoonotic disease to threaten human health and survival.
In the past we have had SERS, MERS, Ebola and Avian Flu, more than 60% of known human infectious pathogens have emerged from animals with the majority of the recent ones originating from wild life.
So, we have to rethink how we interact with our environment just like the climate crisis is caused by human actions. How we treat Mother Earth has to change, this pandemic has heightened our consciousness about the inherent dangers involved in our attitude in the exploitation of our natural resources.
So the theme for the World Environment Day 2020 “Biodiversity” and the slogan “Time for Nature” are very apt amidst the pandemic.
Any other lesson from the pandemic?
Another key lesson is increased awareness on personal hygiene (regular hand washing and sanitisation etc). While COVID-19 has its negative impact on humans, climate experts and scientist have revealed that there is a significant improvement in air quality, reduction in carbon footprint due to cut in travel by air or road and environmental noise reduction.
On the other hand, there are also negative secondary aspects such as the reduction in recycling and the increase in waste, further endangering the contamination of physical spaces (water and land), in addition to air.
The global community has shown that it can act to address a crisis, with governments, businesses and individuals taking measures and changing behaviours in response to the pandemic.
When we work together, even small personal actions when put together, like physical distancing and wearing masks, can make a big difference.
A positive lesson learnt is the need for stricter enforcement of policy laws and regulations on illegal wildlife trade, deforestation and biodiversity.
Also the need to sustain the ongoing campaign against COVID-19 and engage more in aggressive awareness at the national, sub-national and community levels; and the inclusion of subjects and texts on impacts of pandemics in secondary and primary education curricula will help sustain lessons learnt. In fact, continuous community engagement and awareness campaigns will sustain lessons learnt
How do you intend to achieve all the mandates of the Ministry?
The Ministry has three regulatory agencies for enforcement. We have the NESREA, which enforces environmental laws, guidelines, policies, standards and regulations and compliance with provisions of international agreements, treaties, conventions and protocols to which Nigeria is signatory.
The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency ((NOSDRA) is responsible for surveillance and ensuring compliance with environmental legislations and the detection of oil spills in the petroleum sector.
It coordinates oil spill response activities and monitors clean up and remediation activities in oil impacted sites. The National Bio safety Management Agency accredits research institutes to carry out biotechnology activities, implements provisions of conventions relating to Genetically Modified Organisms ( GMO) in Nigeria.
Once we can turn around these agencies by building their capacities and ability to enforce all regulations, we have covered the environment in Nigeria.
What are the solutions to the challenges in the Ministry of the Environment?
We have an enormous task to undertake at the Ministry as our mandate states that the Federal Ministry of Environment is to: secure a quality environment conducive for good health and well being of citizens, fauna and flora (animals and plants), promote sustainable use of natural resources, restore and maintain the eco system, ecological process and preserve biodiversity. It is also to raise public awareness, promoting understanding of linkages of the environment and research and development on issues that affect the environment.
How do we address the challenges of climate change in the country?
Besides COVID-19, Nigeria and the world is facing climate change crises. Nigeria is signatory to the Paris Climate Agreement.
With international and regional partners the Department of Climate Change and others under the Ministry are implementing programmes and projects to tackle climate change and build a more-resilient and sustainable environment.
Which aspects of our environmental laws do you think we need new legislations to strengthen or modify.
Pope Francis at the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, when he referred to the earth as “our common home”, a sister whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace everyone.
The Pope further cautioned that we must take immediate actions to save the earth by changing the unsustainable development.
Now referring to what aspects of our environmental life we need legislations to strengthen, or modify. I strongly believe that even if we have all the legislations in the world but if we don’t have the political will to embrace and enforce them, we will still have not done anything to protect our Mother Earth as referred to by the Pope
There are some bills that need to be strengthened and enforced such as:
- The Forest Protection Law (The Wildlife Protection Law): This law needs to be strengthened through sensitisation of the general public as this will help to stem poaching and illegal trade of endangered species.
- The NOSDRA Amendment Bill is being worked on. It will strengthen the agency’s environmental policing of oil spill pollution, especially in the Niger Delta We hope to resolve the issue of overlapping functions with the DPR under the Petroleum Resources Ministry.
But, clearly, issues of environmental pollution lies with the Federal Ministry of the Environment so we are engaging with stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
Nigeria cannot afford to continue cleaning up and remediating preventable oil spills not to talk of the health impacts on our people in oil producing areas.
What are you doing about climate change?
We all feel the impact of climate change from the shrinking of the Lake Chad with its security implications to desertification in the Northern Region and the heavy flooding and erosion in the Southern Region .
Livelihoods are threatened by adverse weather change and we must respond in a sustainable and resilient way.
The Climate Change Bill is a legal framework we need for the mainstreaming of climate change responses and actions into government policy formulation and implementation.
June 5, every year is observed globally as the World Environment Day and is celebrated with a lot of programmes across the globe, what programmes do you have to celebrate this year’s?
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry cannot risk having elaborate activities like in the past. In view of this, the ministry has planned a press briefing and a virtual commemoration.
We have webinars in partnerships with donors and other stakeholders across the country and it will serve as a platform for Nigerians to make contributions on how to foster partnership and collaboration for this year’s theme: “Biodiversity”.
This way, we will reiterate the government’s commitment in sensitising and creating awareness on the importance of biodiversity.
A few weeks ago, dead fishes littered the shorelines of Bayelsa State, what cause the death of the fishes? Was it pollution, and how did you manage it?
The Ministry through NOSDRA responded by visiting the sites and locations of the dead fishes and took samples of the fishes for laboratory analyses to detect the true causes of the environmental disaster.
So far, the laboratory results have revealed the following: That the dead fishes were not as a result of oil spill from any of the international oil companies operating in the locations.
The laboratory findings also revealed that the pH level in the water was quite high thereby affecting the marine life. Worthy of note is NESREA developing a national guideline on acceptable pH level for Nigeria.
It was reported recently that there is inter-agency clash between the DPR, the Ministry of the Environment and NOSDRA on the management of oil spills, how have you resolved the issue.
There is delineation of roles and responsibilities between agencies even though some overlap. But this is, because, the environment is integral and cuts across all sectors.
So, I am not aware of any clash between NOSDRA and DPR. The DPR is the technical regulator while NOSDRA is the environmental regulator in the petroleum sector and they are agencies under one government.
At the moment, NOSDRA Act is in the process of being amended to strengthen and position it to implement its mandate.
Desertification has been a major problem for the country, especially in the northern part, what are you doing to control this?
The Great Green Wall is an agency under the Ministry charged with the responsibility of curbing desert encroachment by planting trees and other support livelihood programmes which are ongoing.
At the 75th UN General Assembly, the President announced and directed that Nigeria would plant 25 million trees and, in this regard, the agency has started massive campaigns and awareness creation among Nigerians for the purpose.
The Ministry through the Department of Forestry has intervention programmes on afforestation/reforestation of 5000hectres of land for a period of five years in some northern states like Kebbi, Adamawa, Nassarawa, Kano and Kaduna.
The Ministry is planning a massive tree planting campaign nationwide in collaboration with governors, non governmental oganisations, women and youth groups to plant trees
How did your last assignment at the Pensions Transitional Arrangment Directorate (PTAD) affect your current assignment?
I am glad my last assignment at PTAD prepared me for this new assignment and grounded me in public service and working with civil servants to achieve results. You may recall that pension administration was fraught with great challenges in years past.
And what did you do?
We were able to turn around pension administration under the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS). PTAD restored hope in pension administration in Nigeria.
I simply focused on the solutions by using and relying on the legal framework that is the Pension Reform Act and also relied on Public Service Rules. We are not short of laws, rules and regulations in Nigeria, implementation and enforcement are key to succeeding.
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