The World Environmental Day (WED), was marked on Tuesday. However, the Environmental Import Clearance (EIC) permit, a regulation allegedly put in place to safeguard the country from degenerating into a “dumping ground,” has pitched a regulator against some stakeholders, reports MUYIWA LUCAS.
THE environment, its maintenance and sustainability, have remained source of grave concern to the government. Hence, it was quite impressive when the government set up various agencies to tackle, headlong, environmental degradation. One of these is the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA).
The agency’s statutory function centres on environmental protection, conservation and natural resources safeguard, all centering on having in place a sustainable development of the country’s natural resources and environmental technology co-ordination. This meant that the agency ought to have developed a sustainable programme of liason with relevant stakeholders to make its impact felt more in the society.
But experts and stakeholders have continued to express concern on the scope of operations of this agency. For instance, issues bothering on oil spills, desertification, loss of natural habitat, exploitation for firewood, uncontrolled logging, fire, petroleum exploration activities, mining as much as grazing have continued to constitute major environmental challenges confronting the nation.
In the Niger Delta region for example, where more than 70 per cent of the people rely on natural resources for existence, it has not been a palatable story. This is on account of the region’s peculiar terrain, which has made it possible for crude oil to be found just five meters from the surface of the earth.
A couple of years back, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said the Niger Delta people, Ogoniland in particular, have lived with chronic pollution all their lives. Benzene levels were as much as 900 times higher than the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendations, and Nigeria was losing about 0.6 per cent of its treasured land to desertification on yearly basis.
By far, the biggest concern is the extensive exploration in the country, which has led to massive pollution with far reaching implications. The high volume of associated gas (AG) in Nigeria’s light crude coupled with a poor history of investment in gas gathering and utilisation infrastructure have made the elimination of gas flaring difficult.
It is on record that organisations and businesses involved in generating environmentally degrading items are daily seeking means of disposing their produce with the cheapest means. One of this is dumping. In this instance, the Koko Village, in Delta State, toxin dump of 1988 comes to mind. For regulatory agencies, policing this type of incidence can be challenging and requires a holistic approach.
Perhaps, issues such as this explained the proposed plans by NESREA aimed at enforcing import clearance permit, a regime which mandates importers intending to clear their consignments at the ports, to first apply for its newly formulated Environmental Import Clearance permit (EIC). The permit is to regulate imported items and to ensure that banned chemicals and hazardous substances are not imported into the country. It is also to ensure that “end-of-life” of the items is considered under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programme as required by law.
The EIC, according to NESREA, would replace the import permit usually issued by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) as well as the Standards Organisation of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) certificate usually issued by the SON.
But this position is now a subject of discord among the agency, environmentalists, importers and other stakeholders across the sectors. While questions are being asked by stakeholders on how well the agency has acquainted itself with its core environmental responsibilities by way of tackling same successfully since its inception, yet, others are concerned at how NESREA obtained the authorisation to be the sole authority for the issuance of the said document.
For instance, an environmentalist, Mayowa Sodipo, said the position of NESREA on the EIC is worrisome, as it may have gone beyond its brief. “Going by the NESREA functions, its responsibility as enshrined in NESREA Act, is mainly protection and development of the environment, bio-diversity conservation and sustainable development of Nigeria’s natural resources in general and environmental technology, including co-ordination and liason with relevant stakeholders within and outside Nigeria,” he argued.
According to him, the enforcement or implementation of this policy is at variance with the several efforts of government in the past aimed at eliminating duplicity of functions, checkmate corruption as well as quicken the process of checking goods entering the country through its waterways.
Similarly, an importer and clearing agent at Apapa Wharf, Toyin Orimolade, lamented that the introduction of EIC by the agency was a duplication when it is considered that the same certificate is used to obtain Form M, unlike the SON certification, which requires that an importer must get product certificate (PC) first, and later get SONCAP after getting Form M. Again, no certificate validation is required for NESREA, as one may then use his permit to apply for Form M.
Sodipo contended that NESREA‘s statutory responsibilities are huge hence, the agency needed not involve itself in port clearing. “NESREA should concern itself with containing the huge and worrisome environmental issues bedevilling the country, rather than desiring a spot at the ports where sister agencies have established a reputation and can run the rounds effectively,” he said.
In NESREA’s view, promoting EIC permit is very apt, and devoid of any form of overlap, so long as the agency is strictly enforcing environment related issues.
Besides, such efforts are aimed at tackling the dumping of environmentally hazardous products in the country. Since NAFDAF oversees drugs related issues; SON tackles products specification and standards, then NESREA, it is argued, should be made to check the influx of used equipment, especially e-wastes. This is to prevent Nigeria from being turned into a dumping ground for e-waste. This is what is believed the EIC will stop.
But, the general consensus is that thre are more far-reaching environmental task ahead of the agency begging for attention.
