The Nation Newspaper

Tag: sustainable development

  • Plant conservation and sustainable development

    SIR: The change in Nigeria’s climate and weather patterns compared to what obtained as recently as the 1980s is due mainly to the drastic depletion of trees and vegetation in Nigeria and globally. Consequently, we now experience increased flooding, loss of freshwater due to receding rivers, poorer soils, and irregular farming cycles, among myriad problems.

    The World Council for Economic Development (WECD) defines sustainable development as one that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This means that for industrial development to be sustainable, apart from addressing important issues at the macro level such as economic efficiency (innovation, prosperity, productivity) and social equity (poverty, community, health, human rights), it must factor in environmental accountability (land use, biodiversity, fresh water and climate change).

    Plant conservation, a broad group of activities that aim to prevent plants from becoming extinct, is a critical part of environmental accountability and conservation. It is ultimately centred on the conservation of trees, which is integrative to the process.

    The value placed on this initiative accounts for the attention it has received from NGOs and corporate bodies who are consistently sustaining efforts in promoting environmental protection and sustainability through tree planting.

    The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), a foremost NGO dedicated to nature conservation and sustainable development and with conservation projects across at least 11 states in Nigeria, recently began involving school pupils in its tree planting campaign. The purpose is to raise a new generation of future leaders who will understand the importance of conservation and preservation of biodiversity. Some of NCF’s partners/sponsors include Chevron Nigeria, Nigeria Bottling Company and First Bank of Nigeria.

    Guinness Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries and Skin Beauty Cosmetics Ltd have at different times, sponsored the tree planting campaign of Lagos State. British American Tobacco Nigeria, apart from ensuring that the outgrowers do not exploit child labour, also train their farmers to adopt sustainable farming techniques that preserve environmental biodiversity.

    Trees play a pivotal role in the preservation of the biodiversity of any environment or location. Their roots go deep into the soil, loosen it up for more absorption of rainwater and less run off. The increased absorption raises the water table level and consequently makes water available to plants for much longer while the top soil also retains its fertility as erosion is forestalled.

    On the whole, our dear planet has been suffering environmental degradation and deforestation for several decades. National Geographic estimates that swaths of forests, the size of half of England are lost globally, every year. The situation is particularly dire in Africa and the developing world where the bulk of deforestation occurs.

    Other factors that combine to exacerbate the situation include rapid growth in rural populations who also depend on trees for firewood. A near absence of urban and environmental planning has also resulted in an environment that is unprotected from deforestation due to over-cultivation, overgrazing, over-harvesting of trees, as well as the expansion of human settlements. There is also the very big problem of illegal harvesting of trees for export.

    There will always be legitimate demand for trees for their varied uses by man. The challenge ideally is to ensure the concomitant regeneration of the trees and forest resource as they are being harvested. However, Nigeria’s challenge includes the urgent reforestation of the vast areas of forests that have been lost to unsustainable practices; strengthening capacity; and creating institutions that will ensure proper regulation and regeneration of our forest resource.

    The biggest task perhaps is to make governments at all levels understand the relevance of plant conservation to sustainable economic development, the eradication of poverty and the empowerment of people. The scope of reforestation and regeneration that will correct our current deficit requires a holistic national master plan that must be headlined by the federal and state governments in as well as multinationals and NGOs.

     

    • Nkemdili Nwadike, Lagos.

  • Don urges investors to imbibe sustainable development

    Financiers and investors in Nigeria need to imbibe the principles of sustainable finance and investment and ensure that their financing and investment decisions take into consideration possible negative social and environmental impacts.

    Director, Sustainable Business Initiative, University of Edinburg Business School, Professor Kenneth Amaeshi, said investors and financiers should play primary roles as drivers for adoption of sustainable development by supporting projects, which positively impact not only the economy, but the nation’s social and governance structures.

    Amaeshi, who was the guest speaker at the Finance and Investment Dialogue on Prospects for Sustainable Finance and Investment in Nigeria, organised by GTI Capital Limited in collaboration with Business AM newspaper, said the adoption of principles of sustainability will lead to progressive government and increased profitability for Nigerian companies.

    He noted that projects by companies have both economic and social costs, but most companies pay more attention to economic cost instead of working towards eliminating or reducing social costs.

    “Sustainability is about how companies make their money, the challenge is to find ways of reducing negative impacts while increasing positive impacts,” Amaeshi said.

    He noted that financiers and investors had contributed to creating many of the societal problems by providing funds to companies, which engage in environmental degradation and health hazards among others.

    While urging investors and finance companies to use their funds to drive adoption of principles of sustainability, he pointed out that they stand to make more returns on their investments as the society, the economy and governance improve.

    According to him, while it may appear that there is no direct link between sustainability and profitability, there is an indirect relationship as the resultant improvement in reputation, greater resource management, employee productivity, customer loyalty and community goodwill will bring increased and sustainable profits.

    “By reducing social costs, you become more efficient and increase the goodwill of the company, which will turn to profit in due course,” Amaeshi said.

    He urged companies on voluntary compliance, noting that the nation’s financial services regulators are already working on a common programme to enforce principles of sustainability, which may come into effect by 2020.

    GTI Capital Limited Group Managing Director, Mr. Abubakar Lawal, said the dialogue series was borne out of the company’s desire to make meaningful impact on Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

    According to him, GTI is committed to a vision to impact Nigeria and influence Africa through positive contributions to national development.

    He emphasised the need for citizen-led participatory process that will lead to adoption of sustainable financing and investment, which will in turn benefit the general citizenry while helping the government to harness greater productivity and national wealth.

    The Business AM Managing Director, Mr Phillips Isakpain, in his remarks,  emphasised the need for futuristic thinking as a driving point for agenda setting.

    “Our discussion about Nigeria should be futuristic. A lot of the things that we do tend to remain current or in the past, but Nigeria deserves to begin to talk about the future. Our children should be paramount in our discussions on how to move forward as a nation,” Isakpa said.

  • António Guterres: ‘Our responsibility is to invest in people’

    For the 2018 edition of Impact Journalism Day, the UN Secretary-General examines the path towards global achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Identifying and sharing positive initiatives led by citizens, social entrepreneurs, governments and international organizations, gives us hope, and can help us overcome challenges and reach our global objectives together.

    Three years ago, world leaders unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Negotiating this framework for a better future and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals spanned three years and involved hundreds of meetings, thousands of documents and millions of people. That was the easy part. The harder work is now under way: bringing the blueprint to life.

    The Goals were adopted with justifiable enthusiasm. Covering everything from energy to education, infrastructure to institutions, urbanization to innovation, they offer a holistic roadmap for addressing the world’s ills. They apply to all countries, reflect the priorities of all countries and were embraced by all countries, with presidents and prime ministers putting their weight behind the Goals’ core promise: to leave no one behind.

    In this third year of implementation, momentum is still with us. Many countries are aligning their policies and budgets behind the Goals. More and more businesses are recognizing the opportunities to invest in new technologies, open up new markets and build the sustainable and inclusive economy of the 21st-century. Civil society organizations are using these global Goals to drive local change.

    At the same time, progress is too slow to meet the targets by the deadline of 2030. Armed conflicts and humanitarian crises are also throwing us off course. Action in three areas is especially urgent.

    First is climate change. The nine warmest years on record have all occurred since 2005. Last year, the economic toll of climate-related disasters hit a new high: $320 billion. People’s lives are being shattered. We need greater ambition, including a 25 per cent cut in emissions by 2020. These are the facts. Fortunately, there is another, more hopeful reality: Clean energy is more affordable and competitive than ever. The International Labour Organization reported recently that common sense green economy policies could create 24 million decent jobs globally by 2030. Climate change is still moving faster than we are; our challenge is to usher in a race to the top.

    Second, like global temperatures, inequality keeps rising. Globalization has brought remarkable benefits — increased wealth, a growing global middle class and major inroads against poverty. But more than over 800 million people continue to live in extreme poverty. And many people, sectors and regions feel they are being left behind, unable to participate in this visible prosperity. This, in turn, undermines social cohesion and heightens the appeal of populists and xenophobes. Our responsibility is to invest in people and build a fair globalization that works for all.

    Third, we will neither conquer inequality, nor halt climate change, nor indeed achieve any of our shared goals, without empowering the world’s women and girls. Yet gender-based discrimination remains entrenched. Representation in political life and the business world is growing, but slowly. Within their own households, women’s voices are frequently stifled. And violence and harassment are pervasive, most often with impunity. The imperative is clear: change power dynamics as a matter of basic rights, but also because women’s participation makes economies more dynamic, societies more resilient and peace agreements more durable.

    Sustainable development also depends on upholding human rights and ensuring peace and security. After all, leaving no-one behind means reaching the furthest behind first: those facing armed conflict, governance failures and political repression and instability. This is why the framework includes a dedicated goal on inclusive societies, access to justice and accountable institutions. Sustainable development is an end in itself, but it is also the best way to prevent crisis and build a safer world.

    The Sustainable Development Goals take us to the year 2030. But even today we must look to the farther horizon of frontier issues. Technological innovation continues to provide answers for many pressing challenges. Yet developments involving artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and cyberspace also have dark sides and will lead to upheavals in labour markets, global security and society in general. We must work across sectors to move forward in ways that ensure the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are enjoyed by all.

    The Sustainable Development Goals are our pathway toward a fairer, more peaceful and prosperous world on a healthy planet. They are also a summons to inter-generational solidarity. We have no greater duty than to invest in the well-being of young people so that they can realize their potential. I am determined to ensure that an effective, reformed United Nations is up to the task in enabling people everywhere, today and tomorrow, meet their needs and realize their aspirations.

    António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

  • Leadership, labour and sustainable development

    The pursuit of sustainable development is the essence and singular objective of governance and the objective of every institution and organization within the state. This is the nation-building process which the entire people are engaged. The people could be classified into two broad classes: the political class represented by the government; and the people, represented by labour.

    The leadership initiates the nation-building process, by exhibiting a sense of nationalism and thereby inspiring the patriotic zeal of the citizens, with the singular objective of mobilizing them to build the nation. This is the basis of the modern state and the philosophy upon which the Nigerian nation was founded and the spirit with which her independence was fought. History reports the fact that Nigeria’s independence is result of the collaborative efforts of the nationalists and trade unionists.

    In the struggle for independence, strikes by trade unions facilitated the activities of nationalists. Strikes by organized labour, were justified and geared towards ending the exploitative socio-economic order of the time. At this time, there was popular nationalistic fervour to terminate colonial rule by all means. The objective was to create and optimize local opportunities for the benefit of Nigerians. The quest for self-rule was thereby considered fundamental to development; trade unionism was therefore popularized and strikes were therefore legitimized. For this purpose, blackmail, subversion and any action that could undo the imperial order of the time was justified. The attainment of independence notwithstanding, strikes have remained a re-occurring decimal in our national life and have indeed, assumed the benchmark by which the existence of trade unions and the performance of their leadership is measured.

    Several decades after independence, Nigeria is yet to be launched on the path of sustainable development. The political class is yet to achieve a common nationalism while the citizens are yet to be organized into a productive workforce. The reason is that the political class has been distracted by the inordinate quest for power. The non-recognition of this lapse and the failure to step into the gap by labour is the bane of our national development. The political class has since independence failed in developing the human capacity to run a productive system. This class abandoned economic development, which ought to be the objective of politics, for the inordinate quest for political power. Post-independence    labour leadership ought to have made the difference by generating ideas that could transform Nigerians into a productive workforce. Regrettably, labour activism has been focused on self-serving, unproductive and economic destructive activism, as it was during the colonial era.  This is excusable. In the light of the limited education of the labour leaders of the time, there were no viable options to strike actions. At this time, industrial unions were restricted to, and led by a class of citizens to whom the derogatory term, ‘Labourers’ aptly applied. By virtue of the limited education of the labour leaders of the time, there was no apparent alternative to populist mob actions, as these leaders could hardly engage intellectually.

    The gain of political independence notwithstanding, the resort to strike actions by trade unions did not abate. Due to the ideological war between the West and Eastern nations, labour leaders pitched tent with deviant, belligerent and ‘subversive’ socialist ideologues of the East. Part of the gains of this alignment however, is in the intellectual enrichment of trade unions vide the educational scholarship offered to labour leaders and which was extended to young and impressionable intellectuals. Thus, industrial activism was introduced to ivory towers through the activities of impressive adventurous young academics who enjoyed the benevolence of socialist ideologues. This explains the transformation that has taken place in trade unionism since independence, which period witnessed large scale unionization and admission of impressive academics and educational associations into organized labour fold.

    Current unionists and industrial activists are therefore well-informed and intellectually grounded. This notwithstanding, industrial activism has not transcended the boring and disruptive strike actions to something intellectually engaging, constructive and development-oriented. The resort to strikes is not only a betrayal of the level of sophistication of present day unions, it is also disruptive of our socio-economic development process. The labour leadership has not been able to overcome this lapse, because of the lack of understanding that the burden of leadership actually fell on her after independence, as the politicians got distracted with the inordinate struggle for political power to the detriment of economic development. Thus, while considerable enterprise is engaged in developing the electoral process, there isn’t a commensurate effort at establishing sustainable development systems that guarantees the socio-economic well-being of citizens.

    Sustainable development demands the mobilization, processing, deployment and access to the national human and natural resource potential for the optimum benefit of the citizens. There is need to evolve the systems required to institutionalize this process, which organized labour is most suited to do; and to define and prescribe the kind of leadership required to drive and sustain it. To be able to provide the requisite leadership, labour leadership need to appreciate the fact that the people (labour) is indeed, the centre and main object of development. Organized labour leadership ought to understand that;

    First, that the major national handicap is in our inability to be organized into a productive workforce; and the failure of our politics to produce the leadership type that appreciates the above imperative; and the imperative of developing and evolving a social system and infrastructure required to facilitate the mobilization and processing of ideas into consumable products and services which are accessible by citizens.

    The foregoing should constitute indispensable factors in labour activism if organized labour is to play its leadership role in moving the citizens out of the current survivalist mode. Industrial activism must transcend its current agenda of organizing simply to scramble for resources for personal and group survival. The current state of its social sophistication demands that labour leaders re-construct the narrative of industrial activism, if it is to live up to its high premium. They need to appreciate the fact that labour which constitute the human capital of a nation, transcends those who earn fixed wages to everyone involved in the processes of;  Ideas, creativity and innovations, which are products of human intellectual enterprises, which deserve rewards; Production and processing of innovations and creative ideas, which are done through human entrepreneurial investments and engagements; The process of determining the volume and quality of production and the needs; and, the ability or capacity of the people to consume the benefits of the products and services.

    All of the above processes demand adequate incentives and motivation. This is by the development of appropriate process and scheme to harness and enable the citizens to engage in the four processes of; generating ideas, deploying resources to process or produce the ideas, ensure that the products are consumed; and to develop the capacity to consume the products of the activities at the various levels.

    The integrity and importance of industrial activism, therefore, is the extent to which it is committed to sustaining the above processes. The importance of these processes is that every citizen is involved in at least one or several of them, either as an inventor, a creator, innovator; producer, processor; or consumer. Leadership responsibility involves ensuring that citizens are incentivized and motivated to participate in these processes and thereby ensure sustainable development. This is the most and only viable way of empowering the citizens, sustaining economic development and thereby rendering industrial unions useful in the nation-building process. This is the leadership required at a time as this; and labour leaders have no choice if they are to remain relevant.

    • Iyoke, legal practitioner was a member of 2014 National Conference.

  • Former Abia speaker assures constituents of sustainable development

    The member representing Isiala Ngwa North State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Martins Okechukwu Azubuike, has reiterated his commitment towards making human capital development and service to the people of his constituency the bedrock of his representation.

    Azubuike who was a former Speaker of the sixth Abia Assembly and  former Deputy National Chairman, Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures in Nigeria, made this assertion during the launching of a six-room ultra-modern convenience at Orie Ntigha market and a community hall at Umuezenta Nbawsi, Isiala Ngwa North LGA built by him.

    He said that he embarked on the projects to better the lot of his constituents, adding that he had done a lot in terms of legislation, representation, oversight function, empowerment and projects.

  • Nigerians urged to embrace peace for sustainable development

    Nigerians urged to embrace peace for sustainable development

    Stakeholders in the justice sector yesterday urged Nigerians to embrace peace for the country to achieve sustainable political and economic development.

    It was at the 17th anniversary of the Citizens Mediation Centre (CMC), which coincided with the anniversary of International Day of Peace.

    The stakeholders are: Lagos State Governor Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, Justice Habib Abiru of the Court of Appeal, who chaired the occasion, Justice Atinuke Oluyemi, Justice  Olusola Williams, former Ogun State Attorney-General and Commisssioner for Justice, Mr. Wemimo Ogunde (SAN), Lagos State Solicitor-General, Mrs, Funlola Odunlami , Permanent Secretary, Office of the Chief of Staff, Governor’s office, Mr. Abiodun Bamgboye and  Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, among others.

    Governor Ambode, who was represented by Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr. Seye Oladejo, noted that development cannot be achieved in an atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty. He emphasised the need for all to work for peace by toeing the line of non-violence in resolving differences.

    He lamented that the issues of insurgency, kidnapping, separatist agitation, destruction of critical national assets among others, have continued to pose serious threat to the peaceful co-existence among the people.

    The governor said: “Violence does not build, it destroys and retards development”.

    He said the establishment of the CMC has been very effective in peaceful resolution of disputes pointing out that his administration will strengthen the capacity of the centre and bring its services closer to the people in all the local government and local development areas of the state.

    Mr. Ogunde, who spoke on “Sustaining development goals as building blocks for peace” expressed disgust at the activities of those promoting seperationist agenda in the country. He pointied out that such elements have been responsible for the balkanisation of the country.

    The former Attorney-General of Ogun State warned that breaking the country into smaller units would not engender peace and sustainable development and cited developments in Yugoslavia to buttress his argument.

    Ogunde also described federal character as a concept entrenched in the constitution to force peace on the people and manage the country’s weaknesses.

    Ogunde advised governments to gear foundational and fundamental efforts at making every Nigerian to buy into what he described as “the concept called Nigeria”.