Tag: zero commitment

The Federal Government has inaugurated a committee to actualise the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Northeast Nigeria.

The committee chaired by the Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Bello Matawalle, was constituted by the Minister, according to a statement from the minister’s office on Saturday, February 24.

Other members of the committee are representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Emergency Management Agency, Northeast Development Commission and National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

The UNMAS is a service located within the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations that specialises in coordinating and implementing activities to limit the threat posed by mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices.

The Nation recalls that the UNMAS was initially deployed to Nigeria in 2018 to provide technical support in areas of coordination, planning and technical advice and support to the humanitarian communities and government, but left after years of inaction.

The inauguration of the committee is an indication that the present administration in synergy with the Borno State Government has given the issue of demining of Northeast, which was ravaged by the activities of Boko Haram/ ISWAP terrorists for more than a decade, adequate attention.

Speaking after inaugurating the committee, Matawalle said the inauguration of the committee was a “bold step” that the federal government was committed to providing support to hazardous areas affected by either war or activities of terrorism.

The Minister said some of the benefits of the UNMAS include assistance for the IDPs, risk education and advocacy, clearance of the identified hazardous areas and stockpile destruction.

Matawalle said the federal government would work with the UNMAS in working out a workable solution in reintegrating IDPs and farmers into society for better life.

He said: “There is the need to conduct Technical Surveys to identify hazardous areas that need to be safe before any other activities can take place.

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“We need to redesign action plan for the IDP returnees and farmers to go back to their farms.

He said the federal government would also provide essential technical support for the establishment of a National Mine Action Centre in the Northeast and extend it to the Northeast where incidences of insurgency are still prevalent.

 “Such a centre will afford the IDPs the opportunity to return to their communities and have access to quality education,” he said.

The minister disclosed that the Borno State Government has provided official and residential buildings for the activities of UNMAS to commence in the North-East.

• •Three billion households use very harmful cookstoves

The Director General (DG)/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi said from their estimation, Nigeria would need 104 billion dollars in the next 26 years to meet its net zero commitment of 2050.

He said the government realised that it must be able to attract 4 billion dollars yearly by the year 2050 to end carbon emissions in the country.

Abdullahi said based on their studies, about three billion households use very harmful cookstoves around the world thereby adding to the effects of climate change that the world is talking about.

The DG said this yesterday in Abuja at the launch of the sensitization campaign on the use of an improved cooking stove at Karudu Village, where women in the community were each presented with the Commission-improved cooking stove that uses less firewood, unlike the traditional method of cooking with firewood.

He said, “We are here today on a campaign on clean and renewable energy efficiency use for domestic cooking stoves. It is very necessary because what they are using traditionally is very harmful to their health and contributes to global warming and as such causes the degradation of the environment.

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“So we are here to give them a more technologically advanced cook stove that would reduce carbon emission and increase efficiency. It would interest you to note that based on our studies, about three billion households use very harmful cookstoves around the world. If you do the analysis you would know the carbon being flared, which is why we are having the climate change we are shouting about.

“This technology requires them to still use firewood but in less quantity, here they would need just one percent of the firewood that they were using before and the time they would use in the cooking would reduce drastically, so it is a more efficient and safer way of cooking.

“This is just the pilot programme, we intend to go round the country and task our centers to also do the same thing.”