The National Council on Environment has urged the Ministry of Environment, National Assembly and relevant stakeholders to collaborate to ensure a robust legislative process for effective implementation of environmental projects.
The council members made the call in a communiqué issued and signed by Mr Saghir el-Mohammed, Director, Press, of the ministry on Monday, April 26, 2021 after a three-day annual council meeting in Abuja.
The communiqué was unanimously adopted by members of the council, following a motion for its adoption by Dr Mohammad Abubakar, Minister of Environment.
It stated that there was need for a stronger synergy between the National Assembly, the ministry and other relevant stakeholders for effective execution of environmental policies, programmes and projects.
The communiqué urged government at all levels to ensure that efforts were geared towards empowering the most vulnerable groups, particularly the youth and women.
It added that the effort was to create employment opportunities in line with the Federal Government’s agenda of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next 10 years.
“The effort was to avert drastic decline in economic growth and environmental protection in the post COVID-19 era.
“It has become imperative to shift from the current linear economic model, which was based on resource extraction, production, distribution, consumption and waste generation to a new circular economic model.
“The model is based on sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible,’’ the communique explained.
By Vivian Emoni
