Nigeria’s environment minister, Mallam Balarabe Abbas Lawal, has advocated for the adoption of a circular economy as a means of ensuring a balanced ecosystem, which would ensure that environmental protection and sustainable development coexist together.
The minister made the call during a Workshop on Mainstreaming the Circular Economy in Land Degradation Sectors of Construction, Mining, and Quarrying, which was organised by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) in partnership with the European Union in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Lawal said while the sectors were vital to Nigeria’s economic development, they are implicated in land degradation, as unregulated mining pits, exhausted quarry sites, deforestation, and polluted environments are clear signs of the imbalance between development and environmental sustainability.
“Our landscapes, ecosystems, and communities bear the brunt of unchecked extraction, resource depletion, and unsustainable development due to construction, mining, and quarrying,” he stated.
Lawal stressed the need for the construction industry to embrace circular economy strategies to reduce its environmental footprint, insisting that the nation must prioritise land rehabilitation in mining and quarrying operations.
Lawal added that the mining and quarrying companies must adopt zero-waste policies and make sure that mining by-products, such as tailings and waste rocks, are repurposed for other industrial uses or construction projects.
In his welcome remarks, the Director General of NESREA, Dr. Innocent Barikor, acknowledged that the circular economy offers a transformative structure to ensure resource conservation and regeneration, waste-to-resource systems, and sustainable urbanisation.
Dr. Barikor urged for the collaboration of all stakeholders to ensure the adoption and promotion of sustainable practices to speed up the restoration of our land, regeneration of our ecosystems, and protection of our environment for future generations.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment, Senator Akintude Yunus, and the Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Environment, Terseer Ugbor, promised that the National Assembly would do its best to ensure the necessary legislative support that is required to promote environmental protection across the country.
By Etta Michael Bisong, Abuja
