25.8 C
Lagos
Monday, October 7, 2024
Home Blog Page 1995

Task before Mallam, new Environment Minister

Michael Simire
-
0
Task before Mallam, new Environment Minister
Mallam
Mallam

I sympathise with the new Minister for Environment, Lawrencia Labara Mallam, in terms of the enormous and challenging situation her coming to office will face based on the challenges of the environment sector. First is the problem of a short term of service (probably from now till May 2015) and second is the peculiar political intensity of the country culminating to Confab and national elections. In my own opinion, these distractions are sufficient reasons for the new Minister not to be sharply focused on the task ahead, not minding the concern of the relevant experience of the new Minister which is also very key to her success.

However, I remain poised and resolute to making the following comments and suggestions that I consider can be used to assess her performance at the end of tenure. The Minister needs to immediately conduct a gap analysis/assessment on what Ministry (as the custodian of sustainable development concept) has to do to make the Ministry the environmental gateway for Africa.

She has to re-position the country’s environmental mapping and do a quick “forensic analysis” on how to mainstream environment issues with others sectors of the economy like health, food security, agriculture, science and technology, lands development, petroleum resources, trade and investment, tourism, water resources, mines and works if Nigeria’s growth in the League of Nations must be sustained.

The Environment Ministry can no longer be handled as a stand-alone ministry the way it is now. Effort must be galvanised to understanding and actualising the nexus otherwise it is another business as usual. If possible put in place an advisory “national environment think-tank group” to advice on synergy.

Towards achieving this, the most germane task for the Minister is to immediately undertake the review of all environmental laws in the country before 2015. These laws are long overdue and no longer stand the test of today’s tenet, time and spirit. The environment sector has suffered most from regular change of its minister since its creation in 1999. She should not embark on an ambiguous responsibility of addressing lingering air, water, soil pollution issues or food poisoning or climate change jamboree. She should attempt instead to addressing key gaps for these sectors to thrive in 2015.

Above all is federal government’s will in funding environment issues, in the past years the ministry has been so very poorly funded. The Minister must look inward for increased appropriation funds from federal government and private sector, away from the dependence on foreign donors to addressing environmental issues. Environmental issues are right-based as enshrine in the fundamental human rights of citizens and as such cannot be funded almost entirely from donor funds as it is today. Only increased pre-judicial funding of environmental issues will help to achieve Dr Goodluck’s expectation of “human and environmental security” advocated in his recent Nigeria Centenary keynote address.

The ability to develop more sustainably depends on the capacity of Nigerian citizens and institutions to understand the complex environment and development issues so that they can make the right development choices. Citizens need to have the expertise to understand the potential and the limits of the environment. There is also the need to increase the sensitivity of the Nigerian populace to, and involvement in finding solutions for environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour needed for sustainable development. The new Minister at this daunting time therefore, has to give the Nigerian environment a human face.

 

By Leslie Adogame, Executive Director, Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev Nigeria)

Women’s rights and Liberia’s landmark land law reform

Michael Simire
-
0
Women’s rights and Liberia’s landmark land law reform
President Ellen Sirleaf
President Ellen Sirleaf

The percentage of land owned by women is disproportionately small considering their crucial contribution to agriculture and especially the food security of households and communities. The existing gender inequality in access to and control over natural resources is regarded as an obstacle to their sustainable management and to sustainable development in general.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that human rights apply equally to all, regardless of sex, yet women around the world are disproportionately affected by human rights violations, which keeps them trapped in poverty. Women have fewer benefits and protections under legal systems than men and are largely excluded from decision-making structures. Women also lack control of financial resources, have larger work burdens, and are more likely to suffer from social isolation and threats or acts of violence.

But this error is being addressed in the West African country of Liberia, where the authorities have embraced a call for equal protection to land, urged women to do more and “stand up and be accounted for.”

Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf, along with Liberian Minister of Gender and Development Julia Duncan-Cassel, welcome land reform recommendations from Central and West Africa regional organisation REFACOF (African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests) and Liberia’s Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI).

As honored guests at Liberia’s International Women’s Day Celebrations in Monrovia on Saturday, March 8, REFACOF and FCI presented a statement to President Sirleaf urging the President to include “clear safeguards and specifics on how women’s rights to own, access, use and control land would be recognised and protected” in Liberia’s New Land Law, currently being vetted by the country’s internal vetting committee. In an open statement to participants, REFACOF President Cécile Ndjebet stressed the importance of securing women’s rights to land and providing equal protection of these rights to enhancing women’s status and accelerating prosperity in Liberia and across Africa.

“For real political and social change to take place, there are three issues that need to be addressed, we need legislation that protects equal rights for women, mechanisms that provide for political and social equity, and a change in social and cultural perceptions of women,” said Ndjebet.

The recommendations presented were the outcomes of the Third Regional Workshop on Gender, Climate Change, Land and Forest Tenures in Africa, co-organised by REFACOF and FCI, with support from the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). The workshop convened women participants from 16 African countries, and included donors, development partners, and issue experts.

During the workshop, participants discussed the insecurity of women’s land protection in Liberia’s current land reform policy. Despite the promise made by President Sirleaf in an interview with Reuters last year, in which she stated that “women will have the full right to own their land like anyone else,” clear safeguards and specifics on how these rights would be realised in practice have yet to be included.

“We must remember that action is necessary and we need more than just promises,” said Solange Bandiaky-Badji, Africa Program Director for RRI.

In Liberia, land conflicts remain the single most explosive issue, which, if not adequately addressed, could undo years of progress. The requested policy provisions not only stand to prevent rollback, but provide a path forward in empowering women and enhancing their representation and participation in all aspects of life, not just in Liberia, but across Central and West Africa. Should REFACOF and FCI’s recommendation come to pass, they could propel land equality, and greater gender equality, across the region, in countries such as Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Senegal, where land reform processes are just beginning.

To help demonstrate solidarity and apply pressure on President Sirleaf, REFACOF garnered international support through an online petition that gathered signatures from across the globe, in six continents.

As Guest of Honor Duncan-Cassel remarked, the Celebration not only marked a day “to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women’s rights” but, to further empower Liberian women at home.

Secure rights to land are a necessary step in realizing equality. Not only do they enable women to combat poverty, provide food and income for their households, and protect themselves against domestic violence and the contraction of HIV/AIDs, they provide greater opportunities for women to become active participants in political and social processes.

“Women have to be there to play, and to be in to win. Women need to start with registration for transformation. If women want women’s representation, they need to put them there through their vote,” said President Sirleaf.

Julia Weah, Executive Director of FCI, reiterated the importance of the day’s events, stating: “These are critical moments in history for women in Liberia, a game-changing moment for women’s secure ownership rights to land, and we don’t want to miss it.”

LOCAL SEX ENHANCEMENT HERBS

admin
-
0

Bridging lagoons in Abidjan, Lagos

Michael Simire
-
0
Bridging lagoons in Abidjan, Lagos

Two economic capital cities in West Africa have embarked on remarkable physical development initiatives aimed at supporting their rapid growth.

Lagos

Traversed by water bodies, Lagos in Nigeria and Abidjan in the Ivory Coast are experiencing an escalation in population density as well as vehicular movement between metropolitan settlements separated by the sea.

While the Ebrie Lagoon divides the residential Riviera district and the commercial hub of Marcory, the Lagos Lagoon separates the largely uptown Mainland from the business oriented Island.

Abidjan

Over the years, overpasses have been built to bridge the respective divides and boost the development of the urban centres. While Abidjan has two existing bridges to serve this purpose, Lagos displays three.

Built between 1954 and 1957, the Felix Houphouët-Boigny Bridge is a road and rail bridge. The second is the Charles de Gaulle Bridge that was built in 1967.

The first of the three bridges connecting the Lagos Island to the Lagos Mainland is the Carter Bridge. Built in 1901, it was constructed by the British colonial government, prior to the Nigerian independence in 1960. After independence, the bridge was dismantled, redesigned and rebuilt during the late 1970s. The Alaka-Ijora Flyover, on the Iddo end of the span, was completed in 1973.

This was followed by the Eko Bridge, which is the shortest of three bridges connecting the Island to the Mainland. It starts from Ijora on the Mainland and ends at the Apongbon area of the Island. The bridge and its landward extension of 1,350 metres were constructed in phases between 1965 and 1975. It serves as the preferred access point for vehicular traffic approaching Lagos Island from the Apapa and Surulere areas of Lagos.

In the bid to further ease the increasing stress resulting from commuters’ accessing the Island from the Mainland, the Federal Government embarked on the ambitious Third Mainland Bridge, which turned out to be not just the longest of the three bridges connecting the Island to the Mainland, but in fact the longest bridge in Africa.

Third Mainland Bridge
Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos

The 11.8km long structure takes off from Oworonshoki which is linked to the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, and ends at the Adeniji Adele Interchange on Lagos Island. There is also a link midway through the bridge that leads to the Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba. Built by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, the bridge was opened by President Ibrahim Babangida in 1990.

However, the bridges are increasingly becoming inadequate as both cities prosper. With over 200,000 vehicles crossing the Felix Houphouët-Boigny and Charles de Gaulle bridges daily, Ivorian authorities believe that it is no longer realistic to have two bridges serving the city; hence the need for a third.

Similarly, Lagos is seeking solace in what looks an unprecedented forth overpass in the overcrowded city, where officials of the Lagos State Government have commenced preliminary work on the Fourth Mainland Bridge, a 26-kilometre infrastructure designed to link Ikorodu to the state’s economic hub in Eti-Osa Local Government Area.

Estimated to gulp a whopping N160 billion, the bridge will provide access from the hinterland to Victoria Island, which is expected to reduce traffic on the ever-busy Third Mainland Bridge and other bridges linking the Mainland to the Island.

From illustrations released by government, the bridge (tagged “The People’s Bridge”) will feature two levels – the upper one for vehicular movement and the lower for pedestrian movement that incorporates a daily market facility.

Fourth Mainland
An impression of the Fourth Mainland Bridge

While restating its commitment to the project, the government recently unveiled three different alignment options for the bridge, which officials disclosed was necessitated following the dilemma of having to demolish about 318 houses to accommodate the bridge with the initial alignment.

In Abidjan,  the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) is partnering with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Ivorian government to invest N52.65 billion (270 million euro) in financing the Henri Konan Bedie (HKB) Bridge, which will on completion this year be the third bridge in the city.

Henri Konan Bedie Bridge

With only two bridges crossing the Ébrié Lagoon around which Abidjan is built, traffic in the centre of the city is often gridlocked.

However, the new toll bridge is expected to reduce transportation time and costs by easing congestion over the existing two (non-tolled) bridges crossing the lagoon within the city.

Key project sponsor – Bouygues Group of France – is building the bridge under a turnkey fixed price arrangement, while the Government of Ivory Coast is providing a 30-year concession with a strong support.

The 1.5km bridge, linked to a new six-lane motorway, will be the first major infrastructure project completed in the city since the 2002 to 2004 civil war dragged the country into a decade of turmoil. It could add 1 percentage point to economic growth, it was gathered.

The toll for using the HKB Bridge could be between 700 (N241) and 1,000 CFA francs (N345).

The bridge is expected to cut the time required to cross the lagoon from Riviera to Marcory, from two hours to about three minutes, boosting economic activity by reducing time lost in traffic.

Ivory Coast’s roughly $40 billion economy makes up nearly half of the gross regional product of West Africa’s eight-nation CFA franc currency bloc.

Where the Green meets the Blue Economy

Michael Simire
-
0
Where the Green meets the Blue Economy
Blue and Green Economy
Blue and Green Economy

The idea of sustainable development has formed the basis of the Green Economy, which looks outward from land to the ocean space as a limitless horizon with unending resources. The Blue Economy, on the other hand, views a sustainable ocean economy as an integral part of the Green Economy.

Alison Borgess, founder of the International Ocean Institute, sums up this tie in explaining the Blue Economy:  “If before you saw the sea and the sea floor as a continuation of the land, you now see the land as a continuation of the sea.”

The Blue Economy is a concept derived from the fact that we live on a planet made of up to 75 percent of ocean. When examining this with our “land based” vision, what we see is basically limited to an ocean and coast interface. But the economy of this planet must be seen as an integrated whole and in homage to our blue planet we can call it “The Blue Economy” which, in essence, implies the full interaction of the human species “living with the ocean and from the ocean in a sustainable relationship”.

The Green Economy is one that results in reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. It entails an economy or economic development model based on sustainable development and a knowledge of ecological economics.

A feature distinguishing it from prior economic regimes is the direct valuation of natural capital and ecological services as having economic value and a full cost accounting regime in which costs externalized onto society via ecosystems are reliably traced back to, and accounted for as liabilities of, the entity that does the harm or neglects an asset.

The concept of the Blue Economy was born out of the 2010 International Ocean Institute (IOI) Pacem in Maribus 23rd conference in Beijing, China.

United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, two years ago launched the comprehensive Oceans Compact, which aims at setting out a strategic vision for the UN system to deliver on its ocean related mandates, consistent with the Rio+20 outcome, in a more coherent manner and to provide a platform for all stakeholders to collaborate and accelerate progress in the achievement of the common goal of Healthy Oceans for Prosperity.

It is expected to build upon the range of existing and ongoing activities of the UN organisations to assist member states to implement the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other relevant global and regional conventions.

While there is interdependence between oceans, coasts and humans that inhabit the coast on one hand, most urban centres are, on the other, experiencing a fast and largely uncontrolled population growth, particularly in developing countries. This has been more evident in coastal areas.

Concern lies in the magnitude of the interdependent impact that the nexus between ocean and urban coast and human settlement has on the economic, social and environmental sustainability of ocean and coast. Coastal cities are at the front line of this impact.

There is no doubt that the current deterioration of the health of the ocean is in large part due to the result of the pressures exerted by human settlement and the negative impact on the oceans and coasts ecosystems.

Some of the ocean’s services to mankind are: in fields ranging from recreation to research, from travel to trade, from food to medicine, from waste disposal to carbon sink, from energy to minerals, from climate control to border control and much, much more.

The Blue Economy renders imperative an inclusive stakeholder participation in collaborative governance based on linkages between ocean, coastal and urban systems that internalizes the vulnerability of communities and infrastructure. In the Blue Economy there would be a need to quantify internal benefits of different activities and the commensurate viable socio-economic contribution to resilience through preparedness, mitigation and adaptation by the nation or community.

The Blue Economy at the national level revolves around an efficient and sustainable use of ocean and coastal services and resources that internalizes external costs together with an efficient valuing of natural non-market assets and services and the access thereto. This however makes imperative a major reform of the financial architecture governance for a fiscal overhaul that reflects all aspects of ocean services.

An important tenet of the Blue Economy is that the responsibility as well as sharing in the costs and benefits does not rest with one entity such as the State but it should be spread among all stake holders. It is the responsibility of all stake holders in a holistic model, at the level of the individual, the locality, the community, the society, the region, the national level and the international, public and particularly private sectors.

The first World Ocean Review lists the following five effects of sea-level rise on the natural coastal system: sea level rise, flooding, loss of coastal wetlands, erosion of beaches and bluffs, intrusion of saltwater and limited soil drainage.

Lagos Floating School project nominated for award

Michael Simire
-
0
Lagos Floating School project nominated for award

A prototype floating school in Lagos has been nominated for the Designs of the Year prize 2014.

Floating School
Floating School

The Floating School in Makoko, a poverty-stricken coastal community in Lagos, Nigeria, is the pilot project
in a planned water-top development that could transform the deprived area.

Completed in about five months, the solar-powered building has three storeys – a recreation area, an enclosed classroom and a top-floor open-air classroom – and can hold about 100 students.

Made from locally reclaimed wood, it is supported by 256 re-used empty plastic drums that allow it to withstand storms and adapt to rising sea levels. Designed by NLÉ architects, a young Nigerian/Dutch practice founded by Kunlé Adeyemi (who previously worked at OMA) and sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and think tank the Heinrich Böll Foundation, a floating community of housing and civic buildings is due to complete by the end of this year.

The 76 nominated projects for the 2014 Designs of the Year will be exhibited at The Design Museum from 26 March – 25 August.

Climate Reality Project: Social revolution for climatic action

Michael Simire
-
0
Climate Reality Project: Social revolution for climatic action

Surge-300x217Our planet is fast heating up by the burning of fossil fuels with several tons of carbon pollutants entering the atmosphere everyday through landfills, transportation (traffic), power plants, forest burning, oil exploration & production, fertilizer application, industrialised agriculture, and coal/mining plants, to mention a few. Carbon pollution is disrupting our lives daily and destroying the earth. How long will we continue to live in an unsustainable way? Now is the time to put a price on carbon and implement the “Polluters Pay Principle” in order to combat the growing devastating impacts of climate change.

Nine of 10 hottest years on record in the US were in the past 12 years showing the rapid changes in climatic conditions. There is a thin distinction between the rainy and the dry (Harmattan) season in Nigeria, making it difficult for farmers to predict the production season.

Recently, extreme weather conditions have been experienced globally ranging from flooding in India, Pakistan, Argentina, Taiwan, Philippines, Brazil and South of Nigeria (Lagos, Delta and Ondo); droughts in Arizona, China, India, Spain, South Korea, Senegal, Switzerland and Northern part of Nigeria (Adamawa and Bauchi) and the raging fires in Colorado, Russia, Portugal, Turkey, Macedonia, Texas, also the hurricanes such as Sandy, Katrina, the Typhoon Haiyan in Philippines (one of the strongest tropical Cyclones recorded in history) and other tornados round the world.

Climate change is happening already and influencing our lifestyles; this is a call for action. How can you contribute? Promote clean and renewable energy, which is affordable, reliable and available.

The Climate Reality Project, founded and chaired by former Vice President and Nobel Laureate, Al Gore, is dedicated to providing a global cultural movement that demands action on the current climate crisis. The Climate Reality Project exists to forge a network of global support to create awareness on climate change and promote action. With that foundation, they kindle the moral courage in our leaders to solve the climate crisis.

The Climate Reality Project employs cutting-edge communications and community engagement tools to reach out and stir up proactive action to raise the profile of the climate crisis to its proper state of urgency. With a global movement, more than five million strong and a mass network of Climate Leaders trained by Chairman Al Gore, they promote the climate change conversations in their local community.

The Climate Reality Project operates in eight international offices: Australia, Canada, India, The Climate Reality Leadership Corps has hosted 23 trainings since 2007 in locations across the globe. In 2013, the trainings were held in Chicago and Istanbul. The 2014 trainings will take place in Brazil and South Africa.

 

By Agharese Ojelede

Who will clean up Abidjan’s Ebrie Lagoon?

Michael Simire
-
0
Who will clean up Abidjan’s Ebrie Lagoon?

EbireAbdulahi Traore, a fisherman, scouts the Ebire Lagoon that windless December morning, a forlorn look on his aging face. It’s about 10am in the morning as he guides the canoe past a body of seaweed, overlooking the imposing Hotel Ivoire, believed to be the biggest five-star hotel in the country.

He says he has been out fishing since 6.30am and that he is disappointed with his catch today. According to him, in his 10 years as a fisherman the quality and quantity of fish from the water have steadily been on the decline.

“Due to the harmattan, the fish are hiding because the water is cold,” he suggests, managing a faint smile. He points out however that the pollution of the lagoon can also be attributed to its diminishing fishery stock.

Indeed, there are serious concerns among government officials and city dwellers in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast capital, over the unsavoury state of Ebrie Lagoon, a large expanse of salty water separated for almost all of its length from the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow coastal strip.

The 100 km (60 m) long lagoon  linked to the sea by the Vridi Canal, once considered a symbol of the country’s beauty, has suffered from years of extensive pollution, endangering the four million inhabitants that live along its coastline.

Once a symbol of tourist attraction and proudly called the “pearl of the lagoons”, the Ebrie Lagoon is today an embarrassment to the sprawling city. Transformed into a dumping ground for urban and industrial waste several years ago, the water body has become contaminated with microbes and a layer of sedimentation because of pollution from worn-out sewage systems and garbage.

Nearly 60 percent of the industries in the country are concentrated around the lagoon area, contributing in large part to its degradation.

“The population is exposed to a number of contagious diseases, mainly cholera and typhoid fever,” says Ivorian environmental specialist, Thierry Mangle.

“The disappearance of the mangroves, a natural depolluting element that absorbs all the chemical particles in the water, has aggravated the situation,” he laments, fearing the advent of “an ecological catastrophe.”

The water quality is so bad water skiers abandoned the lagoon 20 years ago, a resident discloses, stressing that fishing has also considerably diminished. Around the Cocody Bay, the water is littered with plastic bottles, shoes, nylon, paper, bottle covers and cans.

But the lagoon is still home to some 150 species of rare shellfish, which are also threatened, he adds.

“It must be decided quickly. If not, we risk getting into an irreversible situation,” the source emphasises, adding that at least 2.2 trillion CFA Francs (33.6 billion euros, 50 billion dollars) will be necessary over the next 25 years in order to build decontamination and drainage works to regulate and control all the discharge into the lagoon.

Brice Delagneau, President of Amistad, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), stresses recently during a study visit to the lagoon by a team of journalists that government and the World Bank might soon embark upon a project to treat waste water before they are discharged into the sea.

“A Swedish NGO is assisting government in tackling the pollution problem in the Cocody Bay. We are working with the local community to sensitise them on how to treat their waste and keep the lagoon clean,” he says.

The journalists, who are from within the Abidjan Convention area, were at a training session in Abidjan. During the weeklong training, they were introduced to current and emerging issues on the marine and coastal environment, as they affect the lives of millions of people along Africa’s Atlantic seaboard.

“The workshop lead to the creation of a core of journalists willing to report authoritatively and frequently on the pressing marine and coastal environmental trends, concerns and solutions in the region,” Abou Bamba, the Convention’s coordinator, said.

Abidjan PixThe journalists came from the print and broadcast media within the 22 countries which make up the Abidjan Convention area, spanning Mauritania to South Africa. Reporting on the pressing marine and coastal environmental trends in the region will require focus on issues such as the sources and activities causing pollution, some of which are the uncontrolled dumping of urban solid waste in coastal areas and waters; industrial effluent and other land-based activities.

Some other issues of major concern to the Abidjan Convention, a regional seas activity of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), are: overfishing; ocean governance; marine and coastal-based tourism; trends in anti-pollution policy and laws.

Funded by the Swedish International Development Agency, the workshop is the first of its kind for the Abidjan Convention region, whose coastline stretches for some 14,000 kilometres. The training is the result of a decision of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the Abidjan Convention in 2012 to raise public awareness of the Convention and of marine and coastal environmental issues.

Bamba’s words: “In general, in the Atlantic façade of Africa, media reporting on the environment is a gradual and growing practice. However, the focus is usually on inland concerns such as deforestation, land degradation and desertification, pollution of soils and water systems, waste water management, as well as endangered terrestrial flora and fauna. Rarely does reporting focus on marine and coastal environmental problems.

“Greater media coverage on these topics is, therefore, one of the reasons for and expected outcomes of this workshop. The awaited spin-off from this is increased public awareness, debate as well as legislative action to curtail marine and coastal environmental problems. Bringing the issue closer to the hundreds of millions of coastal Africans is designed to help change behavior and attitudes to marine and coastal pollution and destruction and spur greater community action to protect these environments. The anticipated result is greater well-being and economic benefits to coastal communities, whose livelihood are often determined by the health of the marine and coastal ecosystems.”

The Abidjan Convention is one of the regional seas programmes of UNEP. The Convention area contains some of the world’s richest fishing ground but which are now under pressure. Oil and gas exploration and exploitation is the newest activity in the Convention area, which raises potential oil spills with all their attendant consequences.

By Michael Simire

Ministers to define Africa Urban Agenda

Michael Simire
-
0
Ministers to define Africa Urban Agenda

Following the recent launch of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC), Ministers for Land and Urban Development in Africa will address the issue of housing finance on the continent as they gather from Tuesday February 25 to Friday 28, 2014 in N’djamena, the Chadian capital, at the fifth session of the African Ministerial Council on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD).

The meeting, which has “Case Studies in Financing Human Settlements in Africa: Appropriate Legislative Frameworks and Innovations in Implementation” as its theme, will essentially:

  • Develop an enhanced operational compendium for legislative framework and innovative practices for human settlements financing;
  • Define ‘Africa Urban Agenda 2063’ that will also serve as an input into the African Union’s ‘Agenda 2063 as well as to the Post-2015 Agenda and to Habitat III; and,
  • Adopt the N’Djamena Declaration on Financing Human Settlements in Africa.

Similarly, the seventh session of the World Urban Form will hold in Medellin, Columbia from 5th to 11th April. Both forums are coming in the wake of mounting efforts towards the articulation and adoption of a New African Urban Agenda, which is required to tackle the growing challenge of urbanisation on the continent. These processes, it was gathered, will lead up to the landmark third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, billed to take place in 2016.

Nigeria, which is leading preparations under this initiative in Africa, had last year demonstrated its commitment to the process with a pledge of $3million spread over three years, to drive participation by African countries.

Deputy Executive Director and Assistant Secretary-General for UN-Habitat, Ms. Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, last week undertook a five-day mission to strengthen growing ties between the United Nations city agency and sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous nation.

Kaycira
Kaycira

Kaycira is a former Mayor of Kigali, capital of the Republic of Rwanda, where she had also previously served as Governor of Eastern Province, the largest in Rwanda, and as an elected Member of Parliament prior to assuming office as Assistant Secretary-General for UN-Habitat.

During the visit, the UN-Habitat Deputy Executive Director held several high-level meetings with top government functionaries including the Supervising Minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Musa M. Sada; and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She also addressed the inaugural ceremony of Nigeria’s National Habitat Committee in Abuja.

The establishment of National Habitat Committees was recommended by the UN General Assembly to serve as a vehicle for ensuring a broad-based, gender balanced and inclusive participation process leading up to the Habitat III summit, and will include representation from government, civil society, the private sector, academic and research institutions and the media.

The Committee will, among several other tasks, ensure the effective and efficient participation of all stakeholder groups in the Habitat III preparatory process and oversee the preparation of national reports. The deadline for conclusion of National Habitat reports is June, this year.

Banning smoking in public in Lagos

Michael Simire
-
0
Banning smoking in public in Lagos

Fashola-296x300Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State last week signed a bill banning smoking in public places in the state into law. By implication, nobody can smoke in public places anymore as offenders would be made to pay fine or go to jail.

The House of Assembly had recently passed a bill banning smoking in public places and placed fine of N10,000, three months imprisonment or both for first offenders.

The bill for a law to prohibit smoking in designated places and vehicles, which was sponsored by Gbolahan Yishawu, the lawmaker representing Eti-Osa Constituency 2 at the House, had lingered since last year.

The law prohibits residents of the state from smoking in public places such as libraries, museums, public toilets, schools, hospitals, day-care centres, public transportation facilities, nightclubs and restaurants.

Section 12 of the 16-section law that was passed to Fashola for assent also instructs owners of public places to place signs with the inscription: “No Smoking” or symbols as part of enlightenment for smokers and would-be violators of the law.

Section 4 of the law says that it shall be the duty of those who own or occupy public places to ensure that approved signs are displayed conspicuously at each entrance and in prominent locations throughout the premises to inform smokers about the prohibition.

In such public places, the owners are mandated by the law to create areas where people could smoke but that it should not be close to the vicinity.

Any person who repeatedly violates the provisions of the law shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine of N50,000 or six months imprisonment or both.

For non-compliance by owners of public places, the law states that such offenders shall be fined N100,000 or six months imprisonment or other non-custodial punishment that the judge may deem fit.

The law further states that any person who smokes in the presence of a child commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of N15,000 or one month imprisonment term.

Where the offence of refusal to place the sign or symbol is committed by a corporate body, the director, manager, company secretary or any person concerned in the management of the affairs of the corporate body would be liable. In this case, he would be fined the sum of N250,000 upon conviction.

The law states that it is an offence to obstruct duly authorised officers from carrying out their duties under the provision of this law. It also gives authorised commissioners of the state the opportunity to designate more places as non-smoking areas for the sake of effective implementation of the law.

The law gives the state Environmental Protection Agency the powers to implement it while giving aggrieved residents who have complaints against officials of the state saddled with implementing it the opportunity to report to the state Ministry of the Environment.

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC) have described the action as a “timely vote for public health” which should be emulated by the National Assembly that is yet to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill into law.

The ERA/FoEN and CISLAC said the development is welcome and urged lawmakers at the National Assembly to put aside party differences and personal ambitions.

“We salute the courage of Governor Fashola for shunning the rapprochement of British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) which was clearly targeted at thwarting this life-saving bill when the company’s top echelon visited his office last year. The governor has through the signing of this bill sided with the people over and above deadly investments,” said ERA/FoEN’s Director, Corporate Accountability & Administration, Akinbode Oluwafemi.

Oluwafemi explained: “The Lagos State Government must not go to bed now. It must be alert and refuse to be hoodwinked by BATN media hoax about supporting the bill. The tobacco industry is known to double speak on matters if regulation and quick to set in motion groups that counter sound logic behind regulation of its deadly products.”

Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, commended the expedited action on the bill by the governor, saying that Lagos has again shown it blazes the trail in delivering good governance without prevarication.

“Of particular note is the fact that it took the governor less than a month to sign this pro-people bill into law. It is disheartening that we cannot say same for the tobacco control bill at the National Assembly which has suffered bureaucratic setbacks instigated by tobacco industry misinformation which puts profits before health.”

Rafsanjani urged the National Assembly to follow the example of Lagos by accelerating work on the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) which, he said, would save Nigerians from further trauma inflicted on health and the national economy by products marketed by BATN and other tobacco companies.

1...1,9941,9951,996...2,034Page 1,995 of 2,034

TV Report

Archives

2024 EnviroNews Nigeria. All Rights Reserved.

×