During a high-level event on the Great Green Wall initiative, leaders of African countries called for increased investment in combatting desertification and land degradation to improve the lives of the people of Africa’s drylands.
Jose Graziano da Silva, Director General of the FAO
“The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) is committed to scaling up support to the Great Green Wall initiative,” said José Graziano Da Silva, Director-General of FAO. “It offers hope for prosperity and well-being to the local communities at the heart of our efforts.”
Brah Mahamat, Minister for Environment, Water & Fisheries from Chad, speaking on behalf of the African Union that leads the initiative, emphasised the epic ambitions of Africa’s flagship rural development programme. “The Great Green Wall is one of the most audacious efforts in human history,” he said.
Yet the challenges of climate change and land degradation are equally formidable, ministers and senior representatives from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan noted. Great Green Wall countries are faced with conflict, migration, poverty and hunger.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Amina Mohammed, Nigerian Minister of Environment, who lauded the merits of the initiative. “In spite of all odds, it is an initiative of solidarity, it is about a family of countries across the Sahel and the Sahara that are taking collective responsibility.”
To bolster its support to the initiative, FAO builds on recommendations of the recent International Great Green Wall Conference in Dakar and a roadmap for the upcoming Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, said René Castro, FAO’s Assistant Director-General for Forestry.
But the task ahead is daunting, he warned. To rehabilitate 10 per cent of the total area around the Sahara Desert affected by desertification, estimated at 600 million hectares, would require an investment of about $143 billion.
“We need to think big and see big,” said FAO’s Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo in her closing remarks. “It’s time to scale-up.”
Key forestry experts from governments, the private sector and NGOs gathered on Wednesday for the opening of the Asia Pacific Rainforest Summit 2016 in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. Regional leaders reinforced the importance of working in partnership between governments, private sector, forest scientists and communities towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined in the Paris Agreement.
Brunei’s Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism Minister, Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Ali Bin Apong
Opening the Summit Brunei’s Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism Minister, Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Ali Bin Apong, was hopeful every effort was being made to restore rainforests but stressed more can be done to battle deforestation and forest degradation.
“We are in the 21st Century, where technological developments are at our fingertips. We should promote efficient utilisation of forest resources through appropriate technologies and at the same time, encourage the production of forest value-added products,” he said.
Brunei is also focusing on enhancing efficiency to boost yields, and encouraging investments in agriculture technology.
Australia’s Minister for Environment and Energy, Mr Josh Frydenberg, urged participants to use the global momentum from the Paris Agreement to drive the environmental agenda and action further.
Australia is sharing its knowledge and lessons learnt with countries in the region, partnering with US and Norway, through the Global Forest Observations Initiative, to extend this outreach.
“This initiative promotes a globally integrated approach to measuring emissions from deforestation using satellite-based data. This work is already making a tangible difference in supporting countries in our region to measure the emissions from their forest resources. If you can’t manage, you can’t measure.”
Dr Peter Holmgren, Director General of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), called for an integrated approach to achieve the sustainable goals and to redefine “forestry” to include all aspects of sustainable development.
“We will not realise the full potential of forests and forestry in sustainable development unless we work across traditional institutional boundaries. The common denominator that brings us together is landscapes. Landscapes with a wide diversity in shapes and sizes will be a cornerstone for the future we want.”
This year’s summit is hosted by the Government of Brunei Darussalam, and supported by the Government of Australia, with CIFOR as the science and engagement advisor.
August 4, 2016 marks the 5th anniversary of the submission of the report of the assessment of the environment of Ogoniland to former President Jonathan by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The report etched for Nigeria and the world, the damning levels of hydrocarbon and other toxic pollutions in Ogoniland. The report more or less indicated that a state of environmental emergency should have been declared in Ogoniland. Nothing much happened, and each passing year, since the submission of the report, has witnessed more groaning and sighing by the people that have no option but to live in the horrendously polluted environment.
A banner by the Ogoni Cleanup Campaign. Photo credit: saction.org
The first inkling of action by government was on the eve of the first anniversary of the UNEP report. That was on 24th July 2012 when the government hurriedly cobbled together what was known as the Hydrocarbons Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP). The name was quite anachronistic, but it was aimed at calming nerves of locals who were getting impatient that a year was rolling by with nothing being done with the report that showed that they were living in an environment that was killing them. The first visible actions of HYPREP included the mounting of huge billboards in Port Harcourt denouncing oil theft and tampering with oil pipelines.
While this was going on, the people were drinking water that has been shown to be laced with hydrocarbon pollutants and at places with carcinogenic benzene. They are still drinking such water. On 26th July 2016, after a monitoring training of a team of Ecological Defenders of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) we decided to visit one of the community leaders at Ogale, Nchia-Eleme, Ogoni. Our host turned on his electricity generator and pumped water up from a borehole he had sunk. As the water gushed the smell of petroleum products filled the air. Indeed, one would be right to wonder if he was pumping up petrol. We asked to know what they use the water for. All sanitary needs. Plus, drinking at times. Mind boggling.
Another sign that the recommendations of the UNEP report have been seen by HYPREP is the ubiquitous sign posts in Ogoniland erected at polluted creeks, streams, rivers and boreholes. They all warn citizens not to drink, fish or swim in the contaminated water. Besides the water trucked in by the Rivers State government at that time, the people have largely been left to cater for themselves as best as they can, or to wallow in the toxic waters.
A meeting of rotten oil facilities, oil spills, third party interferences and oil theft give the best example of how to brew environmental disaster. Visits to Bodo, K-Dere, B-Dere, Ogale, Goi and other polluted in Ogoniland literally leaves one breathless. And angry.
Efforts to commence the clean up of Ogoniland took a more determined turn under the current leadership of the Ministry of Environment. To begin with, HYPREP was decoupled from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, a ministry deeply complicit in the polluting of Ogoniland and the rest of the Niger Delta. The project is now domiciled in the Ministry of Environment which should provide a more credible platform for the tasks that need to be done.
The ceremonial flag-off of the clean up of Ogoniland (with expected expansion to other highly polluted parts of the larger Niger Delta in mind) took place on 2nd June 2016 at the Numuu Tekuru Waterside, Bodo. Several questions have trailed the ceremonial flag off. Is the government sincere about the exercise? Is there a budget for the clean up? When would the structures to oversee the clean up be set up? What roles would local people play in the exercise? Will this be another avenue for dispensing political patronage?
One of the best response to the situation has come by way of a briefing prepared by Social Action, titled Cleaning in a Vacuum: Framework Gaps in the Implementation of the UNEP report on Ogoniland (July 2016). The Briefing pointed out among other things that HYPREP did not receive the approval of community and civil society groups because what UNEP recommended was the creation of an Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority whereas HYPREP had a mandate that covered the entire Niger Delta. The embedding of HYPREP in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources did also not gone well with many. Same with the lack of transparency in the operations of HYPREP. Social Action believes that HYPREP would face serious hiccups unless it has an enabling legislation establishing it, especially because the clean up will be a long drawn process transcending many administrations. The group, and other stakeholders, would also like to see a clear roadmap for the planned clean-up.
Some of the issues flagged by Social Action also emerged at the HOMEF training of 27th July 2016 and we quote:
There is need for a comprehensive health impact assessment which should detail the health impacts of pollution on people who reside in pollution impacted sites.
The process of consultation and sensitisation should be intensified and carried on throughout the stages of the clean-up implementation process to ensure that communities understand what each stage entails and what is expected in order to avoid possible confusion and misunderstanding which could result in conflict.
Inclusion of all segments of the society, including consideration for women, youths and people living with disabilities in the clean up processes.
Clear and verifiable milestones should be established to ensure an active and healthy feedback cycle with all stakeholders.
The training of community members to act in different capacities in the clean-up, must be instituted as a critical means of community inclusion.
As yet another anniversary comes, we note that the much vexed issues of reviewing the structure of HYPREP and the setting up of the structures for the clean up have been done. We hope that Ogoni will one day breathe fresh air again.
By Nnimmo Bassey (Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation – HOMEF)
Cameroon has deposited its instrument of ratification of the Paris Agreement with the United Nations, making it the 21st nation to do so. The instrument was deposited on Friday, 29 July 2016.
Cameroon had earlier signed the global treaty.
Cameroon closely follows Peru, which recently did likewise
At the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP), held in Paris, France, the Parties adopted the Paris Climate Change Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Agreement was opened for signature on 22 April 2016 at a high-level signature ceremony convened by the Secretary General in New York. At that ceremony, 174 States and the European Union signed the agreement and 15 States also deposited their instruments of ratification.
As of 29 July 2016, there are 179 signatories to the Paris Agreement. Of these, 21 States have also deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval accounting in total for 0.85 % of the total global greenhouse gas emissions.
The Agreement shall enter into force on the 13th day after the date on which at least 55 Parties to the Convention accounting in total for at least an estimated 55 % of the total global greenhouse gas emissions have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the Depository.
Nigeria has neither signed nor ratified the treaty.
The United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN’s children’s rights and emergency relief organisation, has warned that climate change is a dangerous and disruptive force for many children around the world and is particularly impacting the most vulnerable.
The report warns that climate change is a dangerous and disruptive force for many children around the world and is particularly impacting the most vulnerable
In its 2016 annual report, the organisation says that poor and disadvantaged children were disproportionately affected by humanitarian disasters last year – including particularly damaging climate change-related disasters in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said: “The effects of climate change – diseases, droughts and floods that destroy food sources and livelihoods – further exacerbated risks to children and deepened deprivation for millions. Crushing poverty and widening disparities in health, education and protection undermined the lives and futures of millions more.”
The report highlights how severe tropical cyclone Pam barreled through the Pacific island state of Vanuatu in March of last year, demolishing schools, health care facilities and water supplies, and traumatising children and their families.
Floods, landslides and other natural disasters combined with unrest in Myanmar created a critical situation in 2015, displacing hundreds of thousands of children from their homes.
The report also sets out how, during the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris at the end of last year (COP21), UNICEF campaigned for accelerated climate action.
During COP21, UNICEF promoted the message that the disruptions caused by rises in overall global average temperature will not only lead to more floods and droughts, but also to more food insecurity, lost agricultural income, forced migration and other hardships for the countries and communities – and children – least equipped to cope with them.
In a report used by UNICEF to advocate for meaningful climate action commitments by governments in Paris (“Unless We Act Now – the Impact of Climate Change on Children”), the organisation showed areas that are projected to be most impacted by rising temperatures under different mitigation models and the amount of children that live in these high-impact areas.
The maps use data predictions from the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The map on the left shows a “business as usual” model of no mitigation policies and with nearly 1.5 billion children affected as a result.
The second scenario projects a likely increase of 2.4 degrees Celsius, slightly above the 2-degree absolute limit set by the Paris Agreement. The third scenario models a 1.6-degree Celsius increase, consistent with the 1.5-degree ideal limit agreed at COP21. This still shows 150 million children severely affected in high-impact areas.
Last year, UNICEF also mobilised celebrities to push for climate action. Goodwill Ambassador Katy Perry starred in a UNICEF video that was shown at the Paris conference.
The video featured Perry in a special “weather report” highlighting the impact of climate change on children and calling for urgent action to change the forecast for the planet’s future.
Presenting the items in Gombe, the Director General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani Sidi said, “The initiative, which is in line with international best practices allowed those engaged in the fighting to voluntarily surrender and embrace peace so that they undergo rehabilitation.”
He added that NEMA would play its role in the programme by providing regular support of food and non-food items for their up keep.
According to a statement signed and issued by Sani Datti of the Media and Public Relations Unit of the Agency, the items, which would be released quarterly, include 410 bags of rice, 400 bags of beans, 200 bags of millet, 200 bags of sorghum, 750 cartons of spaghetti, 50 cartons of Maggi cubes and 810 cartons tomato paste. Others are 101 Vegetable oil in 20 liter kegs, 101 palm oil in 20 liter kegs, 50 bags of salt, 100 bags of sugar, 420 cartons of milk and 420 cartons of milo chocolate.
The non food items include: 800 pieces of mattress, 500 hundred pieces of blanket, 500 pieces of nylon mats, 1000 plastic buckets, 1000 plastic spoons, 1000 plastic cups 1000, plastics plates, 1000 plastic pairs of slippers, 2000 men’s wear, 63 cartons of bath soap and 1000 bath towels.
Receiving the items, the Coordinator of Operation Safe Corridor, Brigadier-General BM Shafa, said the initiative was designed to de-radicalise, rehabilitate and re-integrate willing and repented Boko Haram insurgents who have come out to surrender to the military and believing that it would quicken the peace process in the North east.
“Between September last year and February this year, a good number of Boko Haram members have come out to surrender,” he added.
He thanked the Gombe State Government for providing the location and giving them all the necessary support.
About 11 agencies of the Federal Government are directly involved in the Operation Safe Corridor programme.
Eko Atlantic City, a sprawling mixed-use estate being built on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Lagos, has been described as an opportunity for British businesses to make a difference in Nigeria.
Model of the development
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright, who made the submission during a recent tour of the project site by a trade delegation of the British Prime Minister, expressed delight over the pace of development on site. The delegation was led by John Howell, a Member of Parliament and British Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria.
Arkwright said he was amazed by the size and ambition of the project which, he noted, has replaced land that has been lost due to coastal erosion.
L-R: Ahmed Bashir, MBE, Acting British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria; Pierre Edde, Development Director, Eko Atlantic City; John Howell, MP, UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria; Paul Arkwright, CMG, British High Commissioner to Nigeria; and Daba Graham-Douglas, Project Coordinator, Financial District Development, Eko Atlantic City, during a tour of Eko Atlantic City by the UK Prime Minister’s delegation on Thursday July 28, 2016
“I look forward to seeing the city develop and become a home to British business,” he said, adding: “I am also surprised by how much development has taken place since I was last here; most roads have been constructed with numerous buildings nearing completion. Eko Atlantic is a wonderful opportunity for British business to make a difference in Nigeria.”
Howell described the project as an amazing feat of engineering, and commended the handlers of the multi-billion-dollar project, South Energyx Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group, for “the ambitious work being undertaken.”
He described the project as innovative and exciting, saying: “I look forward to future discussions on the ways that UK businesses can facilitate the scale and ambition of this project in areas such as construction and retail.”
Also on the UK team were Ahmed Bashir, Acting British Deputy High Commissioner; Laura Mackie, Executive Assistant, UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria; Wale Adebajo, British Deputy High Commission’s Press; and Boma Beddie-Memberr, Executive Assistant, Acting British Deputy High Commissioner.
Briefing the delegation, the Development Director, South Energyx Nigeria Limited, Pierre Edde, said that, on completion, the estate would be home to about 450,000 residents, providing office facilities for another 150,000 people, with commuter volume expected to exceed 300,000 people daily. In addition, he said, the new city would be self-sufficient and sustainable, generating its own power, water and telecommunications facilities.
He pointed out that the project was designed to change the face of the Lagos coastline by permanently solving the problem of the incessant ocean surge that had threatened to overrun the Victoria Island area of the state. He described the project as an investor’s delight, with promise of quick return on investment. He urged investors, especially Nigerians in diaspora, to take the opportunity offered by the emerging city to increase their investment in Africa’s most populous nation.
Upon completion, he stressed, Eko Atlantic City will become Africa’s main business hub, with its Central Business District positioned to become the new financial headquarters for Lagos and the entire country.
Edde described the project as rapidly approaching completion and restated his company’s commitment to ensuring that it is completed on schedule. He told the delegation that one of the first two residential buildings in the new city would be completed by the end of August, while the second would be ready before the end of the year, with the first office block set be ready between September and October, 2016.
Some 216 arts and culture professionals, scientists and campaigners have signed a damning letter published in The Times of London, calling for British Petroleum’s (BP) new five-year sponsorship deals with the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Opera House and Royal Shakespeare Company to be cancelled.
Main entrance to the British Museum. Photo credit: wikipedia.org
The signatories argue: “These institutions’ decisions are badly out of step with the mood of their own staff and audiences”. The announcement of the new deals last week was met with condemnation from campaigners and an assurance that protests and art interventions against BP sponsorship would escalate – including a public ‘Splashmob’ in the British Museum in September.
Prominent signatories include actors Mark Rylance and Ezra Miller; writer and activist Naomi Klein; Nigerian poet, campaigner and winner of the Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) Nnimmo Bassey; environmentalists Jonathon Porritt and Bill McKibben; composer Matthew Herbert; artist Conrad Atkinson; climate science historian Naomi Oreskes; and West Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda.
Clayton Thomas-Müller, a prominent Canadian Cree activist and signatory of the letter, said: “By signing this new deal with BP, the British Museum is helping the oil company drill more wells and build more pipelines – poisoning Indigenous communities and destroying our planet’s future. Once again, the British Museum is on the wrong side of history. With public culture supporting fossil fuel colonialism, it’s up to frontline struggles to keep the oil in the soil.”
Anna Galkina, a campaigner with Platform (part of the Art Not Oil coalition), said: “Oil sponsorship is meant to buy artists’ silence and audiences’ approval, and silence the people who live on the frontlines of oil extraction and climate change. This letter shows that more and more artists, culture professionals and academics are no longer happy standing by while BP brands the UK’s biggest museums and theatres for a pittance. BP is wrecking the climate and wrecking lives, from the Gulf of Mexico to West Papua, and deserves to be cast out of our culture.”
BP claims its sponsorship comes with “no strings attached” but internal emails released by the Art Not Oil coalition have shown this to be untrue. In 2015 BP leant on the British Museum to host a Mexican “Days of the Dead” festival where it was able to meet with members of the Mexican government just weeks before bidding for new drilling licences in the Gulf of Mexico, according to British Museum emails published in a report by the coalition in May. Other emails showed BP convened a security meeting attended by senior staff from sponsored institutions to discuss security measures for responding to peaceful protest. The Museums Association’s Ethics Committee have considered the report’s findings and are expected to issue a statement soon on whether its Code of Ethics has been breached.
Among the letter’s signatories are representatives of frontline groups, solidarity campaigns and Indigenous struggles against BP’s operations and the impacts of climate change, from Australia to Latin America to the US Gulf Coast to West Papua. They include:
Benny Wenda, exiled West Papuan independence leader. The Free West Papua campaign is running a global boycott of BP over its involvement in West Papua and collusion with the repressive Indonesian regime.
Nnimmo Bassey, poet and long-time environmental campaigner from Nigeria and former Chair of Friends of the Earth International.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo from the Lubicon Cree First Nation, who has been a high-profile campaigner against tar sands extraction and for clean energy in Alberta, Canada.
Gilberto Torres Martinez, a Colombian trade union leader, who was a victim of kidnapping and torture by paramilitary groups backed by BP, and lived to tell the tale.
Many Latin American solidarity networks, based in the UK and Mexico.
All four institutions have seen creative protest performances critiquing their relationship with BP.
Theatrical protest group BP or not BP? invaded the RSC’s stages repeatedly in 2012 when BP sponsored a series of plays there, and have now performed without permission in the British Museum 18 times – the most recent three performances being in response to BP’s sponsorship of the current ‘Sunken Cities’ exhibition. Watch films of all their performances. The group of ‘actorvists’ have announced a public ‘Splashmob’ in the museum on 25 September.
Greenpeace also protested on the day the Sunken Cities exhibition opened, climbing the iconic pillars of the museum, which decided to close for several hours in response.
Liberate Tate performed “Fifth Assessment” at several of the institutions (British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and Royal Opera House), where performers (including actor Ezra Miller) read out the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment report.
The Royal Opera House has also seen several protests inside the auditorium and in Trafalgar Square, during different live BP Big Screen performances.
Letter text:
Re: Another five years of BP-branded culture
BP’s announcement of five-year sponsorship deals with the British Museum, Royal Opera House, National Portrait Gallery and Royal Shakespeare Company is outdated and unacceptable.
We cannot afford another five years of BP-branded culture. We believe museums, theatres and galleries are public institutions that must play a positive role in taking urgent climate action and defending human rights. If the world is to avoid rapid and devastating climate change in the coming decades, most of the oil on BP’s books cannot be burned. Meanwhile, the company continues acting in defiance of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and harming lives every day – despite community resistance from the Gulf Coast to West Papua to Australia.
We know now that BP sponsorship comes with strings attached. A recent report revealed how BP leant on the British Museum to hold events timed with BP’s bid for drilling licenses in Mexico, and how the museum checked in with BP on curatorial decisions.
Branding a major museum or theatre has become cheaper for BP (just £375,000 a year for each institution, on average). This is less than the cost of a short billboard campaign. Surveys show that a majority of Londoners, and the British Museum’s own staff, are against BP sponsorship. These institutions’ decisions are badly out of step with the mood of their own staff and audiences. BP is not welcome to use our culture to promote its destructive business – these deals must be cancelled.
The 7th Environment Outreach Magazine Public Lecture/Environmental Awards Ceremony will hold on Thursday, 04 August 2016 in Abuja.
Environment Minister, Mrs Amina J. Mohammed, delivering a speech at the High Level Segment of COP21
According to the publisher of the magazine and host of the event, Chief Noble Akenge, the theme of this year’s lecture is: “Insurgency and its effect on the Nigerian Environment and Economy: which way forward” and it will be delivered by the Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed.
Erstwhile Minister of Environment, Chief John Ogar Odey, will chair the occasion while the former Deputy Managing Director of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (AGIP), Dr. Daru Owei, is special guest of honour.
King Alfred Diete-Spiff, Amanyanabo of Twon-Brass and Chairman, Bayelsa State Council of Traditional Rulers, along with Alhaji Umaru Bubaram Ibn Wuriwa Bauya, the Emir of Potiskum, Yobe State, are also expected as Royal Fathers of the Day.
Chief Akenge disclosed in a statement on Monday that, as part of activities marking the event, Environmental Awards in various categories will be conferred on eminent Nigerians who have distinguished themselves in the protection of the environment through position action and years of dedicated service.
The Award categories include Environmental Stewardship Award, Environmental Support and Protection Award, Community Development and Nature Conservation Award, Environmental Legislative Excellence Award, Environmental Media Excellence Award, and Defender of the Environment Award.
Some of the nominees for the 2016 Environmental Awards include Amina Mohammed, Babatunde Fashola (Minister of Power, Works and Housing), Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State, Governor Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, Professor Sani Abubakar Mashi (Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja), Mrs. Olufunso Amosun (Wife of the Ogun State Governor) Senator Ahmed Lawn of the National Assembly, Kingsley Chinda (former Commissioner for Environment, Rivers State and presently Chairman of Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives, Abuja), Professor I. K. E Ekweozor (Secretary, Board of Trustees, Nigerian Environmental Society), Dr. Daru Owei (former Deputy Managing Director of AGIP), Dr. Victor Fodeke (Environmentalist and former Technical Adviser to the African Union), and Professor Mrs. Prekeyi Tawari-Fufeyin (Professor of Environmental Toxicology at the University of Benin).
Others include Mr. Akin Awobamise (retired Zonal Director of NESREA), Elder Uche Agbanusi (former National President of the Nigerian Environmental Society), Mr. Salisu Dahiru (National Coordinator of NEWMAP), Dr. Samuel Anurigwo (Nigeria Country Director of the International Institute of Policy Makers and Administrators), Mr. Pyagbara Saro Legborsi (President of MOSOP) and Daily Trust Newspapers published by Media Trust Limited.
“The event promises to examine and discuss the spate of insurgency in Nigeria and its consequences on our environment and economy and proffer solutions,” said Akenge.
The Sokoto State Government has expressed its readiness to collaborate with the Kingdom of Morocco in the development of solar energy and fertiliser management for the benefit of the people of the state.
Solar panels on rooftop of a home
Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who met with the Moroccan Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Mosidfa Bouh, in Abuja said that Morocco had distinguished itself in some critical sectors, which had attracted the relationship between the two states that would be of utmost importance to the two parties.
“We discussed a number of issues, which we hope to concretise in follow-up discussions. We sought closer working relationship between our two states especially in areas like solar energy, leather works, agriculture (irrigation management), educational and cultural integration as well as fertiliser management.
“In terms of fertiliser, we informed the Ambassador that Sokoto has large deposit of primary natural substances needed for making fertiliser and we need to explore the substances to enhance revenue generation and create employment opportunities for the people,” Tambuwal said in a statement issued on Monday by his spokesman, Malam Imam Imam.
In his remarks, the Ambassador said that his country had a long standing relationship with the Sokoto Caliphate in the areas of religion, education and culture.
Expressing delight at the meeting, the envoy extended an invitation to Tambuwal and Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar to visit Morocco for a meeting with King Mohammed VI to further explore issues of mutual benefit between the two entities.
