The Federal Ministries of Solid Minerals Development and Environment are taking collaborative steps to ensure that mining operations in the country have minimal adverse impact on the environment.
Dr Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals Development
This, theyt said, is in line with international best practices.
Dr Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, made this known on Monday, January 15, 2024, via a statement signed by Mr Segun Tomori, Special Assistant on Media to the minister in Lagos.
Alake said this while receiving the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal.
He reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to securing mining areas whilst removing impediments to seamless operations.
He added that the President Bola Tinubu led administration was ready to ensure that mining processes conformed to global standards of negligible harmful impact on the environment.
Responding, the minister of environment, emphasised that issues on security around the mining sites and environmental degradation as a result of mining operations must be addressed.
“Recently, the minister launched a solid minerals roadmap, which I think took care of the issue of the environment because whenever there is mining, the environment will be affected one way or the other.
“So, we are working very closely to see that whatever is being done will be within the limit of tolerable impact on the environment,” Lawal added.
The Federal and all State Governments have been called upon to put the necessary policies in place that will encourage local production of feed, thereby helping to reduce the cost of farming, increase yield, and ultimately ensure food security in the country.
Generated methane gas used to power generating set
A waste-to-wealth expert, Mr. Gregory Ohiaeri, made the call during an interview, noted that, with the right policies, organic wastes generated across the country could be converted into fertilisers, feed for farm animals, and methane gas for the generation of electricity that could lead to massive job creation.
Ohiaeri is the Managing Director of Waste to Table Limited, an organic waste conversion outfit that specialises in producing organic fertilisers, animal feed, and methane gas for power generation using municipal wastes.
He has over the years been in partnership with the Lagos State government in managing wastes generated in the state.
While decrying the impact of the high cost of feed that caused a broiler chicken to be sold at about N15,000 last Yuletide celebrations, he said the authorities must act fast to address the problem so that small holder farmers would remain in business and food would be affordable in the country.
He said: “If you look at the trend now, a lot of small-scale farmers are going out of business. The reason why they are going out of business is not that they are not interested in farming, it’s just that the cost of feed is affecting them a lot. Poultry feed is about N14,500 per 25 kg.
“And if you look at all these things, it’s becoming very expensive. Last Christmas, a broiler was sold at about N15,000 for one, compared to before.”
He said the series of lab tests conducted on the animal feed and fertilisers produced at the Waste to Table organic waste conversion plant located at Odogunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos showed that they are of high quality with an increased percentage of protein.
He also said that the animals being fed on their products are doing well and that people prefer them because they taste better unlike the others fed with chemical feeds.
“We have set up our processes to test some of the feed that we produce here, using organic wastes.
“So far, the tests are looking good as revealed by the feed analysis from Alpha Lab on our chicken feed.
“As we test this thing, we have noticed that it’s doing very well. The animals are doing very well. They are growing, they are adding weight.
“I have a lot of customers that prefer to buy our animals than to buy from somewhere else because they will tell us that our animals taste different from the ones that are outside. So they prefer to come out here and buy our animals, and our animals are not as expensive as the ones you have outside. So that’s the reason why we are in business, to see how we can develop this feed locally here, and reduce the cost, and make sure that our food security is there,” he said.
Ohiaeri said his goal is to franchise Waste to Table in all the states of the federation, leveraging it to ensure proper management of waste generated in the nation’s cities, while converting the waste into products to promote agriculture and power generation.
He also said that it would lead to massive job creation, especially for youths who would be working in different waste-to-wealth value chains.
“First of all, we would need to get the support of the government. We plan on franchising Waste to Table in different states to process the organic waste. So we have to have the government policy backing so that these investors will know that their investment is secure.
“Once the government buys into it, which I believe the government will do, it’s just a question of introducing the process to them. Right now, we’re doing it in Lagos State. We plan on moving to different states very soon, probably by 2024.
“The production is there for the protein, animal feed, the market is there. The market is huge. For the other products on the composting side of it, we still need to do some awareness in terms of getting the farmers to know that other alternatives are cost-efficient than chemical fertilisers, ” he said.
Member governments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are meeting at the Panel’s 60th Plenary Session this week in Istanbul, Türkiye, to decide on the roadmap for the seventh cycle. The latest cycle began with the election of the new IPCC and Task Force Bureaus at the end of July 2023.
Jim Skea, IPCC Chair
The four-day meeting is the first plenary in the seventh cycle and is scheduled to run from January 16 to 19, 2024. The delegates of 195 member governments will consider and decide on the programme of work, including the number and scope of scientific reports the IPCC will deliver in this cycle.
The Panel already decided at its 43rd Session in April 2016 that a special report on climate change and cities will be produced in the seventh cycle. It also decided at its 49th Session in May 2019 that the seventh cycle will deliver a methodology report on short-lived climate forcers.
The opening ceremony of the 60th Plenary Session is scheduled to begin at 10.00 a.m. local time in Istanbul (UTC +3) on Tuesday, January 16, at the Istanbul Lutfi Kirdar International Convention and Exhibition Centre (ICEC).
During the opening ceremony, the IPCC member governments and observer organisations will be addressed by the IPCC Chair Jim Skea, Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Mehmet Özhaseki, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Inger Andersen, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organisation Celeste Saulo, and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Simon Stiell.
President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of the board members of the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund (MDGIF).
President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria
Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, disclosed this in a statement on Friday, January 12, 2024, in Abuja.
He said that the MDGIF would be domiciled in the Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
Ngelale said that Tinubu mandated the appointees to discharge their duties by upholding the highest standards of transparency, discipline and patriotism.
He said those virtues were in line with the administration’s drive to enhance the role of the gas sector in achieving robust and inclusive economic growth for Nigeria.
The appointees are MDGIF Governing Council Chairman – Minister of State, Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo; MDGIF Executive Director – Mr Oluwole Adama and MDGIF Governing Council Secretary – Mr Joseph Tolorunshe.
Mr Farouk Ahmed is the NMDPRA Chief Executive, with representatives of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Finance as parts of the board.
The three MDGIF Independent Member of the board are Ms Amina Maina (North-East), Mr Edet David Ubong (South-South) and Mr Tajudeen Bolaji Musa (South-West).
Stakeholders from the six states of the Niger Delta region have thrown their weight behind Bayelsa State Gov Douye Diri’s call to include people from the region in pipeline surveillance contracts.
Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State
The regional group welcomed the call for a review and decentralisation of the crude oil and gas facilities surveillance contracts awarded by the federal government across states in the Niger Delta.
The group is made up of traditional rulers, community leaders, women and Youth leaders under the aegis of the Movement for Sustainable Development of the Niger Delta (MSDND).
They said the Bayelsa government and other state governors from the region want pipeline surveillance contracts also awarded to their people to avoid ineptitude and enthrone collective protection of the nation’s assets and resources in the areas.
The National Coordinator of the MSDND, Chief Ayebatekena Olodi, made the position known in a statement issued on Friday, January 12, 2024, in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
The group noted that there are attempts by greedy surveillance contractors to hijack the contract.
According to the coalition, the position of the Bayelsa government is the call for a review and decentralisation of the crude oil and gas assets surveillance contracts to include non-state actors across the region.
According to the MSDND: “The current arrangement could pose greater security challenges if not properly regulated. Recall that we have never been against the renewal of the contract.
“We insisted that the Federal Government should decentralise the award of all pipeline surveillance and maintenance contracts across the different states in the region to reputable ex-militant leaders, who worked with the President and supported his plans for our nation from the onset during the primaries.
“We have said, through a series of letters to the President and through news publications, that there are capable leaders across the various states in the Niger Delta region that probably would have done a better job and produced better results in securing our nation’s crude oil and gas assets.
“We have also shown proof through key data about Nigeria’s crude oil exports from OPEC and other sources, which clearly revealed that Nigeria was producing and exporting more crude oil before the over $1.3 billion pipeline surveillance contracts were awarded to these selected individuals, and during the one-year contract period of their contract, our production and sales of crude oil decreased.
“The position of the state governments and the earlier positions by various groups and key stakeholders across the region are in unison.
“The Bayelsa government’s position simply stated that the needed review of the current pipeline surveillance arrangements should include stakeholders from across the region in order to create room for more inclusiveness,” the coalition stated.
The Federal Ministry of Environment has resolved to discontinue the use of single-use plastics at its headquarters and its agencies to drive a culture of waste reduction.
Plastic pollution
In addition, staff of the Ministry and its agencies were requested to demonstrate leadership by example by implementing other personal climate actions in their environments.
Single-use plastics are most commonly used for packaging and service wares, such as bottles, wrappers, straws and bags.
Single-use plastic products (SUPs) are used once or for a short period of time, before being thrown away.
The impacts of these plastic’s wastes on the environment and health are global and can be drastic.
Single-use plastic products are also more likely to end up in the seas than reusable options.
The ministry’s resolve is contained in a communique signed by Malam Stanley Jonah, Director, Planning, Research and Statistics of the ministry, at the end of a two-day Top Management Retreat held in Kaduna.
The retreat had the theme, “Policy Embedment and Prioritisation of Key Action for Renewed Hope in Environmental Management”.
The communique added that the ministry has committed to pursuing the mandate to drive the actualisation of President Bola Tinubu’s vision through its 18 assigned deliverables and 48 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
It said that, in order to achieve these deliverables and indicators, all Departments and Agencies must synergise and that the vision must be cascaded to the sub-nationals, organised private sector, civil society organisations and all Nigerians.
The communique also stated that funding was a critical element for the achievement of these deliverables and effective communication.
In the same vein, conflict management mechanisms were needed to cascade management decisions to all levels of staff in order to deliver on the Ministerial Mandates.
“There is a need to build capacities, provide frameworks and collaborate with relevant stakeholders to access additional funding for environmental sustainability.
“There is a need to expand our current strategy for circular management of waste to capture small scale producers and the informal sector in the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Programme,” it stated.
The communique, however, amongst other resolutions, stated that all Departments, Agencies, Programmes and special projects of the ministry shall work collaboratively for the actualisation of the ministry’s mandated deliverables derived from the presidential priorities.
Also, for sustainable waste management, a ‘’Circular Nigeria committee’’ chaired by the Director-General of NESREA was constituted to facilitate the implementation of the Circular Economy road map.
It stated that the committee would prioritise mentorship, institutional knowledge transfer and effective succession plan.
The communique added, “Procurement plans shall be completed early and submitted to the relevant Agencies of government to ensure timely release of funds.
“To fast track the issuance of the 3rd Sovereign Green Bond in 2024, implement programmes for capacity development, staff mobilisation, performance tracking and strengthening of relationships between supervising officers and their subordinates as key strategies to enhance performance.”
Others include accelerating the development of the 2024 – 2027 ministry’s Strategic Roadmap.
The retreat, however, culminated in the signing of a performance bond with the Ministers and Permanent Secretary by the Heads of Departments and Agencies for the delivery of the prioritised mandates of the ministry.
The Federal Government says plans are underway to boost food production in the country through mechanisation.
Sen. Abubakar Kyari, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, stated this while speaking with newsmen at the end of the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP), meeting on Saturday, January 13, 2024, in Abuja.
The meeting was a stakeholders review and preparatory meeting for the implementation of the second phase of 2023-2024 dry season farming in the country.
The minister said that mechanisation farming was key to agriculture as it would support food production in the country.
”President Bola Tinubu said he is going to give us all the support for mechanisation and we will soon run out the mechanisation programme,” he said.
On the dry season farming, Kyari said that a dimension of encumbrance to the dry season wheat farming under the NAGS-AP were cases of farmers’ inability to pay their component of the input cost.
“The good news is that upon realisation of this, we got the message to President Tinubu and he has graciously directed that additional support be given to farmers to cushion such effect in subsequent interventions.”
In a goodwill message, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Olawale Edun, said that the importance of the agricultural sector could not be overemphasised.
He said that agriculture is one of the key sectors in the economy as it is the the main objective of Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Edun said that if there is abundant supply of food, there would be a reduction in inflation that would also lead to reduction in poverty as well as creation of jobs and a much more stable economy.
On his part, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, observed that the country has been blessed with capable ministers of agriculture to provide food security.
Bagudu , who said that the Federal Government had taken measures to ensure the economy was stable, assured that more interventions would come to help farmers in the country.
Also speaking, President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, (AFAN), Mr Kabir Ibrahim, said that the country’s quest to achieve food security would be expedited through mechanised farming system.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the commercial release and open cultivation of a new maize variety, Tela Maize.
Female farmers with the Tela Maize farm manager, Dr Oyekunle, displaying the harvested Tela Maize
The maize was developed by researchers at the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, that resists fall armyworm, stem borers and tolerates moderate drought.
This decision was made during the 33rd meeting of the National Committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock breeds/Fisheries (NCNRRCVLF) in Ibadan.
The committee, headed by Prof. Olusoji Olufajo, granted approval for four innovative varieties: SAMMAZ 72T, SAMMAZ 73T, SAMMAZ 74T, and SAMMAZ 75T.
These cutting-edge maize varieties boast drought tolerance and resistance to stem-borers and fall armyworm, promising a yield advantage of up to 10 tonnes per hectare.
Under optimal agronomic practices, it surpasses the national average for similar hybrids at 6 tonnes per hectare.
The suitability of these varieties for Rain Forest, Guinea, and Sudan Savannas positions them as a potential game-changer for maize production in Nigeria.
Stem-borers and fall armyworm have been significant challenges affecting maize production in Africa.
The latter is capable of destroying up to 20 million metric tons of maize annually, enough to feed 100 million people.
The approval follows the environmental release granted by the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) in October 2021.
The development of these varieties was spearheaded by the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) Samaru, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, under the TELA Maize Public-Private Partnership coordinated by AATF.
Currently implemented in five countries – Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa – the TELA Maize Project signifies a collaborative effort to address agricultural challenges.
Expressing satisfaction with the release, Prof Ado Yusuf, Executive Director of IAR, commended the scientists for their dedication and emphasised the extensive research and testing that went into the development of these maize varieties.
AATF’s Executive Director, Dr Canisius Kanangire, highlighted the contribution of TELA Maize to food and nutrition security in alignment with the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation agenda.
The release in Nigeria is seen as a significant step towards addressing challenges faced by farmers across the continent.
Professor Garba Sharubutu, the Executive Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), labeled the approval of the TELA Maize variety as a critical milestone in leveraging biotechnology for ensuring food and nutrition security.
This, he said ultimately improves the livelihoods of farming households in Africa.
Prof. Mustapha Abdullahi, Director-General of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), emphasised the potential reduction in pesticide usage on maize, benefitting humans, livestock, and the environment.
Dr Sylvester Oikeh, the TELA Maize Project Manager, expressed encouragement by Nigeria’s decision, urging other African countries to follow suit for the benefit of farmers.
The TELA Maize project involves collaboration with various partners, including National Agricultural Research Institutes in Kenya, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and others.
It has funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID.
With the annual average global temperature fast approaching the critical threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, 2023 officially smashed the global temperature record, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) confirmed on Friday, January 12, 2024.
WMO Secretary-General, Prof. Celeste Saulo
UN weather agency uses six leading international datasets from across the globe to monitor global temperatures, which reveal a new annual temperature average of 1.45°C set against the pre-industrial era (1850-1900).
Every month between June and December set new records. July and August were the two hottest months ever recorded, WMO said.
The 1.5°C figure is the temperature limit set out clearly in the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change but that refers to the long-term temperature increase averaged over decades, rather than an individual year like 2023.
“Climate change is the biggest challenge that humanity faces. It is affecting all of us, especially the most vulnerable,” WMO Secretary-General, Prof. Celeste Saulo, said, presenting the report’s findings.
“We cannot afford to wait any longer. We are already taking action, but we have to do more, and we have to do it quickly.”
For that, Saulo explained, drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and accelerated transition to renewable energy sources are needed.
Looking ahead, the head of WMO warned that as the cooling La Nina phenomenon was replaced with a warming El Nino midway through 2023 – which usually has the biggest impact on global temperatures after it peaks – 2024 could be even hotter.
Celeste Saulo who became WMO Secretary-General on January 1, explained that “while El Niño events are naturally occurring and come and go from one year to the next, longer term climate change is escalating and this is unequivocally because of human activities”.
Since the 1980s, each decade has been warmer than the previous one and the past nine years have been the warmest on record. The data drawn from the six datasets shows that the ten-year average temperature increase in 2014-2023 was at about 1.20°C.
“Humanity’s actions are scorching the Earth. 2023 was a mere preview of the catastrophic future that awaits if we don’t act now.
“We must respond to record-breaking temperature rises with path-breaking action,” UN chief António Guterres said in response to the latest data.
“We can still avoid the worst of climate catastrophe. But only if we act now with the ambition required to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius and deliver climate justice,” he said in a statement.
Long-term monitoring of global temperatures is just one indicator of how climate is changing.
Other key indicators include atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, ocean heat and acidification, sea level, sea ice extent and glacier mass balance to name a few.
WMO’s provisional State of the Global Climate in 2023 report, published on 30 November, showed that records were broken across the board.
