Nigeria Daily News: UNEP report: Minister blames delay in implementation on protest

UNEP report: Minister blames delay in implementation on protest
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Staff on 06/08/2012 21:37:00


BY BEN AGANDE
ABUJA— Effects of this year’s nationwide protest over the removal of fuel
subsidy reverberated at the Presidential Villa yesterday as the Minister of
Environment, Hadiza Mailafia, yesterday blamed the delay in the implementation
of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, on the cleaning up of the
environment of Ogoniland damaged by years of oil exploration on the protest.
The Minister  who led a team of Ministry of Environment and its  agencies to
the Villa, however, promised that the implementation of the report had already
commenced.
Hajia Mailafia who presented to the  President the ministry’s policy thrust
for budget 2013 and the priority for budget 2012 said everything was being done
to ensure that the implementation of the report was hitch-free.
She said:  “We are making enormous efforts, I agree that the presentation was
made last year, but you recall that just after the presentation of the UNEP
report, the country fell into some kind of unrest due to fuel subsidy.
“For quite a number of weeks, all of us were not doing what we should have
been doing at that time. But it is not true that government is not doing
anything.
“The UNEP report highlighted some immediate issues that needed to be
addressed; finding potable or alternative supplies of drinking water, such as
marking out the wells that were too polluted and doing other strategic framework
activities that needed to be in place before the implementation.
“With the support of Governor Rotimi Amaechi and through the National Oil
Spill Remediation Agency we have carried out all those tasks”.
“A place where pollution has taken place for a very long time, requires a very
formidable approach and we have been working on it through the petroleum
ministry. Am glad to inform you that everything is put in place and that we are
just waiting for the execution.
“I want to debunk the statement that nothing has been done. Perhaps you on the
other side are waiting just to see us on the ground. If you go there you will
find that groups of people have been doing depending on the nature of what they
have to do.
“It is not a situation where you just take officers and equipments and drive
into a system and say I am going to clean up, it is beyond sweeping. It is the
whole task of trying to remediate a place that has been polluted for decades”.
Mailafia also tasked Nigerians to safeguard their lives and environment by
adhering to environmental laws and guidelines issued by the government.
This is coming on the heels of the declaration of statehood by the Movement for
the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) for the region.
It would be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan on July 27th approved the
setting up of a Hydro-Carbon Pollution Restoration Project, HYPREP, a step taken
in furtherance of the Federal government’s commitment to implement the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Assessment Report on the spill disaster in
Ogoniland.
The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who performed
the inauguration had stated that  the setting up of HYPREP by Mr. President was
in keeping with the Government’s determination to protect the environmental
human rights of the people.
She stated that “With the establishment of this project, it is expected that
all stakeholders, especially the impacted communities, will cooperate fully with
Government and grant unfettered access to all impacted sites to ensure complete
success.”
Speaking On her presentation to the President, the minister of environment 
said “For more than two hours, the Ministry presented it’s policy thrust for
budget 2013 and the priority for budget 2012 and as it’s the tradition, it was
discussed, and critiqued.
“We were here to brief the President and the team on the 2013 budget as you
are aware the executive is making all efforts to ensure all budget is submitted
very early and in good time good enough for us to get it back and begin to
implement as at when due.
“The issues discussed have to do largely with the policy trust of the ministry
which of course you are very conversant with. We will be looking at what we have
done in the 2012 year, and what we can do better in terms of principally
packaging our project, the manner of which we conceive the project and the
manner in which we implement them”.
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