Era of fake EIA over, FG says

Mrs Nana Mede, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment made the declaration at a briefing to celebrate the victory of the National Environment Standards Regulation and Enforcement Agency (NESREA) in a case instituted against Kaduna State and Helios Towers on who has the right to issue EIA certificates.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna in December last year in its ruling vested the responsibilities of enforcement and insurance of EIA on the Federal Ministry of Environment and its agency.
The ruling read in part: “State environmental authorities have no power to issue EIA certificate or statement. The power to issue EIA certificate resides with the federal government under the EIA Act Cap E12LFN 2004.
Mede said armed with the ruling, the ministry is now ready to deal with those parading fake EIA certificates. “We are prepared to finally put an end to the era of fake EIAs. It is the primary responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Environment to make policies while the specialised agencies of the ministry operationalise and carry out the implementation of such policies in line with the respective mandates and functions of the agencies,” Mede said.
Speaking at the briefing, NESERA director general, Dr Lawrence Anukam, said that with the court judgment, the agency was prepared to implement to the letter provisions of the EIA Act.
The EIA Decree No. 86 of 1992 was promulgated to regulate development processes that may directly or indirectly impact negatively on the environment. By this act, no industrial plan, development or activity can be executed without prior consideration of the environmental consequences of such proposed project.
Mr John Alonge, director EIA at the ministry, said that though the ministry was under pressure to shift grounds on the EIA requirements, it would ensure that consideration for the environment remained the winner in all certificates issued.
“You will be amazed to find out that most of the developments you see around do not meet or have EIA. Both government and the private sector are culpable in this regard,”  he said.
Alonge, while citing the example of the Centenary City project, noted that the developers were yet to meet the requirements for the issuance of the EIA to enable them commence the project but said the ministry had to give them an interim certificate to enable the developers access funds and other facilities so that investors would not be discouraged.