‘Nigeria needs environment master plan’

The President, Environmental Management Association of Nigeria (EMAN), Dr. Emmanuel Ating, has said the country needs an environmental management master plan to drive efforts aimed at addressing the myriad of challenges facing the sector.
Ating said: “The central focus of environmental management is the well being of man and the environment without frustrating development.”
He spoke at the 2015 National Environmental Management Conference organised by the association in Abuja, stressing that little or no success could be achieved in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) recently converted to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), without focusing on an effective environmental management system especially for the benefit of future generations.
He said the master plan was needed to perform the various functions, guide and steer the nation’s environmental processes so as to attain sustainable development.
“The non-adherence to environmental management standards is a clear invitation and birth of unsustainable programmes and processes. Most of our environmental problems are caused by either lack of appropriate standards for environment or non-adherence to those standards,” he added.
Also speaking, National University Commission (NUC), Executive
Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie, said the knowledge of environmental management is key to ensure sustainable development.
He called for massive environmental awareness in all schools at all levels, stressing that universities in the country began academic curricula activity on the environment in 1976.
“The 21st century saw the rapid growth of environmental management education in Nigerian universities, as 11 additional universities got NUC approval at the undergraduate level, bringing the total number of me to 16,” Okojie said.
The ES, represented by Mr. Lawal Muhammad, asked for more investment in environmental management education in the nation’s universities.
He said, this would provide more manpower to address environmental issues in the country.
The Chairman, Mr Obinna Chidoka,House of Representatives Committee on Environment has assured Nigerians that it will tackle the country’s environmental challenges through extant laws.
Chidoka said that for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved, the links between the environment and development must be examined.
He said: “For sustainable development to be achieved, links between the environment and development must be examined.”
Adding, Chidoka said: “It is important not to lose sight of the end point of development which is human beings.
“Government might well be committed to the objectives, policies and mechanisms for achieving sustainable development, but it will take the commitment and genuine involvement of all stakeholders to make this goal a reality.”