By Bukola Afeni
The Senate President, Mr. Godswill Akpabio has commended the Ecological Project Office (EPO) for its numerous interventions on ecological problems across the country even as he promised that the National Assembly will assist the office in whatever way to improve the funding of its project implementations.
He made the remarks at an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Ecology and Climate Change at the National Assembly on Thursday.
The Senate President said the interaction was timely at a time the world is focusing on climate change in all its ramifications.
“We are very proud to have the ecological office under the Presidency and specifically in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, you have intervened in a lot of projects.” he stated.
Akpabio, acknowledged the general problem of funding affecting project implementation in the country, stating that it affects virtually all sectors of the government including the National Assembly and promised to assist the office to enable it do more.
The Senate President advised the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Project Office, Malam Ibrahim Shehu to prioritize its projects and apply an urgency selection procedure in determining project implementation. According to him, “put urgency above your data collection, let the project execution be based on its urgency especially those that affect lives”.
He hailed the Permanent Secretary for informing that the office is considering seeking international partnership to support government efforts and expand the scope of its interventions.
Akpabio also stated that the idea of seeking foreign aids, grants or support resonates with his feeling on improving funding to the office.
Senate Chairman on Ecology and Climate Change, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson had earlier informed that the invitation to the interactive session with the office was to know the issues it was grappling with, bring the leadership of the Senate up to speed and to get its buy in.
He added that the Senate is also keen on knowing the issues that affect climate change in Nigeria and to ensuring that the various approaches in mitigating them aligns with international best practices.
In his briefing to the Committee, the Permanent Secretary, EPO, Malam Shehu Ibrahim, highlighted the mandate of the office, explaining its focus in project interventions that cuts across the geopolitical spread of the country, including requests from traditional institutions, communities, elected representatives and federal institutions amongst others.
With a total no of 304 projects completed from 2015 to date and over 49 on-going, Malam Ibrahim observed that public misconceptions about the office was one of its major challenge as some Nigerians are yet to understand that the office is an interventionist office with funds for the projects not being domiciled with the office.
He also identified the dwindling resources as affecting much of its proposed intervention efforts with over 5000 requests currently in its data bank as well as the general insecurity factor.
The Permanent Secretary also stressed the need for collaboration with the states and the local government areas to tackle the issues together, the need to attract foreign funding to expand the scope of intervention and the exit management strategy of maintanence of the project after completion and handing over to the benefitting communities.
The Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof Mansur Bako Matazu and representative of the Hon Minister of Environment, both spoke on their separate mandates including the adaptation and mitigation of climate change , expressing commitments of the federal government to reducing green house gases in line with the United Nation’s mandate on climate change.
The Senate President was presented with a copy of the Compendium of the Ecological Projects (2015- 2022). He was accompanied to the session by other members of the Senate leadership and members of the committee while the Permanent Secretary was also accompanied by the Directors in the office.