By Felicia Imohimi
The Nigeria Environmental Society (NES) has urged the Federal Government to prioritise ecological challenges across the country to safeguard lives and property against flood disasters.
Dr Efegbidiki Okobia, National President of the society, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
Okobia, who described ecological issues as administrative challenge, was reacting to the burden of ecological challenge in the country and efforts of Ecological Project Office (EPO) in addressing the challenge.
He said the challenge had not received the desired attention from the Federal Government.
He appealed to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen. George Akume, to look at all ecological projects currently at his table and forward same to President Bola Tinubu for approval.
“Some of the projects are underground water issues and shore in Lagos, Delta; shore challenges in River State, Akwa-Ibom and all over the country.
“These projects are on his table; we should give them attention. It is time for the SGF to look at the issues. Government should be proactive in addressing ecological challenges.
“It is not political. It is for the betterment of the Nigerian people, and that is all that we deserve at this moment,” he said.
He added “we have a critical challenge as a country with regards to environmental issues.
“While we agree that ecological challenges are mostly common around the South-East, we find that environmental issues regarding ecological pollution, underground water and others, are across the geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
“It is unfortunate that projects on ecological challenges have not been given attention by the government of the day.
“There are funds available for ecological projects and government needs to give environmental issues more attention,” he said.
The president, who acknowledged funds allocated to EPO annually to cushion ecological challenges across board, cautioned that the environment would fight back at the country’s failure to ensure judicious utilisation of such funds.
According to him, once the environment fights back at us, whatever investments we are doing as a people, as a country, will be wasted at the end of the day.
He frowned at the growing pattern of flood incidents across the country leading to loss of lives, properties, health challenges and displaced families.
Okobia, who described the menace as a huge loss to the country, attributed the challenge to poor attention of the Federal Government to ecological challenges.
Okobia, who cited the Lagdo Dam issue from Cameroon specifically, said that the Federal Government and Cameroon reached an agreement in 1970s to construct the dam.
He, however, said “while Cameroon completed the Lagdo Dam project in 1982, Nigeria did not complete the building of Dasin Hausa Dam.
“We have had two scenarios of flood. A major flood incident in 2012 from the Lagdo Dam and in 2022 another major flood.
“We do not know when the next one will happen.
“So, this is just sheer negligence and the government not prioritising issues that have to do with the environment because the flood affected over 30 states and lives were lost, families were displaced.
“So, it is a huge loss to us as a country. We should be able to manage this appropriately.”
The president urged state governments to wake up to the realities of ecological challenges ravaging the country.
NAN reports that environmental experts have alerted to worsening environmental degradation in South-South region and urged all tiers of governments to ensure proper utilisation of ecological funds to address the growing crisis.
They attributed the region’s challenges to both natural and human activities.
NAN reports that more than N109.5 billion ecological fund was disbursed between July 2023 and December 2025 across the 36 states to mitigate ecological challenges particularly flooding.
Between 2022 and 2023, a total of N39.62 billion was disbursed among 36 states of the federation.
Efforts to reach the management of EPO on how ecological funds allocated to the office are being utilised proved abortive.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Gregg Mmaduakolam/Ekemini Ladejobi
