Michael Olugbode in Abuja
The Director-General of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Prof. Aliyu Jauro, has lamented that paucity of fund is robbing the agency of the opportunity to give the country the optimum service.
Speaking during a media parley yesterday in Abuja, the DG said the appropriation of N370 million to the agency in the 2022 proposed budget is a far cry from what is required to perform optimally.
He lamented that the N370 milion which is for capital expenditure does not even take into consideration the huge overhead expenses that is required to run a big agency that has offices in 34 states and a headquarters with two referral laboratories and six zonal offices.
According to him, “We have large overhead, and it is hard to pay for this. But we have an IGR which is not big and we are judiciously using that.”
Jauro said some of the other challenges faced apart from insufficient funding and poor budgetary allocation for environmental compliance monitoring and enforcement programmes, included poor enforcement infrastructure; incessant delays of environmental crime cases in courts; poor adaptation of green technologies by the industry; multinational companies applying weaker operational standards in Nigeria different from their parent companies; and poor inter-agency cooperation and partnerships.
He noted that environmental issues were cross-cutting and affected all segments of the economy, insisting that sustainable development can only be achieved in an atmosphere of good environmental governance.
Jauro explained that: “Good environmental governance presupposes effective and adequate environmental compliance monitoring and enforcement mechanism to address environmental problems at all levels.
“NESREA will continue to ensure effective environmental governance through compliance monitoring and enforcement of environmental laws, standards and regulations. There is no hiding place for those who violate environmental laws of the land.”
He revealed that the agency is identifying and building viable partnerships at the country, sub-regional, regional and global levels on environment and environment-related issues; and in collaboration with all stakeholders, and with the full support of the minister and NESREA Governing Council, the agency would work to ensure a cleaner and healthier environment for all Nigerians.
