Abuja – An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Mr Adewale Aderele, has urged the three tiers of government to take proactive measures in tackling environmental problems.
He made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.
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He said that the inability of government to put up adequate proactive measures to check human activities in the environment posed serious problems.
He added that the measures became imperative, especially in the Niger Delta region where gas flaring, erosion in the East and desert encroachment in the North,among others, called for government attention.
He emphasised that “proactive measures should be applied if we must achieve any success in cleansing our environment.
“Strong punitive measures also need to be adapted in case of oil spillage, for example; there should be minimum level of depth on all pipelines to prevent vandalism.
“There should also be deadline with which gas should be flared and any company that disobeys must not be allowed to operate until it complied.’’
The lawyer added that there were enough environmental laws in the country to tackle environmental problems but that the problem had been implementation, enforcement and compliance.
“The laws are sufficient but the political will is not there to tackle the challenges in the environment sector.
“We should take a cue from how America punished the BP (British Petroleum) in the Gulf of Mexico; the regulators stopped all operations until they were satisfied with the company’s cleansing.
“We should also in our own environment apply such measure.’’
He said efforts should be made to cleanse the environment, “especially in areas where the environmental decay is naked.”
Aderele noted that every state should look inward for its environmental problems and create bodies that would be responsible for compliance and punishment.
“Someone must be responsible and must carry out duties that will ensure environmental cleanliness and must punish those that go against the environmental laws.
“Everywhere, we have open sewage, blocked drains, indiscriminate dumping of refuse and unfriendly behaviours toward the environment.
“We are yet to see a Nigerian city that claims to have reached a high standard of cleanliness”.
The lawyer suggested that both professionals and skilled hands should be employed to tackle environmental issues, adding that there should be a time set for achievement of specific goals. (NAN)