By Musa Ubandawaki (Sokoto State Correspondent)
The indispensability of the environment in driving development and advancement of any given society prompted the 3rd National Colloquium to convene a virtual online National Colloquium with the theme “Sustainable Environment as a Critical Enabler of National Development".
The participants to the colloquium were drawn from all nooks and crannies of Nigeria, overseas and erudite scholars, and discussants.
According to a communiqué made available to journalists by the chairman of the drafting committee Mr. Sammani Idris Kaura, participants agreed during the Presentation and Discussion, that Sustainability is the paradigm for thinking about the future in which environmental, societal, and economic considerations are balanced.
The Communique further elaborated that the desire of every government is to attain higher levels of development that will be of benefit to its citizenry.
"The national development is very comprehensive; it involves all aspects of the life of an individual and nation. It includes full-growth and expansion of our industries, agriculture, education, social, religious and cultural institutions", stated the communique.
Also in the communique, the ability to harness resources in a sustainable manner for the benefit of the citizens will result in National development.
The communique explained that Government is doing a considerable lot to address environmental challenges, but there is a need however to do more as other African countries already have long-term plans for a sustainable environment through renewable energy intervention initiatives.
"The climate change challenges which are already evident must be integrated into our national development agenda", the communique stated.
It was disclosed in the communique that the Nigerian Government ratified the 2016 Paris Climate change accord as part of measures to surmount the change in climate and it's challenges.
'There must be a balance between resources extraction, utilization, and environment management to attain sustainable development." Says the communique.
They called for the Integration of resources utilization and technology for mitigation of the environmental impact of resources extraction, which was greatly intensified in the communique.
Another key factor to fight climate change based on the communique is the need to promote best environmental practices in our day-to-day activities and integrate elements of environmental sustainability in our programs and projects.
It was also stated that any development does not impact both the present and future generations is not considered sustainable.
"The impact of floods experienced in many parts of the country which is due to climate change has a significant effect on food security of the country".
Is however stated in the communique that, the shrinkage of Lake Chad and desertification has had an adverse impact on rural-urban migration and security challenges currently experienced in some parts of the country.
The measures taken by the Federal Government to eliminate gas flaring in Nigeria through the National Gas Flare Commercialization Programme (NGFCP) was noted as a key milestone in addressing the environmental impact from flaring.
The environmental degradations have resulted in significant social and economic effects leading to involuntary migrations and upsets in demography and resource availability.
The communique appreciates the adoption of green energy solutions by some SMEs to overcome the environmental pollution challenges.
It was pointed out that SME’s are drivers of the economy and key sources of pollution, therefore use of low-cost greener sources of energy in their oper/Recommendation Synergy between political office holders and administrative leaders: the political champions should build support for administrative leadership initiatives for engendering sustainability measures in all development process.
It was recommended that the Convener and Organizers of the colloquium should consider sustaining the National Colloquium annually, explore other topical issues and involve wider stakeholders for greater impact in the conversations towards deepening Nigeria’s development. NNL.
