ENVIRONMENT MINISTER'S BIGGEST HEADACHE

It was her turn to brief the president. So Hajia Hadiza Mailafia, honourable minister of environment, briefed the president. And it was about her ministry’s performance so far in 2012. She briefed Nigerians, too, on that occasion. No one would have blinked if she had not accused her listeners wholesale; and it is a pattern here. The last time students failed their secondary school-leaving examinations in large number, the then minister of state for education said classroom teachers would henceforth be held responsible. Others are always the problem, never the politicians who often come to office without a clear view of what the problems are, a vision of what they intend to do about them, and never with the will to get officials under them to do what they are paid to do.

In the face of deadly flooding witnessed across the country this year, the minister of environment said Nigerians are the major culprits because they have not inculcated the right habit towards their environment. They conduct themselves in such a way that they block water courses which results in the devastations witnessed so far in almost every part of the country. To the minister therefore, this is the greatest challenge her ministry confronts as it makes effort to tackle environmental problems. Well, the minister has a point, and in a way. Nigerians may sometimes be guilty of doing things as they please, and not what pleases the government. Send an official to a neighbourhood over wrong wiring of electric cables, tapping electricity illegally, and residents may start to throw curses, threatening to give the daring official the beating of his life. Ask people to relocate from places where they have no official permission to start a market or build houses, and they call down the Maker of heaven and earth on a government that is so wicked that it doesn’t sympathize with their plight. This is the only country where people engage in illegal activities and expect the government to be emotional, not legalistic, about it as they are.

That said. There is always a simple question this writer asks, anytime officials move into neighbourhoods with bulldozers for a show of force. And there is another question, when officials that should ensure low quality goods do not enter the country go to market stalls to harass hapless retailers. Where were the officials, for instance, when one person designated a sales spot for himself, long before hundreds of other sellers joined him to turn the same spot into a thriving market. Where were government officials when one person builds the first house in a valley, a valley set aside in the master plan because when rain turns to flooding, the valley is where it pours its excess. Where was that officer who is paid to ensure it does not happen, when the first person laid the foundation of his house so close to a river, long before dozens of others joined him to lay theirs? This writer walked past someone who must have been a local council official, or an agent, while he sweet-talked a woman into buying a piece of land next to a river. He had measured the land he wanted to sell, counting with his feet as he turned this way and that way, stopping less than ten feet to the edge of the actively flowing river. That first house was built, and more houses had joined it in the last five years. Today, the few feet of riverbank is gone, and flood has been washing away the foundations of these houses, their owners losing the battle they wage using sandbags. Danger is imminent for these residents, just as incidences have shown in places like Plateau State where the wife and six children of one man were washed away while they slept.

There is this angle to the entire environmental problem in this nation that makes the minister’s dissection of the matter too simple. It is simple in the sense that flooding is just one of the major environmental problems the nation has on its hands. Nigerians can pray, as they normally do, that the rains should stop, along with the flooding. And the rains would always stop when its season was over, of course. And politicians in government? They remember to talk about flooding when the rains come, when flooding exposes the ineptitude that pervades government offices. So like people that are bent on living in flood- prone places, they are equally at ease when the rains are gone. It is no wonder that when the minister of environment showed up before the president, flooding was an issue she took on; at least, it was what she told the public she took on. And so she should. But there are more serious, more permanent environmental problems. There are those caused by the activities in production factories especially in cities. And there is the oil pollution of the Niger Delta.

When an oil company released gas into water near Koluama in Bayelsa State not long ago, polluting water, killing fishes, even one of the sons of the soil was there showering praises on the community elders who did not carry placards and protest. That, at a time youth in Koluama were becoming restless over the same issue. The UNEP report on Ogoni where land and water have been destroyed is yet to be implemented one year after the president gave the order. What oil companies did over the last five decades of their operations in that region, and for which UNEP has objectively apportioned blames to oil companies was not the fault of the people, was it? The manner politicians refuse to ask questions as though they are tied to the strings of oil companies, many of which don’t bother to implement outcomes of environmental impact assessments, is alarming. Lately, a South American nation stopped further oil explorations when the environment of some of its citizens was polluted. In Nigeria, politicians pat the back of companies that want to go into oil exploration in the same areas where massive pollution has occurred. Some people have been selling this nation because the price is right.

And there is another issue that may help out in all of the headaches that the environment ministry has. To what extent has the ministry been liaising with states and local governments that are primarily responsible for ensuring safe environment for Nigerians. It won’t come as a surprise if the ministry has been going to places to execute projects that have no bearing on pressing local needs. It also the pattern here, even as one wonders how the federal government thinks environment issues at ministerial level is its business, not states. The point here is simple, the government shares more of the blame than the people it blames. And if politicians here want to be taken serious each time they address the public, it is important they drop this mentality of giving excuses, shifting blames away from themselves, to being proactive when it comes to tackling problems that are their responsibility in the first place. Ensuring compliance, rather than blaming citizens for non-compliance with laid down rules, is one of the foremost duties of any responsible government, isn’t it?

Written By Tunji Ajibade
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