Reps to host national summit on environment

The House of Representatives is to organize a three-day national summit as a prelude to the formulation of a legislative framework to protect the environmental.

While Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is expected to declare open the event slated to last from October 3-5, 2017 in Abuja, representatives of the German and US governments as well as notable development partners and other stakeholders have expressed interest in attending the conference.

Chairman, House Committee on Environment, Rep. Obinna Chidoka, who underscored the importance of the summit, informed journalists on Monday, that the need to take proactive steps in developing appropriate environmental laws and policy for Nigeria considering its position in the comity of nations informed the holding of the summit.

“We are very conscious of the grave threats posed by such issues as global warming, climate change, desertification, oil spillage, erosion, estate management and gas flaring.

“In the context of the House Committee on Environment, we realize the importance of ensuring that our legislative framework on environment is robust and comprehensive to sustain a virile policy framework for the environment governnave and management,” Chidoka said.

Coordinator of the summit, Oracle Nwala, disclosed that the Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari will take a tour of the exhibition pavilion along with foreign diplomats from the US, Germany, the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), European Union (EU), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), among others.

According to him, the German Ambassador to Nigeria, Bernhard Schlagheck, will chair the summit, adding that the planned exhibition and town hall meeting that will take place at the conference will afford industry players, policy makers, regulators and inventors the opportunity to validate their various interventions in protecting the environment as well as allow them interact and network with MDAs, international agencies and other participants who will be attending the summit.

Also he added that the World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Africa Region, Rachid Benmessaoud, had pledged the bank’s technical support in achieving the set objectives of the confab.

Similarly, the UNIDO representative to ECOWAS and Regional Director, Nigeria Regional Office, Jean Bakole, in a letter to the committee, applauded the intervention of the committee in addressing issues affecting the environment.

According to the UNIDO representative, the agency is “a specialized UN agency that promotes industrial development for poverty reduction, inclusive globalization and environmental sustainability.”