Spread the love
Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi has reaffirmed his commitment to a safe and sustainable environment to improve the lives of urban and slum dwellers within the state.
Bello gave the assurance at a two-day workshop on “UN-Habitat Urban Thinkers Campus Programme” in Lokoja on Friday.
The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, said a lot of improvements have been achieved in all sectors, particularly in environment within the past 15 months of the administration.
According to him, improving the lives of Urban and slum dwellers within Kogi state is one of the strategic focus of the government, and the convening of urban thinkers campus programme was a welcome development.
“We thank the UN-Habitat, Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and all other stakeholders; we want to assure you that this government is committed to delivering the target of the New Direction Blueprint.
“You can be assured of our strong political will and commitment to ensure the realisation of those mutual growth, and at end of the day we shall celebrate our success with your input.
“The selection of four cities in Kogi out of the 74 cities in the world to receive special attention couldn’t have come at a better time. Kogi is doing a lot of improvement and advancement which are unprecedented in the history of the state for past 25 years,” Bello said.
In her remarks, Dr Limota Giwa, the Convener of Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC) Programme in Nigeria, said the aim was to bring key urban stakeholders together to exchange views and ideas on the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda.
According to her, the program gives room for panel discussions on the role of government in the implementation of new urban agenda, in the post-Habitat III era. It also consolidate what urban planners have achieved in urban planning in the world.
Giwa named the selected five States in Nigeria to include Lagos, Katsina, Kogi (Lokoja, Kabba, Okene and Dekina), Kwara and Rivers States.
Mrs Bimbo Osobe, a Representative of Slum Dwellers International (SDI), said that the only way to have sustainable cities was for government and the UN-Habitat to carry the slum dwellers along in the urban development programme.
“We are the grassroots, we know how to go about everything because it is a participatory work, and the people at the grassroots need to associate with government for the projects to work effectively.
“We are coming together as slum dwellers to develop our communities so that our dignity should not be stepped upon. We are asking government to partner by giving us ‘Security of Tenure’, so that we can have structures that will not be demolished by government, ” Osobe said.
In her paper presentation, entitled: “City Resilience and Youths in 21st Century”, Mrs Ladi Jatto, said rapid growth without efforts to boost resilience would expose most cities around the world to huge risks.
Jatto, who is the State Project Cordinator of Nigeria Erosion Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), said it was a known fact that the population of most cities was growing at a geometric progression as against the human supporting capacity available.
She therefore, called for urgent need to start building cities resilient to disasters so that people could live well and handover a befitting environment to the youths, where all sectors and political system would be functioning.
Credits: Stephen Adeleye | NAN
Spread the love
