By Adams MUSA-ZEKERI.
Lately, Kogi residents as well as stakeholders in the sustainable development of Kogi have been inundated with the brouhaha of the mobile courts charging for sanitation violations in the state.
Reference can be made to the report on Kogi reports titled; “Sanitation: Mobile Court Convicts 22 Offenders in Kogi” and similar topics like this.
Alas! This is a good move but it must be vehemently buttressed that in a poor state like Kogi, instead of wasting ample time on meager charges such as 200 Naira fines up to 2,500 Naira, the laws governing environmental sanitation should be reviewed. From the aforementioned charges, it is glaring that the said amounts cannot even purchase a cutlass for grass cutting not to mention being beneficial to the state’s ministry of environment. It is therefore ridiculing to waste energies on issues like this and indirectly shows that it has been ages since the constitution governing waste management has been reviewed.
Not withstanding, it must be buttressed that the Ministry of Environment and Natural resources is effortlessly working but much avant-garde approaches must be swiftly adopted for we cannot continue embracing a 20th century blueprint for a contemporary society in a world ricocheting at neck-breaking pace in development.
Violators of stated laws should simply be made to pay reasonable fines and freed. There are numerous lots of avenues for Internally Generating Revenues which the state’s ministry of environment must tap into. Also environmental sustainability campaigns, reorientation and awareness campaigns should be taken to the grass roots and markets. Residents need to be duly informed about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its relation to environmental sustainability.
Without demerit, encouraging Imitating the Lagos State ministry of environment’s patterns of effectively managing 255,556 tonnes of solid waste per month (according to Ogwueleka, 2009) and generates impeccable IGRs from municipal waste would be an impeccable move just as being emulated by a couple of states in Nigeria.
Also, according to the World Bank Group’s Report; February, 2017; “Nigerian states needs to diversify its approach to resource recovery”. Thus, Kogi needs to also tap and harness the potentials of effective contractual aspect towards Solid Waste Management (SWM). Kogi State is not an exception in this regards and most especially in times like this in a bid to champion sustainable development in North-central Nigeria.
– Adams MUSA-ZEKERI is an Environmental Sustainability Practitioner, a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) advocate, and a Youth representative of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Youth (SDSN-Youth) in Nigeria.
He can be reached via adamu.musaz@sdsnyouth.org. and followed online via @MuzekNigeria
