Environment

A don, Prof. Christian Madu, has expressed worry over policy inconsistency on environmental issues affecting the country.

Madu, who is a Professor of Environment Management and Control with University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Monday.

He spoke on the sidelines of the ongoing massive felling of trees and deforestation across the country, as more Nigerians take to firewood and charcoal for energy for domestic use.

NAN reports that the recent development is a direct fall out of the rise in the price of kerosene to between N750 and N800, while a kilogramme of cooking gas has gone up to between N850 and N900 nationwide.

According to Madu, there are many reasons for the policy inconsistency in the environment sector in the country, stating, however, that the major problem is that government policies are not synchronised.

“We offer contradictory policies and practices at the various sub-national and departmental levels which are different from the central or national policy.

“It will take good leadership to look into how the different units of government can work to achieve a common goal on environmental issues.

“Right now, all the units operate as independent islands to achieve their respective agenda, to the detriment of the central unit or policy/goal,” he said.

The don noted that it was rather unfortunate that most locals were already resorting to heavy use of firewood and charcoal for cooking and other domestic energy needs.

He said that this latest development was depleting the nation’s forest resources and eco-system as well as endangering its trees.

“This is setting us back from all the campaign and sensitisation that many of us have concluded to encourage transition to the use of cooking gas as a cleaner energy alternative for the betterment of our environment,” he added. (NAN)

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