NAN-AE-6
Degradation
By Deji Abdulwahab
Abuja, June 7, 2017 (NAN) The Federal Government has called on stakeholders in the environment sector to tackle environmental degradation in order to sustain the environment in the country.
The Minister of State for Environment, Alhaji Ibrahim Jibril, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesdaywhile reacting to the theme of the 2017 World Environment Day entitled “Connecting People to Nature’’.
Cue in audio 1 (Jibril)
“We call on people to not only observe the world environment day today, but to do something positive that will turn around issues on environmental degradation so that we will have sustainable environment.’’
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Jibril expressed the ministry’s readiness to work closely with stakeholders and encourage them to complement Federal Government’s efforts at protecting the country’s environment.
Cue in audio 2 (Jibril)
“My expectation is to give them to collaborate and continue to participate and join hands together as partners in progress for the betterment of our environment.
“They can do a lot, they are doing a lot and they can do more. We will encourage and engage them.
“We will make sure that they are given all the necessary support to be sure that they move environment sector on the top agenda so that at the end of the day everybody in this country will know much more about environment.
“Our goal is that by the time we leave the Ministry of Environment in a year or two we will leave it in a better position in such a way that what has been built can only be carried on to greater height.’’
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Jibril stressed the need for stakeholders to take good care of the environment.
“Since God created the earth, He has not gone ahead to increase the size of the environment. But we have moved on, the population of the world is increasing at an alarming rate.
“We are over 7 billion and we are increasing yet the land remains fixed, that means we need to make sure that we take good care of our environment.
“Because once we destroy what we may not be able to rebuild, it will spell disaster and that is the last thing that we want to happen.’’
The minister said the World Environment Day which was inaugurated in 1970s was geared towards sensitising people on cause of harmful environmental practices to human life and health. (NAN)
ADA/LAB/YEE
Edited by Lydia Beshel/Emmanuel Yashim
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