Honourable Bolaji Oyeleye is the Commissioner for Environment in Ogun
State. He speaks with Doyin Adeoye on the works of the ministry,
especially ahead of the state’s 40th anniversary.
What has the ministry put in place ahead of the state’s 40th anniversary?
Ogun state will turn 40 by February 3 and the state government is planning to launch some of its projects that she has done from the first term till the second term of this administration. So talking about the environment as it affects the anniversary, we have been up and doing in the ministry because the environment touches practically everyone and everywhere. So, we are ensuring that we have a clean and safe environment even as we celebrate.
How has the ministry fared over the years?
We’ve done quite a lot and we are still doing more, because the environment is such that we cannot do it all; it is an ongoing process. Just like we live daily, the environment has to be taken care of daily as well. We have been able to make a lot of moves in the area of waste management, our cities are cleaner. And the ministry have also been able to put in place laws that will ensure that our people comply with the way the environment is meant to be. We’ve made laws on the way they dispose their waste, as well as laws that have to do with tree planting. So we’ve done a lot on improving the aesthetics of the city, especially on going green.
If you had to prioritise environmental issues in the state and Nigeria as a whole, what would that be?
From the function of the job I have taken as the Commissioner for Environment, I will say waste management, because everyone generates waste. There is the municipal waste and industrial waste. So people still need to be oriented on the proper ways to dispose their waste and on how to take care of their immediate environment. After that, we still have to reach out to our industries as well, because their activities impact on the environment as well. They will have to comply with best practices in the way they run their plants and industries, so as to reduce water and air pollution to the barest minimum.
Ogun State is one of the few environmental conscious states in the nation, what strategies do you put in place to ensure this?
We have done quite a lot in terms of advocacy and enlightenment for our people. But I will like to say that her Excellency, the wife of the state governor, Mrs Olufunso Amosun has also contributed immensely to our achievement on environmental issues.
She launched the Green Education for the Youth (GEFTY) initiative which has to do with young children in schools, where she has sponsored through the project a number of students abroad. The sponsored children were picked across the nation, so it wasn’t just restricted to Ogun State. So that is an initiative that we are proud to talk about.
And also from the ministry, we plan to have advocacy in schools, to educate our students on how to keep the environment clean and safe because if we fail to take care of the environment, we might not have anywhere to stay at the end of the day. That is why it is important for us to keep emphasising the imperativeness of being conscious of our environment, especially to our young children, so they could imbibe the right environmental practices from a very young age.
What is the state doing to cut down on its gas emissions, as that is the global focus now?
The Ogun State Environmental Protection Agency is going to come out with a number of regulations to ensure that we key into that. Alongside that, we intend to make our monitoring and enforcement team very virile and active, so that they will be able to police the nooks and crannies of the state against every potential source of pollutants, gas emissions inclusive. So basically, we intend to be on top of our game as regards monitoring all industrial, manufacturing, commercial and hospitality facilities in the state.
Also at the COP 21 event that held in France in December, 2015, we had a side show where his Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun engaged investors on the 108,000 hectares reforestation project in the state. This is a project we are keenly interested in making sure that it happens. We are presently partnering with a multinational, Lafarge Holcim. So we were in France to talk about the project and to ensure that more investors buy into the project. The project apart from helping us to reclaim the deforested land will also serve as regional carbon sink belt.
The state carried out a tree-planting exercise when GEFTY was launched in 2013. How has it been monitoring and keeping up with this?
It is something we do annually, especially in line with the Tree Planting Day. So we intend to keep up with this. Maybe sometime later in the year, we will have to do that. In addition, all our medians and side roads are to be landscaped and adorned with both ornamental shrubs, shade providing tress and lush green grasses.
Many states are coming up with various waste recycling projects, especially in the area of waste conversion to energy. Is this also the same for Ogun?
We are at that point where we are doing a reorganisation of waste management. We intend sometime later this year to launch the Private Sector Participation (PSP) in waste management at which point we will call private investors to come and participate in waste management in the state.
Hitherto, it has been the exclusive duty of the government to manage waste in our major cities: Ifo, Ota, Ijebu-Ode, Sagamu, Mowe, Ibafo and Abeokuta. We have been responsible for waste management, but we’ve seen that this is not sustainable in the long run because it is more or less like a drain pipe in the resources of the governments, so we are bringing in PSP in waste management very soon. And that point, we will be able to talk about waste to energy. We are trying to get the connections right first, but presently we are discussing with quite a number of companies that have shown interest in establishment of biomass thermal plant, which is clean energy, in the state. Very soon, all these efforts will become visible.
Looking backwards and forward, where do you think the environment movement is headed?
It is something that I am passionate about and I believe that with our concerted efforts; the government and the people, we should be able to push this project, which is our environment, to a state where we can have a clean, safe and better environment. Accomplishments of this will no doubt dove-tail into our having fewer worries on health challenges and health related issues.
Some of the things that propelled the Lassa fever outbreak is the way we have been managing our environment; it has to do with waste, because waste basically is what attracts rats. So if we have a clean environment, we will have less health challenges, that is basically what we are looking at, to be able to push the tempo to a level where we will have a better environment.
The state recently closed and reopened some markets, do you think the essence of doing this was felt by the market people?
It was something we had to do and that speaks to the issue of enforcement. We had to do that because they were not complying with the directives given to them. They were told not to dispose their wastes indiscriminately; they were told to keep their waste by the side of the road and not on the median. They were also to observe the hours of 7.00 am to 10.00 am every Thursday for Sanitation Exercise to clean up their environment. Their continued flouting of this directive led to the untidiness of the market area and surroundings which poses health risk and danger to public health and well being beside the aesthetic concerns. So that was why we had to move in to close those markets and ensure that the needful was done and is still being done. With steps like that, the environment has been cleaner and they have been following the rules and regulations given, especially in the way they manage their waste.
Ogun state will turn 40 by February 3 and the state government is planning to launch some of its projects that she has done from the first term till the second term of this administration. So talking about the environment as it affects the anniversary, we have been up and doing in the ministry because the environment touches practically everyone and everywhere. So, we are ensuring that we have a clean and safe environment even as we celebrate.
How has the ministry fared over the years?
We’ve done quite a lot and we are still doing more, because the environment is such that we cannot do it all; it is an ongoing process. Just like we live daily, the environment has to be taken care of daily as well. We have been able to make a lot of moves in the area of waste management, our cities are cleaner. And the ministry have also been able to put in place laws that will ensure that our people comply with the way the environment is meant to be. We’ve made laws on the way they dispose their waste, as well as laws that have to do with tree planting. So we’ve done a lot on improving the aesthetics of the city, especially on going green.
If you had to prioritise environmental issues in the state and Nigeria as a whole, what would that be?
From the function of the job I have taken as the Commissioner for Environment, I will say waste management, because everyone generates waste. There is the municipal waste and industrial waste. So people still need to be oriented on the proper ways to dispose their waste and on how to take care of their immediate environment. After that, we still have to reach out to our industries as well, because their activities impact on the environment as well. They will have to comply with best practices in the way they run their plants and industries, so as to reduce water and air pollution to the barest minimum.
Ogun State is one of the few environmental conscious states in the nation, what strategies do you put in place to ensure this?
We have done quite a lot in terms of advocacy and enlightenment for our people. But I will like to say that her Excellency, the wife of the state governor, Mrs Olufunso Amosun has also contributed immensely to our achievement on environmental issues.
She launched the Green Education for the Youth (GEFTY) initiative which has to do with young children in schools, where she has sponsored through the project a number of students abroad. The sponsored children were picked across the nation, so it wasn’t just restricted to Ogun State. So that is an initiative that we are proud to talk about.
And also from the ministry, we plan to have advocacy in schools, to educate our students on how to keep the environment clean and safe because if we fail to take care of the environment, we might not have anywhere to stay at the end of the day. That is why it is important for us to keep emphasising the imperativeness of being conscious of our environment, especially to our young children, so they could imbibe the right environmental practices from a very young age.
What is the state doing to cut down on its gas emissions, as that is the global focus now?
The Ogun State Environmental Protection Agency is going to come out with a number of regulations to ensure that we key into that. Alongside that, we intend to make our monitoring and enforcement team very virile and active, so that they will be able to police the nooks and crannies of the state against every potential source of pollutants, gas emissions inclusive. So basically, we intend to be on top of our game as regards monitoring all industrial, manufacturing, commercial and hospitality facilities in the state.
Also at the COP 21 event that held in France in December, 2015, we had a side show where his Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun engaged investors on the 108,000 hectares reforestation project in the state. This is a project we are keenly interested in making sure that it happens. We are presently partnering with a multinational, Lafarge Holcim. So we were in France to talk about the project and to ensure that more investors buy into the project. The project apart from helping us to reclaim the deforested land will also serve as regional carbon sink belt.
The state carried out a tree-planting exercise when GEFTY was launched in 2013. How has it been monitoring and keeping up with this?
It is something we do annually, especially in line with the Tree Planting Day. So we intend to keep up with this. Maybe sometime later in the year, we will have to do that. In addition, all our medians and side roads are to be landscaped and adorned with both ornamental shrubs, shade providing tress and lush green grasses.
Many states are coming up with various waste recycling projects, especially in the area of waste conversion to energy. Is this also the same for Ogun?
We are at that point where we are doing a reorganisation of waste management. We intend sometime later this year to launch the Private Sector Participation (PSP) in waste management at which point we will call private investors to come and participate in waste management in the state.
Hitherto, it has been the exclusive duty of the government to manage waste in our major cities: Ifo, Ota, Ijebu-Ode, Sagamu, Mowe, Ibafo and Abeokuta. We have been responsible for waste management, but we’ve seen that this is not sustainable in the long run because it is more or less like a drain pipe in the resources of the governments, so we are bringing in PSP in waste management very soon. And that point, we will be able to talk about waste to energy. We are trying to get the connections right first, but presently we are discussing with quite a number of companies that have shown interest in establishment of biomass thermal plant, which is clean energy, in the state. Very soon, all these efforts will become visible.
Looking backwards and forward, where do you think the environment movement is headed?
It is something that I am passionate about and I believe that with our concerted efforts; the government and the people, we should be able to push this project, which is our environment, to a state where we can have a clean, safe and better environment. Accomplishments of this will no doubt dove-tail into our having fewer worries on health challenges and health related issues.
Some of the things that propelled the Lassa fever outbreak is the way we have been managing our environment; it has to do with waste, because waste basically is what attracts rats. So if we have a clean environment, we will have less health challenges, that is basically what we are looking at, to be able to push the tempo to a level where we will have a better environment.
The state recently closed and reopened some markets, do you think the essence of doing this was felt by the market people?
It was something we had to do and that speaks to the issue of enforcement. We had to do that because they were not complying with the directives given to them. They were told not to dispose their wastes indiscriminately; they were told to keep their waste by the side of the road and not on the median. They were also to observe the hours of 7.00 am to 10.00 am every Thursday for Sanitation Exercise to clean up their environment. Their continued flouting of this directive led to the untidiness of the market area and surroundings which poses health risk and danger to public health and well being beside the aesthetic concerns. So that was why we had to move in to close those markets and ensure that the needful was done and is still being done. With steps like that, the environment has been cleaner and they have been following the rules and regulations given, especially in the way they manage their waste.
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