Jonathan Asked To Sanction Minister Of Environment

A member of the Hose of Representatives representing Epe federal constituency, Lanre Odubote has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to sanction the Minister of Environment, Hajia Hadiza Ibrahim Mailaifia for her nonchalant attitude towards the recent ocean surge in Lagos.

The Lawmaker made the call in a statement made available to Political Platform.

The statement reads: “The Atlantic Ocean surge that occurred in Lagos on Saturday 18 August, 2012 claimed not less than 16 citizens of Nigeria who are residents in the area.

“It is lamentable that more than 10 days after the surge, Hadiza Mailafia has not thought it fit to express sympathy with families of those affected by the surge. The minister who is always claiming to have passion as a mother has been silent over the surge. Where does her sense of motherhood lies?

“It is even more unfortunate that the minister has not visited the area affected by the surge which is clearly a result of climate change. This is a gross dereliction of her ministerial duties.

“The failure of the minister to visit the area affected by the surge has demonstrated that she does not understand the enormity of the assignment given to her as Minister of Environment. If a minister, who has spent hundreds of millions of Nigeria’s money to fly around the whole world to attend both important and spurious conferences could not take the immediate impact of climate change in her country serious, then President Goodluck should look no further why his administration is not achieving its set goals.

“Climate Change is a topical, frontline issue globally now and Nigeria cannot tackle the problem by continuous mere attendance of international meetings and conferences by the minister and officials of government.

“Since Nigeria has continued to attend these conferences, the ministry has not been able to come up with concrete measures to tackle the impact of climate change which has now started manifesting in Nigeria.

“If Ocean surge of the magnitude that happened in Lagos could not attract the attention of the Federal Government through the Ministry of Environment, then the earlier we scrapped the ministry, the better.

“We would like to remind the minister that Lagos is the hub of the Nigeria’s economy and as such, she should have shown more commitment to the issue of Environmental danger as happened recently,” he stated.

—Jamiu Yisa