Environment Minister seeks collaboration on plastic waste-free Nigeria
Minister of Federal Ministry of Environment Balarabe Abbas Lawal , on Thursday 25th January 2024 received on a hybrid visit, a team from the Global Plastic Action Partnership with its Nigeria National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP).
While receiving the visitors, Mallam Lawal who sits as the Chairman of NPAP’s Steering Board, said that he was happy to be a part of the initiative that holds the promise a clean, healthy and safe environment.
While delivering his remarks, the Minister described the effort as long overdue, stressing its importance as it is was central to the discussion when the Ministry constituted the Circular Economy Committee during the Top Management Retreat of the Federal Ministry of Environment held in Kaduna recently.
The Minister announced that His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is very keen on a plastic waste-free Nigeria and the Federal Government will work assiduously with both local and international stakeholders in getting the buy-in of all other critical stakeholders, particularly at the subnational level, to ensure that Nigeria’s environment is free from plastic waste while a culture of recycling practices is put in place.
“I am very happy with this initiative. This is so important to me because I have always been an advocate for cleaning our environment of plastic. Plastic is a serious menace, and as Minister of Environment, this worries me. We will work very hard to establish ways to turn plastic waste into beneficial products for our society. But there is no way we can do this without getting our communities to understand the dangers of plastic waste. This is why I strongly support the strategy of planning with the people rather than planning for them. This should be the beginning. We should work every day, every hour and every minute to clean up Nigeria of plastic,” Mallam Lawal said.
