“As we celebrate World Health Day we need to appreciate those who constantly act to help preserve the planet we all mostly take for granted and in Nigeria, there are few champions more dedicated to the cause than Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.”
This is the view of Ojo-Awo Nicholas a Doctoral candidate of Geography at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, when he appeared as a guest on Silverbird Television’s special program celebrating the United Nation’s designated day for Honoring Mother Earth.
Mr. Ojo-Awo stated that it is rare to find politicians push for environmental accountability as Professor Osinbajo does. “Despite being the most important piece in President Buhari’s infrastructure driven administration, Prof. Osinbajo believes that neither development nor sustainability needs to be sacrificed upon the altar of the other and that is why a lot of the policies in the Economic Sustainability plan are directed towards reducing our carbon footprint”
Some of these policies as he pointed out to Mr. Sharma, the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, includes the recent push towards the conversion of vehicles to cleaner gas – Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, and also conversion to Liquified Petroleum Gas, LPG, for cooking. Others within the ongoing Economic Sustainability Plan, are 5 million solar systems to be installed across the country demonstrating the country’s commitment to renewable energy.
Nigeria’s support and commitment to the Paris Agreement, is not in doubt, Mr. Ojo-Awo continued, but as Prof. Osinbajo explained “Nigeria’s concern is what happens to oil and gas emissions like ours during the transition period” leading to the Net Zero emissions target, a position he still reiterated to President Joe Biden via a speech virtually delivered at the 2021 Johns Hopkins University’s African Studies Programme Conference, two days ago.
Mr. Ojo-Awo rounded up the segment by highlighting the impact of Prof. Osinbajo in the actualization of the commencement of the Ogoni clean up, an exercise that had been paid only lip service by previous administrations. “Not only was he instrumental in the realization of the start of the Ogoni clean-up project which he personally graced, his office has visited the sites where remediation of the soil and water is currently being undertaken.”
