Clean Kwara: Govt Strategizes Through Community Engagements, Feedbacks

In its bid to ensure and sustain a cleaner Kwara, the State Ministry of Environment has drawn an 18-points new strategy to ensure easy communication with residents and communities in the State and welcome feedbacks through media and community engagements, electronic media jingles, customized caller tunes, invitations for discussions on environmental related issues on both radio and television stations to mention but a few.

The Commissioner for Environment, Hajia Nafisat Musa Buge stated this on Wednesday, while addressing the Press at the First Quarterly Inter-Ministerial Press briefing held at the conference hall of the Ministry of Finance, as organized by the Ministry of Communications in Ilorin.

Hajia Buge stressed that, the feat was accomplished with the unwavering support of the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who made available necessary tools to work with, enabling the Ministry to extend visitations to shops, eateries and markets, to monitor the level of compliance with the set standards of hygiene and to protect the general wellbeing of residents in the State.

"While on such visitations, shops or residences found contravening the environmental laws were usually sealed", she said.

Also, the monthly environmental sanitation exercise which was reviewed to hold between the hours of 7am to 10am were fully undertaken on monthly basis, meanwhile in the light of prevailing circumstances, "we often reviewed the strategies, in January, we had a full fledged exercise with full compliments of 17 mobile courts manned by competent magistrates deployed in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice. In the February and March exercises, vehicular movements were allowed due to applicants seeking employment through the Kwara State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) who wrote the Computer-Based Test (CBT) and Eid-el-Fitr festivities, respectively.

"The take home of our sweepers numbering 350 engaged within the Metropolis was increased and they were also provided with additional implements (like brooms, plastic brushes, packers, medium sized bins etc.) to enhance their performance. They were also given reflective jackets, 'C-Caution' sign to enhance visibility while working on major roads to avert injury or accidental knock down by reckless drivers", she added.

She mentioned the successful official handover of Kampe Forestry to the Federal Government as Kampe Game Reserve through the Federal Ministry of Environment for the implementation of the Presidential declaration on the upgrading of 10 Game Reserves in the country to National Parks with Kwara inclusive, which led to the constitution and inauguration of a transition steering committee to enhance the successful handing over of the forestry by His Excellency, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, represented by His Excellency, Elder Kayode Alabi, the Deputy Governor of Kwara State to the Minister of Environment, Mallam Balarabe Abbas Lawal, who was represented by the Conservator General of the National Park Services, Mallam Ibrahim Goni on the 4th of February, 2025 in Ilorin.

Speaking further, she said as part of strategies to ensure forest regeneration and compliance with the rules guiding the practices of the foresters, forests in the State were closed in January of this year and were reopened conditionally this month after meeting with necessary key stakeholders in the forestry industries.

In her presentation during the briefing, Hajia Buge noted that on the revenue generation in the State, the Ministry has improved this through sales of medium sized waste bins in collaboration with the Kwara Environmental Protection Agency (KWEPA), ensuring payment of dues, fines paid by violators of environmental laws and the recreational activities at the recently commissioned Flower Garden are all paid to the Kwara Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS).

She went further to explain that, the Ministry had a good collaboration with partners and stakeholders for community based interventions with relevant stakeholders which includes seamless project implementation of the World Bank supported Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project in desilting of drainage channels in preparation for the rainy season.

In her words, "As a responsive Ministry, upon receiving an alert from the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in preparation for the rainy season, the Ministry swung into action by desilting gutters and drainage channels to avert flooding in areas like Ode-Alfa Nda, Adabata, Mandate, Oja-Oba, Pakata, Kuntu areas to mention but a few.

"Also, we are working together with the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency to unravel the causes of the contamination of well water at the Ifelagba community along Akerebiata, Ilorin".

In her remarks, the Commissioner for Communications, Mrs Bola Olukoju, who is also the Chairperson of the Inter-Ministerial Press briefing, appreciated the Commissioner and her team for their unrelenting efforts to sustain a cleaner Kwara.

Shakirat Muritala,

Press Secretary,

MoE,

08054984077