Senate proposes 3% revenue bill to tackle environmental challenges

The Senate is proposing a bill to set aside a minimum of 3 percent of the total consolidated revenue of the Federal Government from the annual budget to finance certain federal agencies addressing environmental or ecological problems in the country.

The proposal is titled Ecological Fund Bill, 2017.

“This Act seeks to establish the Ecological Fund and charges it with the responsibilities of providing funding for certain Federal Agencies involved in dealing with environmental or ecological problems.

“The Fund shall also provide special grants-in-aid to governments of States and other countries in cases of environmental or ecological disasters,” the Explanatory Memorandum of the document seen by BusinessDay reads.

Nigeria ranked 133rd out of the 180 countries surveyed for the 2016 Environmental Performance Index.

Sponsored by Mohammed Hassan (PDP, Yobe State), it seeks to repeal the Ecological Fund Act of 1984 as well as Ecological Fund (Amendment) Act of 1992.

Section 4 of the proposed legislation listed the statutory agencies that will benefit from the Fund to include: the National Ecological Agency (yet to be passed into law), National Environmental Standards Regulatory and Enforcement Agency (NESREA), National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

The money, according to the document, will be disbursed to the agencies in the following manner: NEA 40 percent, NEMA 20 percent, NESREA 15 percent and NOSDRA 10 percent.

Section 7 of the bill, however, provides that outstanding monies in the credit of the Fund after disbursement to the agencies shall be kept in a special account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Analysts say that deforestation and forest degradation are other areas of critical concerns in environmental protection, especially as Nigeria cannot yet boast of the coverage of 25 percent of land mass coverage by vegetation, as recommended by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

According to them, the nation’s environmental problems are still very visible, considering the level of pollution and land degradation in parts of the Federation.

Speaking on the bill, an environmentalist, Nnimmo Bassey,  identified non-implementation of necessary legal framework as being responsible for the massive harm done to the environment.

Bassey, who is also the Director of a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), said governments at all levels, multinational and local companies as well as individuals were guilty in this direction as they have played major roles in creating negative impact on the environment now tagged climate change.

He said when passed into law, the bill will help the Federal agencies in tackling environmental and ecological problems.

“Environmental degradation disrupts our linkages to nature, shrivels our humanity and throws us into unhealthy rivalry and struggles to whatever goods remain. It alters our thought patterns and social relations.

“The arrival of crude oil and petroleum resources literally poisoned and damaged our environment, economy, politics and socio-cultural relationships. Agriculture got ignored, manufacturing got side-lined and all eyes got riveted on US dollars flowing into the national pot,” he said.

The Ecological Fund is an intervention facility established to address ecological problems ravaging communities across the country.

The Fund was originally established in 1981 through the Federation Account Act (1981) based on the recommendation of the Okigbo Commission. The Act was subsequently modified by Decrees 36 of 1984 and 106 of 1992 respectively; and further amended through the Allocation of Revenue/Federation Account etc (Modification) Order of 8th July, 2002.

The Fund which originally received 1 percent of the Federation Account was reviewed upwards to 2 percent of the Federation Account in 1992.