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FG Says Strategies are in Place to Tackle Unsustainable Agricultural Practices

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FG Says Strategies are in Place to Tackle Unsustainable Agricultural Practices

By: Michael Mike

The Federal Government said it has emplaced strategies to tackle unsustainable agricultural practices, excessive logging and infrastructure deficit significantly reducing the rate of deforestation, forest degradation and adverse climate conditions.

Addressing a press briefing on Wednesday in Abuja, the Minister of Environment , Malam Balarabe Lawal while stating that forests play a crucial role in regulating the country’s climatic conditions for climate resilience, said: “The Ministry has put in place strategies to tackle unsustainable agricultural practices, excessive logging and infrastructure deficit significantly reducing the rate of deforestation, forest degradation and adverse climate conditions.

“Forests plays crucial role in biodiversity conservation, maintaining of water cycles and the provision of livelihoods for millions of people.

“It’s worthy of note that achievements have been recorded with regard to restoration of forest in Nigeria under the administration of President Bola Tinubu.”

He explained that: “Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) is an initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria established to implement the recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on the Ogoni land oil spill.

“The Ministry initiated the world’s most extensive mangrove restoration in Ogoniland by HYPREP.

“The pilot phase of 560ha is 85 per cent completed, with over two million seedlings comprising red, black, and white mangrove species planted. This is the first mangrove restoration in Nigeria involving the planting of different species,” Lawal said.

He also revealed that the Ministry has signed an agreement with the Republic of Cameroon on Cooperation Framework Agreement on Trans-Boundary Ecosystem Conservation and Sustainable Management of Forestry and Wildlife Resources on April 19, 2024.

Lawal noted that: “This will foster collaborations between both countries in protecting shared ecosystems, including forests, wildlife and water bodies.

“It will ensure the coordinated management of trans-boundary protected areas, such as Cross River National Park (Nigeria) and Korup National Park (Cameroon), which are biodiversity hotspots in collaboration with major and strategic stakeholders.”

He noted that the goal is to improve the resilience of affected communities to climate change and climate variability in the dry lands of Nigeria.

He said one of the major achievements of the ministry include:raising of 3,850,000 Neem seedlings for the establishment of Plant Nurseries in the 11 National Agency of the Great Green Wall frontline states to provide medicinal raw materials.

“Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN): FRIN is the leading research institution in Nigeria which focuses on forestry, forest products and environmental development initiatives.

“Its major achievements include: the digitalisation of the forests zones in Nigeria;

“National Park Service (NPS) is responsible for managing and conserving national parks and wildlife reserves of protected areas across the nation,” he said.

Lawal noted that NPS is primarily responsible for enforcing environmental laws to prevent illegal activities such as poaching, deforestation and encroachment on protected lands.

“Achievements recorded under NPS include; the enhancement of forest security, through strengthened inter-agency collaboration especially with the Nigeria Military.

He said that the collaboration is gradually yielding positive results as shown in the recovery of forest areas occupied by bandits as well as, sustaining the fight against insurgency and terrorism in our forests

FG Says Strategies are in Place to Tackle Unsustainable Agricultural Practices

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Airstrike Hits ISWAP Enclave in Tumbuma Baba, scores Nutrialised

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Airstrike Hits ISWAP Enclave in Tumbuma Baba, scores Nutrialised

By: Zagazola Makama

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF), under the Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), conducted a successful Air Interdiction (AI) mission at a terrorists’ hideout in the Southern Tumbuns general area in the Lake Chad of Borno, killing scores of the terrorists.

Intelligent sources told Zagazola Makama that the precision air strike, which took place at about 2100 hours on 5 May 2025, targeted a major terrorists’ concentration camp located in the Tumbuma Baba axis of Lake Chad.

The sources said that the offensive was in continuation of a decisive Operation KALACHEN WUTA II, aimed at denying terrorists the freedom to execute large-scale attacks during the Eid el-Kabir period.

The sources said that Intelligence and Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) reports confirmed that several terrorists were neutralised during the strike, and key logistics under heavy foliage were destroyed.

The sources said that the strikes followed credible intelligence on planned coordinated attacks by the insurgents before, during, and after the Eid festivities. The mission was meticulously planned and executed to forestall such threats and sustain pressure on terrorist elements operating in the Lake Chad fringes.

“We observed significant secondary explosions, indicating the presence of arms and fuel storage. Multiple terrorists were seen fleeing the area, while several others were eliminated during the strike,” the source said.

The sources said efforts are ongoing to gather further feedback, as well as to assess the operational impact of the interdiction.

He added that preliminary signs suggest a high level of disarray and panic within the terrorists’ ranks, with reports of attempted regrouping under surveillance.

Airstrike Hits ISWAP Enclave in Tumbuma Baba, scores Nutrialised

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Nigerian Air Force Neutralises Terrorists in Successful Air Interdiction at Maisani

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Nigerian Air Force Neutralises Terrorists in Successful Air Interdiction at Maisani

By: Zagazola Makama

The Nigerian Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai have executed a coordinated strike on a major terrorist enclave located at Maisani in the Timbuktu Triangle general area of Borno State, killing several ISWAP terrorists.

Intelligence sources told Zagazola Makama that the air interdiction mission conducted on May 4, 2025, at approximately 1800 hours, was informed by credible intelligence and sustained surveillance, targeted terrorists’ structures cleverly concealed and camouflaged under thick shrubs in the area.

The sources said that using advanced platforms, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) conducted a focused Air Interdiction (AI) mission, resulting in the destruction of the identified enemy hideouts and the neutralisation of an unconfirmed number of insurgent fighters.

According to the sources, Post-strike Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) obtained from our Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms confirmed that the airstrike achieved its intended objectives, dealing a significant blow to terrorists.

Nigerian Air Force Neutralises Terrorists in Successful Air Interdiction at Maisani

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Nigeria Looks to World Bank to Tackle Challenges of National Capital Accounting

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Nigeria Looks to World Bank to Tackle Challenges of National Capital Accounting

By: Michael Mike

As the world marks the 2025 Environment Day, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has appealed to the World Bank for support on capacity building, data and in addressing the challenges poised by Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) in the country.

Head of Department, National Accounts Energy and Environment at the NBS, Dr. Baba Madu made the appeal at the 2025 Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) Conference on Thursday in Abuja with support from the World Bank in. collaboration with the NBS and the Federal Ministry of Environment.

Madu while noting that the NCA was a new area Nigeria must exploit to further boost the nation’s economy, said for Nigeria to grow and be at par with other developed nations, there was need to account for her natural resources.

He said: “NCA has been tasked with the crucial role of integrating natural capital into economic measurement. It is impossible to measure the economy accurately without accounting for natural resources. Issues such as environmental degradation, afforestation, desertification, and climate change all directly impact productivity.

“Productivity in turn, influences output—one of the core components of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These environmental factors must be reflected across all economic activity sectors to present a more accurate picture of national output.”

While stating that Nigeria currently has data on NCA in Nigeria, the NBS official however raised concerns over the huge data gap from relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the environment sector.

He said: “We are not doing badly but we need to improve on what we are doing. In terms of data sources, I can tell you there’s a big gap because these are new areas needed to be exploited.”

Programme Leader on Sustainable Development at the World Bank, Vina Vutukuru, said there was need to jointly
explore the vital role of national accounting in national development plans and to brainstorm on how Nigeria could institutionalize it.

He said: “Establishing the national capital accounting as part of the national account system will allow us to measure the economic value of ecosystem services such as clean air, water and biodiversity which are essential for our well-being and economic prosperity.”

Vutukuru commended Nigeria for having “very bold ambitions” as far as responding to climate change was concerned saying, “That shows the commitment of the policy makers here towards the issue of climate.

“But I think to back up that aspiration and the aggressive goals that Nigeria has set for itself, the foundational thing for those goals to materialize those objectives to come true is a very strong natural account system.”

Head of Media, National Council on Climate Change Secretariat (NCCCS), Chioma Azie who represented her Director General, Dr. Nkiruka Maduekwe at the event, described Nigeria as a very ambitious country, stressing that natural resources was instrumental to achieving all the objective of climate action.

She said: “Technology, policy reforms, behavioral changes has a role to play but natural resources is very key because they’re underpinning the mitigation and adaptation for climate action.

“If you look at Nigeria’s NDC, the NCA is an avenue to provide raw materials that we could use to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies.

“If you look at what we have done in terms of this NDC in 2020.which is the second leg of the NDC, we identified a lot of mitigation activities within this mentioned sectors of ours. In agricultural sector we talked about smart agriculture. What is smart agriculture without natural resources?

“We talked about biomass, what is biomass without natural resources? We also spoke about land use changes and that is natural resources, we talk about natural solutions and we talked about also afforestation, reafforestation. Those are mitigation potentials of our NDC. So, we cannot achieve our NDC without SEEA.

“What you cannot be able to account for is recorded as if it is not done so if we know what is existing in terms of the reservoirs we have for natural resources, it can inform the scope of the mitigation activities we’re going to be imputing in the NDC 3.0,” she said.

Nigeria Looks to World Bank to Tackle Challenges of National Capital Accounting

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