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Engr. Suleiman Adamu

State Government Hindering our Water and Sanitation Hygiene Project – FG

by Folarin Kehinde June 21, 2022

written by Folarin Kehinde

The Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu has expressed concern over refusal of state government to key into the Water and Sanitation Hygiene Program (WASH) despite incentives and investments initiatives of the federal government.

Suleiman while speaking in Abuja on Tuesday at the Launch of 2021 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASH NORM) III report.

“You’ve had in my speech mentioning that regardless of the incentives and investments and initiatives of the federal government, if states government do not key into this program, it is not going to happen”.

He explained that the entire wash sector will not be able to meet the sustainable development goals without a concerted effort by the state government to commensurate government effort at the federal level.

“what we are supposed to be doing is to provide the leadership, provide the guidance, provide the policies, but the real work is in the states and the local government and if you’re not getting that faction from that end then whatever we are doing is in vain”.

“So our focus will continue to be to support the states to encourage them. We have come with so many incentives, WASH partners for expanding water sanitation and hygiene, we care with the clean Nigeria campaign which is in line national WASH action plan and the declaration of state of emergency on the wash sector”.

Meanwhile, Suleiman noted that the ministry will focus a lot more also on the federal capital territory, as a federal government, so that we can make such a model.

“So what we are trying to do now, also we have changed our strategy a little bit, we are going to focus a lot more also on the federal capital territory, which is our territory as the federal government, so that we can make it a model”

“The entire wash sector will not be able to meet the sustainable development goals without a concerted effort by the state government to commensurate the effort we are making at the federal level, after all the population are in the states they are not in Abuja”.

Suleiman further stated that the WASH NORM III which focuses on data and survey, indicates that the urban utility component of the survey was retooled to effectively respond to SDGs and to attain such, attention must be paid to the systems and structures around urban water utilities across the country.

June 21, 2022 0 comments

General

Youth, Key Resource to Ending Open Defecation – Minister

by Folarin Kehinde August 26, 2021

written by Folarin Kehinde

Kenny Folarin, Abuja

The Minister for Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu has said that Youth plays important role in curbing open defecation in the country.

Adamu while speaking in Abuja on Thursday at a National Youth and Stakeholders Dialogue on Clean Nigeria Campaign noted that open defecation pollutes the environment even as it poses a great risk to the entire population and to the dignity of the human person and as such, youth being an agent of social change are key resource not only in Clean Nigeria Campaign Initiative but also in the critical aspect of our engagement.

According to Adamu, the need for the adoption of good sanitation and hygiene is important so as to maximize the benefits of having access to safe water facilities.

Speaking on the theme: The Role of Young People in making Nigeria Open Defecation Free by 2025, Adamu said it represent a call to action by stakeholders in harnessing the young people towards achieving Nigeria’s targets of ending open defecation by 2025.

He thereby charged the Youth to lend their weight to support the initiative such that their positive impact and constructive engagement will be felt by the generality of all Nigerians.

The National Coordinator, Youth Wash Initiative Africa, Uchenna Oblakor on his own part stated that the initiative is borne out of the numerical advantage of the youth to work together in collaboration with the federal government to end open defecation.

Oblakor added that young people are more felt with the burden of open defecation and as such the great number of youth should work together to ensure that Nigeria is open defecation free by 2025.

Furthermore, he said the initiative will be driven to rural area in collaboration with the NYSC CDS group.

He added that if bottleneck such as bureaucracy in government is removed, Youth Wash Programmes and initiative will thrive.

August 26, 2021 0 comments

Headlines

Niger Basin Authority: Council Chairman task Member Countries to Promptly Deliver on Mandates

by Leading Reporters May 29, 2021

written by Leading Reporters

Kenny Folarin, Abuja

The Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA), Engr. Suleiman Adamu has charged country members of the Niger Basin Authority to deliver on their mandates by speeding up the implementation of both the Climate Resilience Investment Plan (CRIP) and Operational Plan in order for populations and companies to feel the impact of NBA in their lives and activities.

Adamu while speaking in Abuja on Thursday at the Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of the Niger Basin Authority noted that expectations are already high on NBA to deliver on its mandate.

He added that there is need for ministers to also urgently hold the round table on financing the Operational Plan and Climate Resilience Investment Plan as well as for member countries to pay their 10% counterpart funding.

Meanwhile, Adamu explained that certain amendments have been proposed by the Executive Secretariat and the Technical Committee of Experts on the Internal Rules and Regulations of the NBA Technical Committee of Experts (CTE) and the Council of Ministers (CM), however opined that it is the duty of the ministers to carefully examine the proposal with a view to making informed recommendation at the upcoming Summit.

He noted that the session with the ministers will avail them the opportunity to review among others the report of the Technical Committee of Experts and the administrative situation of the Executive Secretary whilst carefully evaluating the Organizational and Institutional Structure of the Authority which has generated some level of controversy over the years.

“We have been working very hard to restructure the Niger Basin Authority in terms of organization structure and I think after this meeting we will have firm grip of that and start implementing some of the key recommendation from the report that was prepared by consultants and experts.”

Adamu, who acted as the Chairman of NBA in the last five years stated that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the activities of the NBA but is optimistic that the incoming NBA chairman in collaboration with other country members will achieve more feat.

“Covid really affected us, we made two attempt to hold this summit, yet it is still going to hold virtually, it has extended our tenure, it affected our economy and the ability of member countries to make their contributions has met lots of hardship, we had to take an emergency method to reduce our operational budget by 40%, majority of our programme were done virtually buy am confident that all the nine countries are capable of steering the affairs of this Authority.”

Expressing concern over security and environmental issue in the River Niger, Adamu said”

We are talking about the river Niger, when we are looking at chad as a major security and environmental issue, it appears that the river Niger is also going the same way unfortunately and it is quite a wake up call for us that we have a lot in hands, not only are we going to be dealing with similar issues in chad basin but we also have to deal with the same issues in river Niger, Cameron, Chad and Niger are members of the River Basin Commission in addition to Nigeria, so common problems have similar issues and collective efforts to tackle.” He concluded.

Executive Secretary of the Authority, Mr. Abderahim Hamid on his own part noted that the current situation in the region requires collective effort for efficiently and effectively implementing projects and programmes that promote access to jobs. and autonomous and sustainable income-generating activities for the basin’s youth and women.

Hamid stressed that after the rehabilitation of the Jebba and Kainji dams in Nigeria, the new challenge is to maintain the spirit of the Shared Vision in order to concretize the construction of the infrastructures so much awaited by populations which include construction of the Fomi dam in Guinea, the Taoussa dam in Mali and the Kainji dam in Nigeria.

” The construction of these works will significantly contribute to improving the living condition of our people and we will be able to better value the water resource in the areas of agriculture, livestock, fisheries, energy and river transportation, with a spirit of solidarity and perfect understanding among the various stakeholders”.

He added that to face the many challenges, the quick implementation and resolutions on the Organizational Chart adopted by the 39th Session of the Council of Ministers remains the only guarantee to solve the issue of under staffing, to better boost NBA and convince Technical an Financial Partners to support them

May 29, 2021 0 comments