The Honourable Minister of Environment, Alhaji Balarabe Abbas Lawal, has commended National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) for its relentless commitment and efforts to address oil spillage and related matters in Nigeria head-on.
Making this known during his maiden visit to NOSDRA on Wednesday, the minister said he was impressed by the level and pace of institutional and capacity drives he witnessed in the agency regardless of the odds.
While calling for teamwork, as well as internal training of subordinate staff by their supervisors through mentorship, Alhaji Lawal also stressed the need for closer collaboration between the agency and relevant ministries, agencies and departments (MDAs) of government in order not merely to obviate the challenge of institutional rivalry and conflict but to smoothen the efforts to actualize its statutory mandate.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Director- General/ Chief Executive (DG/CE) of NOSDRA, Idris O. Musa, expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the Honourable Minister of Environment for his keen interest and support geared towards ensuring the viability of the agency.
The DG/CE emphasized that the agency had prioritized teamwork and staff capacity training, besides cooperation and collaboration with relevant MDAs and other stakeholders, as an indispensable key to ensuring that it was up and doing in maintaining its mandate.
He highlighted the strides of NOSDRA in oil spill management and allied matters across the country, explaining this had led to the establishment of additional zonal offices and more in the foreseeable future.
Musa also mentioned part of the strides of the agency as formulation of the state- of- the art and technology-driven Nigerian Oil Spill Monitor and National Gas Flare Tracker for ease of forestalling petroleum-related pollution in the country.
Noting that as a means of fighting air pollution and bolstering up the national economy in Nigeria, the DG/CE remarked that NOSDRA had maintained the official stance in different fora that pollutant gas flares in the country could be checked not only through financial penalization of defaulting companies but also commercialization of such flares for use as automobile fuel and cooking gas rather than being wasted.
In the course of the familiarization/ working visit, the DG/CE and the Management took the minister and his team round the different departments, divisions and units in the agency.
