Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has advocated political will on the part of world leaders towards the implementation of resolutions on environmental issues.
The Senate President spoke when a delegation of the working group on Environmental Audit of African Organisation of the Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI WGEA) paid him a courtesy call on Thursday in Abuja.
Saraki who was responding to the address by the leader of the delegation, acknowledged that some of the issues already highlighted remains to be implemented for development due to absence of appropriate political will by the leaders.
“By the time we leave all those conferences as politicians, we shake hands with ourselves, we take pictures, the real issues are these commitments. Are they being met?
“I think these are the areas we truly want to say that what you are doing will play a key role to ensure that some of these environmental policies and solutions that we put aside are addressed,” he said.
According to the Senate President, “In Nigeria, we talk about deforestation, we talk about oil spillage and it is clear that it is affecting the lives of our people all over. This shows us the point we are and what we need to do.
“I think we don’t need to wait every 10 years for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to do reports. Groups like this can keep us constantly on our toes and I appreciate the fact that the Auditor-General have also decided to identify ways, apart from your core mandate, of addressing the issue of environment.
“We can do that as part of efforts to make your work easier and to bring more success to what you are doing. I think that it will go a long way in helping and making the environment much more better.”
The Senate President commended the relevance of AFROSAI on environmental issues.
Leader of the delegation, Mbah Acha Rose Fomundam, said the AFROSAI – WGEA is mandated to contribute to the understanding by member institutions on specific issues linked to environmental auditing, facilitate the exchange of information and experiences among Supreme Audit Institutions, update and improve standards and tools for environmental audit including dissemination of guidelines and other current materials on the environment.
