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Sections News Editorial/Opinion Cover Choice Arts & Life Business Politics Sports   Subscription Form Click here       Daily Independent Online.         * Monday, July 05, 2004. FG approves N.5b for erosion control, desertification By Olaniyi Ola Head, Property & Environment, Lagos President Olusegun Obasanjo has endorsed the release of N500 million to confront the menace of erosion in the South - East and desertification in the northern part of the country. As a result of this gesture, a presidential committee on erosion control and desertification, headed by Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, had been set up to bring about government’s intervention in affected states and communities being ravaged by these ecological problems. The vice-president stated this last week in Abuja. “Priority attention would be given to erosion and flood control as well as the provision of basic infrastructure in the zone. We will look into the issue of erosion and flood control in some parts of the country where you have requested us to look, particularly in Lagos and in the Eastern states," he said. He continued: “The president has already set up a council under my chairmanship to bring about Federal Government intervention on the issue of coastal erosion and also erosion in the hinterland as well as afforestation. That is people who are engaged in the business of cutting timbers and without replacing or replenishing them. We are not going to stop them, but if they cut, we will plant, so that we will not lose our forest. In the same manner, we are now working to arrest desertification in the North. So, every part of the country has its natural peculiarity, which the council is trying to redress and I want to assure you on that.” Meanwhile, the Federal Government will soon wade into the crisis between the Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA) and Federal Ministry of Works over the control of federal roads in Lagos. Agents of the Federal Ministry of Works have in the last couple of weeks been attacking LASTMA officials for operating on federal roads, a development, which Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a fortnight ago, said may threaten the $100 million World Bank assistance programme for public transportation in Lagos metropolis.       Copyright� 2002. All Rights Reserved Independent Newspapers Limited Block5, Plot 7D, Wempco Road, Ogba, P.M.B. 21777, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. www.dailyindependentng.com e-mail: [email protected]

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