N9.3B Cookstoves Drama: Senator Bukola Saraki Also Reacts

After the Federal Government announced its intention of
giving out cookstoves in some parts of the country, a lot of tongues have been
waging, condemning the act. This evening, Senator Bukola Saraki also reacts in
a press statement sent out by his media person.  

In view of public concerns and criticism by various
stakeholders on the recently announced N9.3 billion Clean Cookstoves Contract
awarded by the Federal Government, Senate Committee Chairman on Environment
& Ecology, Senator Bukola Saraki has faulted the intervention on the
grounds of misplacement of immediate priority and lack of transparency and
accountability in the procurement process.

Senator Saraki believes that funding of the Clean Cookstove
from the Ecological fund without due process is a mockery of the Procurement
Act and the Cookstove initiate. The Ecological funds which is assumed to have
been the source of this fund was established to fight emergency ecological
problems in Nigeria like flooding, erosion and other unforeseen natural
disasters and not for funding initiatives such as clean Cookstoves which are
suppose to be funded through appropriations by National Assembly.

Senator Saraki, who is the highest political office holder
in Nigeria to lead the clean Cookstoves initiative in Nigeria is a member of
the Leadership council of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and believes
that an intervention of that financial magnitude should be driven in
partnership with the private sector through various forms of Public-Private
partnerships. Senator Saraki will like to avoid a situation whereby his
integrity would be put at stake, for example when he attends the next
Leadership Council meeting and he is asked to make a presentation on how the
N9.3bn was used to create markets for clean Cookstoves in Nigeria and he cannot
lay his hand on any convincing strategy. He lamented how it has been very
difficult for his committee in the past to appropriate even 100 million Naira
for the same initiative due to insufficient Federal Government allocation for
the environment sector, for the presidency to now direct N9.3bn to be spent as
sole source is questionable. The Global Alliance for Clean cookstoves is
striving to create an enabling market for clean Cookstoves and such fundamental
best practice should be emulated for a sustainable clean Cookstoves program in
Nigeria.

Creating a market enabling environment and adoption of
innovative business models to attract business investments in scaling up the
use of clean Cookstoves in Phase 2 of the Global Alliance’s vision were part of
what was agreed at recently concluded Cookstoves Future Summit in New York.
Senator Saraki noted that the distribution of stoves are important in
stimulating the demand for the product, but the amount of intervention that was
announced by OSGF who knows only little of the issue instead of the FME who has
been championing the issue, came without adequate research, when there are
still awareness gaps, and more immediate life threatening ecological issues currently
confronting the nation.

Senator Saraki was hoping to convey a meeting with the
Senate Committee on environment and stakeholders before the adjournment till
December 16, but in the interim noted some misplacement of priorities in the
project components where the most important issue of setting up the structures
that will create a sustainable market for clean Cookstoves was not addressed.
Additionally, spending such an amount on this initiative without due process
given the aforementioned national limitations that we are facing defeats the
purpose of a long lasting solution.

The Senator Bukola Saraki-led Committee on Environment &
Ecology agrees that in order for Nigeria to achieve her 20 million clean
Cookstoves target by 2020, some government intervention is required to
stimulate the demand for Cookstoves which include distributing stoves for free
to Nigerians in the lowest part of the economic ladder. However, distributing
750,000 stoves at once is market distorting. It doesn’t encourage investment
and is counterproductive to the Global Alliance’s vision of creating a
sustainable market for clean Cookstoves.

Senator Saraki, therefore, calls for a review of the whole
process involving all critical stakeholders that would be more transparent and
that can make it more accountable to Nigerians. An efficient tracking,
monitoring and implementation strategy domiciled and implemented by the Federal
Ministry of Environment which will support our existing local manufacturers to
build capacity should be pursued. We can’t be talking about stimulating demand
and creating local jobs by sending foreign exchange to another country to
import stoves. A N9.3bn PPP arrangement with the private sector with the
potential of addressing all the subsectors of the clean Cookstoves initiative
would build investor confidence and guarantee investments in the establishment
of Clean Cookstoves manufacturing plants in Nigeria. He further calls upon the
Ministry of Environment to ensure that funds meant for the initiative should not
be diverted to fund political campaigns, given the suspicious timing of the FEC
approval.

Bamikole Omishore

SA Media and Advocacy