The new General Manager of the Niger State Environmental Protection Agency (NISEPA), Dr. Abubakar Mohammed, has said that the agency is key to the success of the urban renewal policy of Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago.
The general manager made this disclosure while interacting with staff of the agency on his assumption of office on Tuesday.
He revealed that Governor Umar Bago has a special interest in the organisation because of its importance to the actualization of the state urban renewal policy.
Dr. Abubakar observed that the urban renewal policy would only be possible when there was a clean and serene environment, and that NISEPA is the agency to provide such a clean and serene environment.
"The urban renewal project of His Excellency is hinged on a lot of fulcrums, and one of those cardinal fulcrums is the environment.
"There is no way you can succeed and have sustainable urban renewal without a clean and sustainable environment, and this is where NISEPA will come into play," said the new NISEPA boss.
He explained that the waste management process was not the responsibility of NISEPA alone, saying it was a process where every stakeholder must be involved to take responsibility for the waste he generated.
Dr. Abubakar also said that the governor had given him a matching order to change the face of the agency and make it a revenue-generating agency that can stand on its own within the next six months.
He added that he had come to add value and move the agency forward, not to witch-hunt anyone, but that anyone who stands on his way towards achieving his goal would be moved aside, saying "it is not going to be business as usual."
While welcoming the new NISEPA General Manager earlier, the overseeing General Manager, Hajiya Halimat Yakubu Ndanusa, said they were happy to receive the new general manager, whom she said, with his experience in waste management, NISEPA will move to greater heights.
She enumerated some of the challenges they were facing, including funding and a lack of the right equipment, as the ones they were using were not 21st century waste management standard equipment, believing that the coming of the new man would facilitate the provision of the right equipment.
Hajiya Halimat Ndanusa also assured the new general manager that the staff of the agency are dedicated to their duties and will give him their maximum cooperation to move the agency forward.