‘Nigeria can benefit from environmental education’

TO maximally benefit from environmental management education at the university level within the context of sustainable development, Nigeria must establish linkages and collaborations with stakeholders in the country.
 
The Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission, NUC, Prof. Julius Okojie who made the declaration in a paper titled “Environmental Management Education, Capacity Building and Sustainable Development in Nigeria, ” also called for the introduction and coordination of new educational policy at the primary, secondary and tertiary institutions to enable adequate investment in the sector.

He was speaking at 2015 National Environmental Management Conference organized by Environmental Management Association of Nigerian in Abuja, noted that national policy has identified sectoral strategies such as education.
 
“As a dynamic regulatory agency of Nigerian University System, US, has approved robust academic programmes in environmental studies and management in universities in the country. Therefore, it is key to creating consciousness in students’ early educational career.”  
 
To Prof. Okojie, the environmental issues, which are mostly man-made, cannot be addressed, if there is lack of up-to-date information and requisite skilled manpower to tackle the erosion in South East, industrial pollution, desertification in the North and oil spillage and gas flaring in the Niger Delta.