The House of Representatives Committee on Environment has been hailed for ensuring that the Environmental Social and Health Impact Assessment (ESHIA) Bill passes first reading in the house.
Stakeholders, including the media commended the lawmakers during a meeting convened on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
Dr. Michael Terngwa David, Executive Director of,.Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation (GIFSEP) said it is critical to understand that economic development should not be at the expense of environmental degradation or social displacement.
The environmental rights activists further canvassed that measures that support sustainability, safeguard marginalised populations, and improve public health should direct development.
“We are super excited; it is big history, and we felt that a milestone like this should not be quiet. That Nigerians should know about it,” Dr. Michael Terngwa David, Executive Director of GIFSEP, said in his remarks at the occasion”
Other speakers said they hope that when the bill becomes law, it will provide tighter mechanisms for assessing how projects harm local ecosystems and communities and safeguard both people and nature from the adverse effects of unchecked development.
The stakeholders also believe that the introduction of the bill represents a significant step toward ensuring that development in the country is sustainable, inclusive, and responsible