The federal government has announced plans to distribute 10 million gas cylinders in 12 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in order to tackle deforestation and climate change in the country.
The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Domestic Gas, Dayo Adeshina, disclosed this yesterday at a one-day subnational LPG sensitisation and awareness campaign in Katsina State.
He explained that marketers whose facilities meet the required standards would be responsible for the distribution of the cylinders across the 12 pilot states of Katsina, Lagos, Ogun, Bauchi, Gombe, Sokoto, FCT, Niger, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta and Bayelsa in the next one year.
According to him, “In these 12 states, we are going to inject 10 million gas cylinders in the next one year. This is very important because today, everybody owns a gas cylinder, and that is a big safety hazard for everybody.
“The standard for cylinders states that five years after manufacture, you are supposed to recertify a cylinder, 10 years after, you are supposed to requalify that same cylinder and 15 years after, you are supposed to scrap it completely.”
“We know that in our homes today, there are cylinders that are up to 20, 30 and 40 years and they have never been requalified. Therefore, the federal government has decided to inject the cylinders so as to take away these dangerous cylinders that are in the people’s homes.”
In his remarks, Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, said the fluctuation of oil prices in the global market and the problem of deforestation and desertification had brought serious economic challenges to Nigeria.
Masari, represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr. Mustapha Inuwa, said Katsina State, which is partly located on the fringes of the Sahel region, suffers increasing effects of desert intrusion that affects vegetation and supply of firewood.
He, however, described LPG as a credible alternative to firewood, as “it is full of socio-economic advantages in terms of employment creation and revenue generation,” and urged Nigerians to key into the programme as a reliable source of energy.
