UN appoints Saraki member of leadership council

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation, has appointed Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki as a member of its Leadership Council. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a public-private partnership formed during the Clinton Global Initiative in September 2010 by the former United States Secretary of States, Hillary Clinton.
The alliance seeks to mobilise high-level national and donor commitments toward the goal of universal adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels.
The appointment of Senator Saraki was contained in a release signed by his Special Assistant on Strategic Initiatives, Mr Innocent Onah.
The appointment was in line with the Alliance’s objective of mobilising high-level national and donor commitments toward the goal of universal adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels.
Its ambitious but achievable goal is to foster the adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels in 100 million households by 2020.
Other members of the council included the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson; former President of Chile, UN Under-Secretary & Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet; and Swedish Minister of Development Cooperation, Gunilla Carlsson.
Also included was Wanjira Mathai, Project leader for the Wangari Mathai Institute for Peace & Environmental Studies (WMI).
Senator Saraki said he hoped he can help influence the leadership of the Global Alliance, the Nigerian executive and legislature to bring clean cooking solutions to Nigerians and Africans at large.
Confirming his appointment, Executive Director of the Alliance, Radha Muthiah, thanked Saraki for accepting the offer, adding that he merited the appointment in lieu of his past and current transformational programs within and outside Nigeria.
She noted that while Senator Saraki was the governor of Kwara State, his Community Health Insurance Scheme, Environmental Clean and Green Scheme, Commercial Agricultural Transformation through the Zimbabwean Farmer’s Scheme were worthy of note.
As Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Saraki had championed potential solutions to some life-threatening environmental issues in Nigeria that needed urgent attention.
These inluded the NOSDRA Amemndment Bill 2012, the Lead Poisoning incident in Zamfara State where over 1500 children’s lives were in danger of survival.
The,formation of GLOBE Nigeria to join other legislators all over the world to advance the domestication of international environmental traeties into sustainable development laws in Nigeria.