The environment is the life support system for human survival, and it provides much of the raw materials required for socio-economic progress.
In recognition of this, there have been steps taken by the previous governments and the current administration to safeguard the environment, prominent of which is the ugly state of environmental degradation in Ogoni land and its subsequent fill-up and clean-up under the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP). The present administration launched the Ogoni clean-up programme in 2016 in line with the UN Environment Programme’s recommendations. Statistics show that about 21 sites have been remediated; a number of them being certified clean by the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA). Ogoni clean-up is a massive project that incorporates skill acquisition and provision of water for the four Local Government Areas of Ogoni land to enable the people go on with their livelihood after the clean-up. Equally embedded in the Ogoni project are funds for the restoration of mangrove in the Niger Delta.
The Ogoni scheme is a massive laboratory for learning, as there has not been such a clean-up anywhere else in the world at that scale. We have to keep in mind that Exxon spill which occurred in 1989 was also followed up with massive clean-up. Some of the species that were destroyed by the spill have not returned to that area. The same scenario played out in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil spillage also occurred at the Ororo One Oil Well off the coast of Ondo state in April 2020, and this resulted into flames.
Another policy of the federal government is aimed at addressing gully erosion challenges particularly in the southeast, and degradation in the north. These are captured under the Nigerian Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP). Sources reveal that last year, NEWMAP had over 30 projects across the country. Normal budgetary provision may not be able to handle massive gullies which are prevalent in the southeast as the land in that zone is easily waterlogged. NEWMAP handles the bigger projects and it’s a collaboration between the federal government and the World Bank.
The National Clean Cooking Scheme (NCCS) is also an initiative to eliminate cooking with solid and fossil fuels such as firewood and kerosene which are detrimental to health and the environment. Through the scheme, clean cooking products have been distributed across various states in the country with Kwara and Akwa Ibom states as pilots.
Grasses also pose challenges in the environment. But grasses choking some wetlands have been cleared. For instance, grasses obstructing flow of water from Nguru-Jigawa wetland to Lake Chad Basin have been cleared. Now, water flows all the way to recharge Lake Chad as a result of such navigation channel. This sounds good because a lot of security issues emanated from the drying-up of Lake Chad. If Lake Chad continues to shrink, it has an impact on the violent conflicts we are seeing.
With the banning of the production and export of charcoal in the country, comes the Nigerian Sovereign Green Bond. The bond is a financial instrument that provides support for investments in clean energy and clean environment-friendly projects. Under the Green Bond initiative, is a programme called “Energising Education” which ensures that a number of federal universities are energized with solar power. The first two that have been commissioned are in the University of Nigeria Nsukka and Bayero University.
There is the National Forest Policy because there is a need to increase forest cover in the country.
There are indications that some state governors have agreed to gazette some lands that will be kept as forest reserves. In fact, the Federal Ministry of Environment has started receiving these parcels of land, with plans to enforce the law to safeguard the forest cover.
With the minimum forest cover for any country put at 25% by the UN, the reforestation agenda of the federal government, championed by various agencies including the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), is targeted at boosting tree planting campaign. It is a bold attempt to address the challenge of deforestation with the reported planting of 25 million trees in the country. The Great Green Wall is a pan-African project formulated to address land degradation, desertification, among others. The scheme is implemented in eleven frontline states. But nationwide reforestation is supposed to take place in all the states of the federation. The intention is to meet the UN standard. There is also a deliberate plan by managers of Nigeria’s environment to key into the UN’s Decade of Ecosystem Restoration to prevent, halt and reverse degradation on land and seas in the country.
In terms of recycling plants and solid waste management, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved two policies, namely, the National Solid Waste Management Policy, and the National Plastic Waste Management Policy. Embedded in the National Plastic Waste Management Policy is what is referred to as ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ (EPR), which ensures that manufacturers of plastics will be responsible for pollution caused by the use of plastics or plastic-related products. The objective is to reduce the amount of plastic waste by reusing, recycling, repairing and recovering. This is intended to also have a trickledown effect on the sub-nationals with specific understanding that they will work with the private sector for sustainability. It is an economy that should be robustly supported by the private sector to create more jobs unlike now that the biggest employer in Nigeria seems to be the government.
It is worthy to note that through the intervention of the Federal Ministry of the Environment, the Cross River State Government rescinded its proposed super highway that would have taken 25% of the landmass in that state. The highway which was eventually realigned and reduced to less than 10%, would have destroyed communities, protected areas and forests. It is a good way to resolve issues using environmental impact assessment law.
While these strides in the environment sector are commendable, more still needs to be done especially towards the completion of the first phase of the Ogoni clean-up. Desertification, bio-diversity and degradation have also been identified as challenges to the environment across the country.
Nigeria’s population estimated at 200 million, makes the management of solid waste quite an enormous task, and this places a huge demand on all concerned agencies and individuals to forge better strategies that can successfully lead to the management of solid waste in the country.
The massive deforestation and logging going on in Cross River state seem not to have any form of control. Closely related to this, is a High Court declaration in 2005 that gas flaring is against human rights because it affects the health of the Nigerian people. It is a win-win situation to stop gas flaring. If gas flares are brought to a halt, not only will the pollution stop, a byproduct of the flaring which is methane, can be used to produce some form of electricity. Sadly, gas flaring has continued to be a major thorn in the flesh. It is not clear when this kind of environmental monstrosity will come to an end.
We tend to think that we know much about biodiversity in terms genetic engineering. A law signed in 2015 has made it possible for a number of genetically modified organisms and crops to be endorsed, approved and allowed to be experimented on. It is possible that genetically-engineered beans have been released to farmers to cultivate. If such engineering technology is left unchecked, it could expose biodiversity to serious risk. What remains to be seen is how the cold letter of the various government policies will translate to actual reality.
If it goes wrong with the environment, every other thing goes wrong. There should be a level-playing field in terms mining solid minerals and oil exploration. We can’t afford to have one kind of law for one sector and another one that is totally disruptive of the relationship with the people and communities in another sector.
When nature is destroyed, it takes us back. Without humans, the environment is a better manager of itself. The planet does not necessarily need us but human beings cannot live anywhere else outside of the planet. Many nations are beginning to understand that mother earth or nature itself has the right to exist, to maintain her natural cycles, and we have the obligation not to disrupt any of these cycles. However, people have done certain things to the environment that they are not able to remedy. For example, a chemical called ‘hydrochlorofluorocarbon’ introduced by scientists has been discovered to be eating up the ozone layer.
Human activities have tampered with earth’s balance for the last 200 years since the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Such report has attracted the attention of the United Nations which in December, declared through its Secretary-General: “Mankind is committing war against nature and this is suicidal.” Nature always fights back, and if we continue with actions that are disruptive of nature, it may be catastrophic.
Efforts should be made towards returning to nature-based solution. The forests, mountains, rivers, among others, are aspects of the structural support system of the planet, and they should be maintained.
Countries like Bolivia and Ecuador have the rights of nature in their respective constitutions. Uganda also adopted the right of nature in its governance structure. This should be considered in Nigeria so that those who carry out negative actions on the environment will be treated as offending the very basis of our existence.
Maintaining the forest is one of the most important projects to be undertaken to reduce the effect of climate change. There is a need to have regular state of the environment reports. That way, advocacy about ‘reuse and recycle’ could be increased.
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