Patrick Osu
Environment is one special and natural gift from God that is constantly being enjoyed by both human and other natural beings in the world. The activities of man can either beautify the environment or destroy it, depending on the type of events taking place on land, water and in the air.
Bush burning and felling of trees are as old as the history of Nigeria. It is one of the worrying trends that requires attention that successive governments had failed to address. An average rural farmer in Nigeria does not consider the devastating effect of reckless fire set on their farmlands in the name of land clearing and increased soil fertility or nutrients.
It is very common to see farmers at every farming season burning bushes uncontrollably and during the dry season rat hunters setting fire on village bush around habitable areas thereby causing a lot of pollution to the environment. They burn other people’s farmlands and produce without their consent, because often either the perpetrators were not there to monitor the fire or it became uncontrollable. I personally lost my inherited rubber and kola nut plantations to this kind of activity. It disheartening to any farmer who had worked hard against all odds to see all he or she had labored for destroyed in a bush fire. Obviously, these environmental issues had had serious impact on our socio-economic development as a nation.
In this era of climatic change, mostfactories produce harmful chemicals and toxic wastes into the land, air and water, human wastes are used as chemical over fish, yet our concerns for environmental protection and rehabilitation is still very low. The destruction these things cause to our health sometimes cannot be reversed as we are gradually killing our planet. The rural dwellers can play a very key and significant role in the conservation and protection of our natural environment if they are involved in the policy and implementation process. The World Environmental Commission and Development says unless we change many of our lifestyle patterns, the world will face unacceptable levels of environmental change and human suffering.
In 2012, a number of communities in Nigeria suffered flooding as a result of nonchalance to the demise of our environmentally sound and safe planet. Why do we cry and wail to the government every time we refuse to do what is right? On many occasions we have witnessed people evacuating refuse into gutters, drainages, streams, canals and river and when the resultant effects begin to manifest we start looking at where to shift blames. Some Nigerians are very good at inviting problems that could have been avoided.
Recently, a family in Plateau state lost their three-year-old daughter for refusing to clear and free a drainage system infront of their house.The baby was actually found dead the next morning after a thorough search at night through her floating shoes. Unbelievable, that day, the drainage was freed by this same family. What a calamity! Lack of environmental discipline is eroding our attitude to the beautiful culture of healthy planets and endangering the future of generations to come. We must not compromise our environment to the detriment of our health and the nation. The vegetation that seemingly grow in our land are being destroyed on a daily basis, trees that usually absorb carbon dioxide to help the biosphere are unable to do so. The temperature of soil is now higher than what it used to be, due to the alteration of the chemical structure. Fire cause changes in the soil’s ability to absorb moisture and the soil texture also changes.It further causes erosion and pollutes the air. Many of our environmental species are faced with extinction.
The World Commission on Environment also confirms that environmental crisis affects everyone on the planet, but the degree to which the inhabitants of different parts of the world contribute to the crisis depends on the level of their economic development and consumption patterns. In Nigeria, some of the major factors of the environmental changes are urbanization, fast increasing population growth, agricultural activities, increased use of energy, economic growth and increased transportation activities.
The question is, how have we been able to manage these activities to promote and safeguard our environment? I want to say that environmental sustainability lies in our hands, because long term neglect to the deterioration of activities on land forestation, grazing reserves and excessive cultivation as well as other manipulations have contributed to the negative impact on the Nigerian environment.
The agencies under government cannot enforce laws due to political reasons. The traditional rulers who are custodians of culture are also handicapped due to same reason. People go in and out of reserves without anyone asking questions. The supportive and facilitating synergies from both sides, people and government, are still lacking.
There is an urgent need foraffirmative action to deal with the situation else, one day the environment will turn against us. We must divulge individualistic and political dimension from nature by mobilizing all efforts to combat desertification and all that destroy our environment. Our attitude to environment must change. Communities in collaboration with the traditional rulersshould form strategic environmental protection committees thatwill effectively ensure the protection and preservation of our environment; encourage planting of trees and maintenance of forests.
It is evident that most Nigerians do not know much about the dangers inherent in degrading their environment, especially in the rural areas. Therefore, various agencies must also embark on awareness campaigns to drive home the message of green land and discard the culture of littering our environment with all forms of polythene bags and papers.
Osu wrote from Kaduna
