Ecological activists have called on the government to stop the idea of depending on extractivism, saying it is destroying agricultural land and damaging Nigeria’s ecosystem.
The experts speaking at a meeting organised by Health of Mother Earth (HOMEF) to analyse ecological challenges in Nigeria Friday in Abuja, agreed that the wealth gained from extractivism is not sufficient to restore the dignity of Nigerians and their livelihoods.
Speaking to journalists HOMEF Director, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, said “We are analysing the ecological challenges of Nigeria and we take note of the fact that every segment of this country has a peculiar environmental problem. And so it’s something that we democratize. We believe that by tackling the environmental crisis of Nigeria, we can actually unite the nation.
“Because then we’ll revive the means of livelihood for all Nigerians and they’ll be able to live in a clean, safe environment that is suitable for our development. So the alternative we are talking about, number one is that we cannot keep on depending on extractive ideas of extractivism believing that we have to dig the wealth out of the ground to be able to survive.
“The way we continue with mining and oil extraction has damaged Nigeria to a very large extent. For example, the tin mines of Jos were never remediated and never restored. People are still being impacted today.
“The coal mines of Enugu, the same problem. The new mines in Benue, Ikogi. Of course, the oil wells of Nigeria and the fires going on there are things that we believe we have to do things differently.
“You know, working with nature also means investing in agriculture in a natural way. Investing in developing extension officers who will go to communities and help our local farmers to grow crops in ways that are not harmful.
“Not using artificial fertilizers. Today, we are still celebrating chemical fertilizers. It’s even become a political tool.
“They say, we are going to give you fertilizer. It is destroying our soils. Even if you keep on using fertilizer, the productivity of the land keeps on reducing every year.
“Whereas, if you use natural fertilizer, natural manure, and apply it in agroecology, you’re going to have healthy soils that will keep on being productive year after year. Because the soil is replenished and renewed continually rather than being diminished,” he said
Also, the Chairman of the board of the Nigerian Environmental Study Action Team based in Ibadan, Prof. Chinedu Mwajiba, speaking on the cost of climate change damage to the agricultural sector, said, “When we aggregate it, there’s a real possibility that losses to the Nigerian agricultural sector as a result of climate change are in trillions. You know, also factoring current exchange rates.
They’re in trillions. The challenges are real. You all feel it, we’re familiar with the issues that are common when we discuss climate change. Temperatures have changed. Rainfall patterns have changed.
“Frequency of occurrence of extreme weather events and things like that has all changed. But there’s one that up to today I’ve not seen anywhere. And like I said, I think it’s original to me. And that is the fact that one of the impacts of climate change is that farmers now become confused as a result of no pattern.
“You can’t really come out and say rains will start here and end here anymore, farmers are confused. Sometimes the rains start when they should start and stop when they do. What happened last year is not what is happening this year.
“It’s not the same thing as what happened two years ago. So there’s no more pattern to anything. So we have rising temperatures, globally felt,” he said.