The Conservator-General, Nigeria National Park Service, Alhaji Ibrahim Goni, on Monday, January 15, 2018 said that the service would be repositioned for global service delivery so as to boost its revenue generation potential.
The Conservator-General, National Parks Service, Alhaji Ibrahim Goni
Goni said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said that since one of the roles of the service was to protect the environment and indigenous genetic resources, it would be upgraded to international standard to enable it to attract more tourists.
“The parks play significant roles in science, research and educational development, especially in agriculture, medicine, psychology and spiritualism.
“The nation’s population depends on its natural sources for food, fibre and medicine; this, in essence, demands that Nigeria pays much attention to the protection and conservation of its ecosystem,’’ he said.
Goni said that the service was being overhauled in the areas of capacity building, infrastructural development, research and development, among others.
He, therefore, called for the support and collaboration of other agencies and the private sector in efforts to make the national parks one of the best in the world.
“Some of the areas where we need the support of donor partners include training of rangers via the establishment of rangers’ training schools, sponsoring researches, upgrading and total overhaul of national parks across the country.
“The service manages seven national parks spread across all the ecological zones of the country and each of them has unique features.
“Each of these parks has the potential of attracting tourists and researches to the country, and if the potential is developed, it will be a plus to our economy.
“We have been doing well in terms of protecting national parks since the service was established but we can do better if we get the necessary support, in line with the global standards,’’ he said.
Goni said that the service, which had 1,961 personnel, had conducted staff training at different levels and categories.
“Sixteen officers were given Global Positioning System (GPS) training, while 48 others got approval to undergo various training programmes in tertiary institutions in the 2016/2017 academic session.
“Some of our Public Relations/ICT workers were trained by the Ministry of Environment; our rangers also received training to boost their capacity in park surveillance and tracking of human activities.
“Currently, training in both combatant and non-combatant operations is underway in all the parks and at the National Park Service headquarters to prepare the officers for new tasks as paramilitary personnel,’’ he said.
Goni said that not less than 615 offenders, including poachers, were arrested in 2017, while more than 10,371 tourists visited different parks across the country within the same period.
Who will clear the heaps of refuse littering the streets of Lagos, the Centre of Excellence?
That appears to be question on the lips of almost all Lagosians as residents express concern over the implications of the recent development.
Medical practitioners are worried at the spreading heaps of refuse, saying it could lead to outbreak of epidemic in the state.
The Lagos State Government recently announced a ban on the operations of cart pushers and wheelbarrow operators, saying their activities are inimical to the environmental cleanliness of the state.
There appears to be uncertainty over the fate of private waste disposal firms, a situation that may have led to the non-clearance of waste from most streets and waste dumps across the state.
No one is clearing heaps of refuse littering the state’s streetsHealth officials say that the presence of rotten waste all over the street is a public health issueMajor roads are not left outGovernment recently announced a ban on the operations of cart pushers and wheelbarrow operators
Uganda’s health ministry on Monday, January 15, 2018 confirmed an outbreak of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in the central district of Nakaseke, Sarah Opendi, State Minister for Health, said.
Uganda’s health ministry has confirmed an outbreak of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in the country
The official told Xinhua that the laboratory results of the samples taken from a nine-year-old suspected case who has been under isolation at Kiwoko Hospital, Nakaseke tested positive of the fever.
She said a National Rapid Response team from the Ministry of Health and that of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries has been dispatched to Nakaseke and Luweero districts to handle the outbreak.
“Results from Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe tested positive for the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever and negative for other viral Hemorrhagic Fevers like Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley Fever and Sosuga,” said Opendi.
The confirmation of the CCHF comes barely two weeks after the ministry of health denied the outbreak.
On Jan. 5, Opendi told reporters that the samples taken from the suspected nine-year-old boy tested negative of CCHF, contrary to the claims from Nakaseke districts authorities on the outbreak.
The minister on Monday dismissed reports that an eight-year-old girl from Kagugo village, Luweero district, succumbed to the fever.
“The laboratory results from the deceased’s blood samples tested negative for CCHF and other viral Hemorrhagic fevers.
“The ministry of health is continuing to investigate the possible cause of the death of this young girl in collaboration with partners,” Opendi said.
Crimean-Congo is a tick-borne illness transmitted to humans through tick bites. It is also be transmitted through contact with the blood of infected animals especially during slaughter.
It can also be transmitted through direct contact with the blood, secretions and the organs of infected people.
Nosocomial transmission can occur through contaminated medical equipment or body fluid from infected persons.
A CCHF outbreak constitutes a threat to public health, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
According to the global health body, the fever is associated with high case fatality ratio of about 10-40 per cent, which is endemic in Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East.
It was a terrible day as Olasumbo Apanpa’s apartment at the Lekky County Homes Estate in Ikota, on the Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos was ravaged by flood. Sequel to the devastating flooding and fear of what the incoming rainy season has in stock by staying in her apartment, she has no option than to relocate to a different apartment – for the safety of her family prior to the incoming rainy season.
A street overrun by flood on Victoria Island, Lagos
Properties worth billions of naira were destroyed in the epic flooding of July 8, 2017 – which engulfed Lagos, Nigeria. Socio-economic activities were at standstill, many people unexpectedly got mired in massive debts, and millions of residents dispossessed of their hard-earned valuables and forcefully ejected from their abodes abruptly; leaving the trail of severe ecological damage. Six months after, the victims are still reeling in the scars and finding it difficult to wriggle out of the trauma – as the ugly incidence flashes in their thoughts.
“On that fateful Saturday morning, I was still snuggling up in bed, because it had been raining since morning, till my son came into my room. He said he got a WhatsApp message on the estate residents’ platform asking people to pray for the rain to stop, that it was serious! I got up then to go downstairs only to see our sitting room flooded to almost knee deep.
“We looked out from our balcony and saw water gushing out from a wall that had been there to demarcate the estate. The force of the water broke the wall and water was just flowing into houses and streets in torrents. The whole place was looking like a moving stream,” Apanpa reveals in an interview.
With an estimated population of 21 million and 40% landmass of water bodies, Lagos is unarguably the most populous city and Nigeria’s commercial capital. But the bustling city is vulnerable to flooding, sea level rise, high water table, ocean surges and inundation due to its strategic location and low-lying terrain. Despite that, thousands of migrants who are earnestly in search of greener pastures within and outside Nigeria’s shores troop in on a daily basis – constituting stress on the few facilities – leading to extensive pressure on the Lagos’ fragile ecosystem.
Amidst the growing population and the skyrocketed cost of acquiring an apartment, the low-income migrants who are desperate to cope with the standard of living and hit the ground running are left with the option of pitching their tents in informal settlements – which are devoid of basic amenities. The over 65% inhabitants are perpetually vulnerable to extensive flooding, ocean surges, poor sanitation, and malaria and cholera outbreak. Such shanties are often on low-lying coastal areas; among which are communities such as Makoko, Ilaje-Bariga, Iwaya, and the recently-demolished Otodo Gbame.
In contrast, the rich have a penchant for land reclamation along the ocean and river banks – prompting queries and suspicion on the genuinety of Environmental Impact Assessment purportedly carried out prior to such land mark projects.
The 9 Km2 landmass of the ongoing Eko Atlantic City project – requiring about 95 million m3 of sand dredged from the sea bed typifies such an affluent and grandiose reclamation project — with an estimated cost of $6 billion. It is expected to accommodate about 350,000 people, with the price of a two-bedroom apartment selling in the region of $896,750.
Climate scientists are worried that continuous and unregulated reclamation could exacerbate flooding, the devastation of marine habitat culminating ecological imbalance. And quite worrisome, the poorer communities are at the receiving end of coastal erosion, extensive flooding and tidal waves generated by reclamation – with untoward consequences.
A source close to Total Exploration & Production Nigeria Limited, revealed that the firm was badly hit as properties worth over N35 million got damaged. According to him, the entire ground floor of the firm located at Victoria Island was submerged such that the underground draining pipes were unable to suck out the water. There are indications that the firm is yet to recover from the debt incurred.
“This is the first time I’m experiencing this kind of flooding in my adult life and I know of a family who was contacted and relocated that same day,” the source adds.
The unprecedented submergence along Ahmadu Bello Way on Victoria Island is said to be just a tip of the iceberg of the looming danger. On the heels of the devastating occurrence, palpable fear is evident as Lagos residents are apprehensive of what the incoming rainy season has in stock for them – owing to the failed promises of the concerned bodies.
Flooded highway in Lekki, Lagos
No doubt, flood is a natural and global source of concern – in which Lagos isn’t exempted from its perennial occurrence. According to worldweather online, the average rainfall of 281.3 mm in July was the highest rainfall volume in 2017 – with duration of 30 days. Not surprising the extensive flooding.
As part of efforts to rid the state of flooding, the government says it is committed to desilting by clearing jerry cans, sacks, polythene bags, tires, blocks, silts among others that block the free-flow of storm water.
“Ikorodu Road, Mile12, Kosofe, Ketu, Ojota, Anothy, Maryland, Ilupeju, Obanikoro, Palmgrove, Onipanu, Fadeyi, Jibowu, Moshalashi, Ojuelegba, Stadium, Alaka and Iponri.Others include CMS, Marina, TBS, Kudirat Abiola Way, Awolowo Road, Opebi-Allen Road, Apapa Wharf Road and Agege,” are being desilted as revealed by Managing Director of Drain Ducks, Mr. Akeem Apatira.
The Lagos government is indeed commended for its adaptation and mitigation moves but, quite unfortunate that the ambitious and commendable Lagos State Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (LAS- CCAS) that briefly outlinesd drainage appears not to have given a full account of a clear and comprehensive roadmap in addressing the seemingly defective drainage pattern the state, the indiscriminate dredging by sand miners, and relocation plans. And nothing concrete was said of uncoordinated settlements lying across flood plains and the down streams of Oyan dam.
“If we have learnt anything in the ongoing flooding of some parts of the state, it is that there is an immediate, even urgent need for us to embark upon a review and re-engineering of our canals and drainage systems,” Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said in dousing the tension subsequently after the flooding.
Nothing can stop accumulation of excessive puddles not receding some days after a long stretch of heavy downpour if well-structured and efficient drainage systems together with a strictly coordinated infrastructural layout are not incorporated into the adaptation strategy. Alleviating the seasonal flooding would be in jeopardy, and thereby threading the path of a mirage.
Six months after the promise, most of the inhabitants are still sceptical of government’s sincerity in tackling the defying flooding. The citizens have a role to play too in stopping refuse clogging the water ways and obstruct free flow of water.
Apart from the shrinking Lake Chad basin which is capable of triggering unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Northeast Nigeria and beyond, perennial flooding in Lagos is a climate change phenomenon in urgent need of proactive measures towards forestalling inundation that is capable of wreaking havoc on Lagos’ ecosystem.
By Odewale Abayomi Joseph (ICFJ Climate Fellow, climate writer and advocate; @ODEWALEAbayomi)
An ecologist, Mr Abdullahi Aremu, on Monday,January 15, 2018 urged the media to sensitise Nigerians to the dangers of using refrigerators, air conditioning units which emit ozone-depleting substances like chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere.
The ozone hole in 2015
Aremu, the Director-General, Advocacy for Environmental and Sanitation Integrity, an NGO, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
The ecologist advised Nigerians not to buy products that contained chlorofluorocarbons as, according to him, such devices released toxic chemicals which depleted the ozone layer.
He said that the depletion of the ozone layer was a global environmental challenge which posed serious dangers to the entire human community.
“Therefore, if you are out for shopping, don’t buy aerosol products containing chlorofluorocarbons.
“Check your fire extinguishers to ascertain if halon or halogenated hydrocarbon is the main ingredient.
“I am urging the people to dispose of their old air conditioning units and refrigerators that use chlorofluorocarbons to function, as these devices release toxic chemicals into the atmosphere,’’ he said.
Aremu described chlorofluorocarbons as one of the primary causes of the depletion of the ozone layer.
“Industrial products, including solvents, soaps, spray aerosols, insulating foams, ‘take-away’ containers and cooling utilities, such as refrigerators and air conditioners, also use chlorofluorocarbons.
“Over time, the toxic chemicals accumulate in the atmosphere and are carried by wind into the stratosphere,’’ he said.
He said that once chlorofluorocarbons were in the stratosphere, their molecules were broken up by the ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun which released chlorine atoms.
He stressed that the chlorine atoms would react with the ozone, setting out a chemical cycle that destroyed the ozone layer.
“Depletion of ozone layer does not affect a region or a country; the whole world is vulnerable to it.
“The increase in the levels of ultraviolet rays lead to the high incidence of skin cancer and eye-related problems,’’ he said.
Aremu also said that fertilisers and pesticides produced nitrous oxide, which also contributed to the depletion of the ozone layer.
No fewer than 100 schools and communities are to benefit from the teaching of two of the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Edo State by the Initiative for Climate Education and Energy Awareness (ICEEA).
Secondary school students
The President of the NGO, Mr Victor Osehobo, stated in an interview that, so far, the two benefitting schools are Winrose Secondary School in Obe and Phelim High School in Ugbor, adding that 98 other schools were on the waiting list.
He added that ICEEA’s interest in teaching the SDGs and especially Goals 13 and 7 is aimed at raising awareness on issues of climate change and clean energy which is at a very low ebb among the general public in most parts of the state if not the country.
“We found out on a survey that most schools in Edo do not have geography teachers while schools with such teachers do not have Climate Awareness or Environment clubs at a time the while world is worried about global warming seen in high temperatures, rainfalls, mudslides, floods, hurricanes and so on.”
The ICEEA President, who called on the state government to as a matter of priority give scholarships to geography students at Colleges of Education and Universities, said it would reduce the dearth of the subject teachers in the state schools.
On the two SDGs of ICEEA project which he said respectively talks about taking climate action and affordable and clean energy, Mr Osehobo added that they are being taught without forgetting that all of the 17 goals are interrelated and designed to end poverty, protect the planet and reduce inequalities.
On the modalities adopted, he said that it is through the establishment of Climate Awareness Clubs and inauguration of Goals Ambassadors in the schools and neighbouring communities with children and youths, women and resource poor men as beneficiaries.
“Through these clubs we teach people the impacts of climate change and how to reduce their carbon footprints, what is renewable energy and by so doing inform, educate and cultivate among them an admiration and concern for the Earth’s future”.
He added, “Our plan is to have these clubs in about 100 communities and schools in the state so that community dwellers like women, children and youths as well as resource poor men being the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change learn to adapt by taking action.
“We believe that the Climate Awareness Clubs will help members to actively lead and participate in the climate change and clean energy awareness activities and take personal action to contribute to adapting to climate change impacts.”
Osehobo said all the Goal Ambassadors were receiving training to become climate leaders who connect with others to create awareness about climate change and adaptation strategies in a manner that will help them to lead, identify and solve environmental problems in the future.
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria will commission the new office complex of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Abuja on Thursday, January 18, 2018, consolidating the country’s position as the Bank’s largest shareholder.
AfDB building in Abuja
The state-of-the-art Nigeria Country Department (RDNG) office complex, situated in the Central Business District (CBD) of the federal capital city is the first permanent structure to be designed and constructed in any regional member country of the Bank.
Nigeria is the AfDB’s largest shareholder with a portfolio of approximately $6 billion and country operations accounting for 13% of the Bank’s total portfolio.
Following the Board of Directors’ approval of the “Rent or Acquire Premises for Field Offices” policy and the recommendation to construct a new office in Nigeria, construction work started in January 2016 and lasted 16 months. The 220-staff capacity four-storey building will now become a model for replication in other countries.
“The Bank has positioned itself as the preferred lending partner in Nigeria as it continues to support Nigeria’s long-term aspiration to be among the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020,” said Ebrima Faal, Senior Director, Nigeria Country Department of the AfDB.
“The Bank remains grateful to the Federal Government of Nigeria for the land provided and the continuous show of solidarity to the Bank. The existence of this structure is a reaffirmation of the African Development Bank’s commitment to support Nigeria to achieve its development reforms,” said Akinwumi Adesina, President of the AfDB.
“The Bank is highly committed to working with the private and public sectors to implement the High 5s agenda and meet the Sustainable Development Goals’ targets in Nigeria and across the continent.”
The event will be attended by top Government officials, development partners, international organisations, captains of industry, the diplomatic corps and the media.
The AfDB Group was established on September 10, 1964 and commenced operations in Nigeria in 1971.
China and France have reaffirmed their commitment to deepen and broaden their cooperation on environmental protection and climate change.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (right), with French President Emmanuel Macron
At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, French President Emmanuel Macron visited China last week and discussed a number of issues with the Chinese leader, including the increasingly important sustainability agendas of both countries.
In a joint statement issued at the end of the visit, China welcomed the convening of the One Planet Summit in Paris in December of last year. At the Paris Summit, leaders underscored how financial flows are shifting billions and trillions towards a low-carbon future that will benefit peoples and livelihoods, and made a number of significant climate action announcements.
Also in the statement issued at the end of the meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron, France welcomed the official announcement by China on December 19, 2017 of the launch of its national emissions trading scheme.
Both countries said they were satisfied with the progress made on green finance since the work was initiated under the Chinese presidency of the G20.
Following the successful conclusion of the UN Climate Change Conference COP23 in Bonn last year, the two countries committed to “strengthen their collaboration with a view to reaching operational implementation rules for the Paris Climate Change Agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poland this year (COP24)” and will “take concrete steps to push for the full, effective and timely implementation of the Paris Agreement.”
“China and France will work together with other parties to raise state ambition before 2020. The Paris Agreement must be implemented in accordance with the principles of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, taking into account different national conditions,” the statement reads.
Furthermore, the two nations intend to continue their constructive dialogue on the elaboration of a Global Environment Pact, an initiative proposed by the French government in September 2017 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. And they committed to strengthen their exchanges on COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2020.
Finally, the China and France announced their decision to launch a “Franco-Chinese Year of the Environment” and said they would continue to identify and implement joint projects on sustainable cities, cooperate further to advance the development of Franco-Chinese oceanographic and astronomical satellites, along with strengthening their collaboration on the study of climate change using space technologies.
In line with resolutions reached at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP17) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) held in 2016 in South Africa, Parties are to take an inventory of existing elephant ivory, rhino horn.
A rhino being de-horned
CITES in a recent directive requested countries to mark elephant ivory tusks and cut pieces, and submit an inventory of government and private stocks to its secretariat.
Similarly, countries with stocks of rhinoceros (or rhino) horn have been asked to identify, mark, register and secure such stocks, and declare to CITES.
Deadline for both declarations is Wednesday, February 28, 2018. The exercise is a yearly affair.
“The purpose of the present Notification is to remind Parties that Resolution Conf. 9.14 (Rev. CoP17) on Conservation of and trade in African and Asian rhinoceroses contains, among other provisions, a recommendation urging all Parties that have stocks of rhinoceros horn to identify, mark, register and secure such stocks, and declare these to the Secretariat each year before 28 February, in a format to be defined by the Secretariat.
“The Resolution also inter alia urges the Secretariat and other appropriate bodies, where possible, to assist Parties that have stocks of rhinoceros horn with the control of stocks, by providing them technical advice and relevant information,” CITES disclosed in a notification for “Declaration of stocks of rhinoceros horn”.
In the other notification titled: “Elephant ivory stocks: marking, inventories and security”, CITES reminded Parties that Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev. CoP17) on Trade in elephant specimens contains, amongst other provisions, a recommendation to mark elephant ivory tusks and cut pieces, and they should submit an inventory of government-held ivory stock and significant privately held ivory stocks, and the reasons for any significant changes in the stockpile compared to the preceding year.
The request to submit an inventory, says CITES, is directed to “Parties in whose jurisdiction there is an ivory carving industry, a legal domestic trade in ivory, an unregulated market for or illegal trade in ivory, or where ivory stockpiles exist, and Parties designated as ivory importing countries”.
Parties are also invited to include a summary of information on the ivory stocks disposed of during the year 2016, in particular the volume of raw and worked ivory and how it was disposed of.
In both scenarios, CITES provided a model table that can be used by Parties for reporting their inventory of ivory and horn to the Secretariat.
The gruesome murder of our brothers, sisters and children in Benue State by herdsmen has taken the level of insecurity in Nigeria to new heights. While some of us were quick to avoid the devastating photos of the carnage as posted in social media platforms, photos of rows of caskets in which the victims were buried etched indelible prints on our souls as a people. The uniformity of the caskets says to us: this could be you.
Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom
As each victim was lowered into the grave, their departure marked a strong rebuke to a system that allows these atrocities to be perpetuated. How low can we sink as a people? The need to urgently check the spread of this terror cannot overemphasised. The relocation order given to the Inspector General of Police days after the massacre does not convey a sense of the level of seriousness with which the Federal Government should approach the situation. It is not conceivable that the Nigerian police would adequately handle terror of this magnitude.
We hope that the mass burial in Benue State serves as a wakeup call for the Federal Government and its security agencies. And we do hope that mass burials do not turn into regular or repeated events, as happened in the case of previously inconceivable suicide bombings.
Some of the responses to the abominable killings in Benue have been contentious. Consider, for instance, the presidential spokesperson’s statement that over 756 persons were killed by herdsmen in two years during the tenure of former President Jonathan. Efforts at informing us that the present massacre was not as horrendous as what may have happened in the past simply increase the pains rather than raise any sense of hope that things would change for the better. The murder of a single person diminishes us all and the death of 756 Nigerian in two or more years do nothing to calm nerves when it is recalled that 2,500 citizens were said to have been killed by herders in Plateau, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Benue states in just 2016 alone.
Moreover, the notion that migration is due to a population explosion in Nigeria is debatable. The lack of credible population figures and reliance on projections based on dubious figures make such assertions grossly unrealistic. Reliance on such notions inflicts avoidable harm on our planning efforts. Our larger-than-life population figure gives us ready excuse for not taking right decisions.
With regard to action responses to violent herdsmen, let us consider one of the proposed actions that would be taken as a long-term solution to the conflict – the idea of creating grazing or cattle colonies across the nation as announced by the Minister of Agriculture. It sounds rather bizarre and raises a number of concerns. Top on the list of concerns is the undertone of the word colony. For most Nigerians, the idea of a colony would be one defined as “a country or area under full or partial political control of another, often distant country.” Could it be that the minister was using the term in the sense sometimes used to describe animals of the same breed staying together in a closed structure? Whatever the case, the imagery requires further interrogation.
Keeping in mind that colonialism was entrenched by the power of the barrel of the gun, could anyone believe that it is at a period of heated conflict and distrust that colonising any territory, for any purpose, can be the way to resolve the conflicts?
Unfortunately, the persistent conflicts between pastoralists and farmers are often reduced to incidents induced by struggle for religious or ethnic dominance. While there may be a basis for reaching such conclusions, it is clear that pursuing those lines would not lead to a resolution of the crisis.
Pastoralism is not a preserve of particular ethnic nationalities or religion. We can indeed develop pastoral activities across the nation with the mind-set that the business is not patented to only one ethnic nationality. With this understanding, a dedicated grazing area in a particular state would not translate to the ceding of such territories to be colonised by anyone. It should also be clear that grazing is not restricted to those breeding and rearing cattle. Goats, sheep and other livestock can equally benefit from such developments.
It was from the understanding that the conflicts can best be resolved by tackling the root instigators of the crises, that Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and the Confederation of Traditional Herder Organisations in Africa (CORET) began a series of engagements with pastoralists and farmers starting from Abuja in September and October 2017. In those engagements, we examined the confluence between pastoralists, farmers, land use, conflicts and climate change. These were examined also from a gender perspective to provide a rounded understanding of the dynamics that throw up different kinds of conflicts in our society.
One of the conclusions from the engagements was that farmers and pastoralists can operate in a mutually beneficial manner. If the right physical environment is guaranteed, the culture of nomadic herders trekking over huge distances could be moderated in such a way that the movements would be strategic and not necessarily translate to herders trekking all over the nation. It cannot be denied that Nigeria needs multiyear environmental management plans with clear targets and strategic action paths.
The fact that southern Niger Republic is greener than parts of northern Nigeria should suggest to us that our approach to environmental management is defective. Here we refer specifically to our management of our vegetative cover and water resources. We tend to see our environment as capable of rapid self-regeneration irrespective of how rabid our rate of consumption of Nature’s gifts to us may be. The result is the reality of desertification in northern Nigeria that we characterise as the downward march or spread of the Sahara Desert. Permit us to pose a simplistic question: if the desert were marching down so mercilessly, how come Niger Republic has not gone completely under the sand?
While the security agents fish out and bring the perpetrators of the Benue massacre to book, it would be useful for the Minister of Agriculture, other relevant ministries, as well as security agencies, to consider some of the resolutionsthat came out of the October 2017 Sustainability Academy:
There should be greater engagement of agricultural extension workers by all levels of governments to effectively engage in communicating climate change to farmers and pastoralists.
Pastoralists and farmers have lived in harmony in Nigeria and can do so now. The ongoing conflicts are needless and distort development efforts.
There should be re-orientation for pastoralists and farmers for harmonious co-existence as both are interdependent and their actions can be mutually beneficial.
The fact that climate change impacts differently on different gender and social groups should be considered in preparing climate action plans.
The Great Green Wall Programme aimed at combating desertification amplified by climate change through improved use of land and water resources should incorporate pastoralists in their fodder production scheme for sustainable development.
Government should implement a livestock development policy that aligns with regional and international practices.
The Federal Government should initiate actions to produce a detailed land use and environmental plan for the country.
There is need for public-private partnership and scientific re- orientation for the development of pastoralism in Nigeria.
Herders should adopt the practice of managed intensive systematic rotational grazing as well as ranching.
Fully integrate gender justice in the brokering of peace and the implementation of all forms of conflict management initiatives.
The Federal Government should create a Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries as is obtained in several other African countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, Niger and Tanzania.
Climate change dose not respect geopolitical boundaries and should be tackled with this understanding.
Take inventory of the all existing grazing reserves, traditional grazing areas, transhumance corridors, major stock routes, review and take appropriate development actions
By Nnimmo Bassey (Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation – HOMEF)
