An agroscientist, Dr Sadiq Mohammed, on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, urged the Federal Government to strengthen the country’s environment protection laws to safeguard public health and improve the life expectancy for Nigerians.
Mohammed, an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, said this during an interview in Abuja.
He decried the widespread pollution of water bodies, indiscriminate use of agrochemicals and weak compliance to environmental regulations across the country.
The expert said that pollution of the water bodies was affecting the quality of crops, fruit yields with their consumption affecting the life expectancy of many Nigerians.
“The governments need to understand that environmental laws need to be strengthened.
“When you inform industries that you are coming for inspection, they will make the place fantastic for you to see.
“They won’t take you to the suburbs; some of them discharge industrial and pharmaceutical wastes into water bodies that are meant for municipal water supply.
“They are discharging pharmaceutical effluent, cement waste and people downstream are using it, they don’t understand the chemistry, they take that and it is affecting them.
“We also have naira notes made with mercury, when you burn mutilated money, which is a physical process, the mercury content in that money remains in the ash and it is deposited on the soil,’’ Mohammed said.
He explained that local farmers did not understand the chemical process and they would pack the ash from burnt money and apply on the farm as organic manure.
He said the body naturally produced iodine from the thyroid gland and its chemical reaction with mercury would convert to mercury iodide, inhibiting iodine secretion leading to goitre disease.
“Our environment is heterogenous, people pack rubbish, cement, battery, polythene bags, and that is what the farmers go to scoop.
“Whatever you send into the soil is what it will give back to you; the plants will absorb these pollutants.
“The plants do not have the mechanism to remove contaminants in them, so we harvest and eat them.”
Mohammed said when we were loading our systems with chemicals that did not have biological function we were hurting our life expectancy.
“Until the government is ready to strengthen our environmental laws, the typical life expectancy of a Nigerian will drop to 30 years; we shouldn’t allow that to happen,’’ he said.
Mohammed further explained that agrochemicals are releasing residues into the soil which would affect soil fertility over time.
He also frowned at indiscriminate mining licenses granted to mining companies, adding that proper laws were not put in place for the reclamation of such mined lands.
According to him, abandoned mine sites gather water which farmers convert to irrigation water, adding that this practice also contributes to food chain contamination