allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Towards a Green Nigeria 2 (Page 1 of 1)

Generally, Nigerians lack respect for the environment. We have learnt a lot from the example of the Federal Government that, for decades, turned a blind eye to the environmental damage being perpetrated by oil multinationals in the Niger-Delta.

It's no longer news that land for farming and sea life has been destroyed as a result of spillages from oil pipes and exploration sites in the area. Gas flaring and the release of other noxious wastes into the air have added to the challenge of a polluted atmosphere facing the Niger-Delta.

But let nobody make mistakes about it. The issue of gas flaring or release of atmospheric wastes is not restricted to the Niger-Delta. Many companies in the heart of our cities and bigger towns daily pump noxious wastes into the atmosphere.

Just about two years ago, Nigerians in Lagos woke up to a cloudy day in which visibility was dangerously poor. It would take the entire day before any explanation was forthcoming about the incident and, then, nothing coherent.

A visit to the various industrial areas in the country would invariably show evidence of practices harmful to the environment. Culverts and drainages around such sites are often clogged with chemical sludge from the factories. That's just one side of the matter.

There's the question of waste disposal and burning in open spaces. The case of Ojota in Lagos readily comes to mind. The vicinity of this part of Lagos is for, several hours, held in the thick fumes of burning wastes several days of the week.

On other days, foul-smelling trucks loaded with wastes, on their way to the Ojota dump site, form a long vehicular chain around Kudirat Abiola Way, obstructing free movement of both vehicles and pedestrians.

It's quite unfortunate that cases such as these are what a visitor to Lagos would notice even when residents of the State can point to the impressive effort of the State's Ministry of the Environment and the State government in other areas.

The case of Lagos is this visible given its position in the country, but it's obvious that the situation is similar in other parts of the country. Perhaps even worse, when it's realised that these states don't have to cope with the huge population of Lagos.

The presence of environmental inspectors can hardly be felt in Nigeria. Gone are the days of the ubiquitous wolewole, sanitary inspectors that were important part of life in some places like Lagos.

As a child growing up in Lagos, the picture is still etched on my mind of sanitary officials who went round, with tanks strapped to their backs, fumigating gutters, ponds and drainages around the city.

Then the gutters were far much cleaner as you could, as a child, reach down to pick a coin carelessly dropped in any. Now it doesn't look like there are rules or regulations guiding how factories or ordinary citizens operate in terms of the generation and disposal of wastes and release of chemicals into the country's eco-system.

It's not unusual to see an apparently, highly educated Nigerian casually toss wastes, ranging from food leavings to fruits' peels, out of moving vehicles. And such people are the first to defend their right to such egregious behaviour when questioned.

When sachet water makers/sellers were recently advised by the authorities in Lagos on how to manage wastes from their products, their response was to increase both the retail and wholesale price of packed water.

Such punitive and clearly vindictive gesture was the best that the 'pure water' sellers could make and, so far, nobody, not even the Lagos State government, has thought it fit to take up issues with them. And how do we treat our natural environment?

Many years after pit toilets have been banned in many of our cities, untreated human wastes are still being openly emptied into rivers and lagoons; while a visit to the beaches, whose shorelines are being daily eroded, would show food vendors and other commercial operators burying both bio- and non-bio-degradable wastes right on the beaches.

The forests don't fare better, as they are seen in largely functional/commercial terms: mere objects for the gratification of our selfish needs. Thus a timber merchant sees nothing wrong with moving into a forest and carelessly cutting down trees that are several decades old for making furniture.

Hand in hand with indiscriminate wood felling is the challenge of bush burning for farming as well as other purposes. In all this, no effort is made to plant new trees where old ones had been cut down.

The concern, as always, is about profit. Indeed our lack of respect for the environment is very evident in our building culture. Nigerians, of whatever social class or education, don't see the need to create spaces for recreation in their building plans.

Every available space is put to some use- a store here, a room or a garage somewhere. People build their houses to the very tip of the roads which are themselves clogged with mostly old, carbon-emitting vehicles, as nobody sees the need to take public transport.

There are no spaces left for culverts or pedestrians to walk. In the end, there are but few drainage facilities in congested cities like Lagos and Ibadan, among others, so that once it rains the roads are flooded and more damage is done to the environment.

Many well-laid (?) estates, there are, without parks for recreation or spaces for vehicles. Where such exist they are sooner than later turned into commercial spots-petrol stations, warehouses or places of worship.

Which is why we must give praises where it is due, as in the drive by the Lagos State government to green Lagos and return some decency to our treatment of the environment.

We see this along the Marina and other road spots in the state where recreation parks are being constructed. The survival of our world in the end depends on how much respect we have for the environment.

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