Our rain forest have been deflected 60% since the independence, the thick forest areas of the South have become Savannah, our rivers that crisscross the nation with clean water has become toxic and the underground water mainly through rainfall and nature has become acidic, the air that we breathe in and out that we cannot see or hold has become poisonous due to environmental degradation and air pollution. The farmlands that grow our cash crops are no longer fertile because of the movement of biodiversity and migration of nature, and the grazing fields particularly in the northern part of Nigeria are no more, causing the movement of animals and humans to move southwards.
Overgrazing the limited greenery in the South will make the encroachment of the Sahara very easy, eleven states in Nigeria are affected by the movement of the Sahara. The Atlantic Ocean is already looking down on the riverine and coastal part of the South. If in the unlikely event that nature decides to ring together the Sahara and the Atlantic, we may have no land in which to grow our food, to harvest our water and to build the homes that harbor 2-3 generators and generator houses with high fences and in some cases with electric fences.
We have in our family a 98 year old Uncle, Chief Gibson Konwe who is a farmer and has been so all his life. He is able to go to his farm and back some six kilometers away almost every day. Most of the times he would live his doors and windows open whilst moving around town and whilst traveling between his homes and his farms.
Some time ago, his son who is a resident in the abroad came back to Nigeria and was not happy with the security in the state despite the fact that he was home for months, he decided to fence his father’s house with a beautiful shining gate. In the process, he and the contractors damaged some of the trees the old man and I had planted some years back. The TREES that provided shade for visitors and the TREES that provided the shade needed for weekly meetings as the old man has now become the head of the entire community.
When I visited him recently, he lamented not only about the trees that were cut, he told me that the fence and the gate has made him feel like being in prison especially now that he cannot see the rest of the town that passes by and cannot be seen whenever he is seated by his balcony. It would be recalled that when recently I planted 85 trees in Asaba to commemorate my 85th birthday, the old man was one of the planters. I had invited friends of the environment to join me in planting 85 trees to celebrate my birthday. It was an evening affair which started with planting of trees at the Airport gate in Asaba, Delta State.
I have been at the forefront having discourse on saving and preserving the environment since for over 50 years. I have planted walls of trees in Kano, Lagos, Delta and different locations in Nigeria. Globally educating Nigerians of the important of trees and what nature does and is still for us. We’ve had these trees planted, fruiting, providing shade and supporting the quality of air that we breathe.
But you see Nigerians trampling on these plants, cutting down these trees without replacing or replanting forgetting that their lives depend on those trees for survival. Our forefathers did not cut down trees without replacing them. They did not graze the fields with their domestic animals without shifting or alternating grazing patterns. They did not also farm lands without shifting cultivation culture. Some of the foods they ate and some of the fruits they used for making soap, oil and paint were nurtured from generations. Some of these trees lived for hundreds of years.
It is nice to note that a lot of the fruits and vegetables we eat came from birds and animals that migrated from other lands and brought with them fruits and seeds. The sad news is that some of these animals no longer migrate to Nigeria due to Climate Change, and most of our forests have become savannahs and deserts. This is as a result of the disappearance of the vegetative covers that would normally absorb the rain, thereby mitigating the kinds of flooding we’ve seen in Delta, Kogi, Benue, Kano, Kaduna and Katsina recently.
Now to share my personal experience in Makoda in partnership with Kano State government and some international donors, we decided to halt the encroachment of the Sahara and it was like freeing the community from imprisonment by the Sahara. With the wall of tree program and some of the trees beginning to fruit and the benefits of having access to portable drinking water, life in the communities started to thrive again and started the journey of a new life with more farming land. Before then on my 75th birthday, January 1, 2013, I had invited 75 notable people who took part in planting 75 trees at Folawiyo Ikoyi in Lagos where students can go, read and relax in the open fields.
So when I was planning to celebrate my 85th birthday last year, being a lover of trees and the propagation towards it, I opted to plant trees to save ourselves from possible disasters that is looming the state of the nation. Desertification and communities being sent out of their lands, I reached out to the friends of the environment which had the likes of the Emirs of Kano and Bichi ably represented by Ado Bayero Princes, Rufai Oseni, Soni Irabor, Jahman Anikulapo, Wole Soyinka ably represented, MD Shehu, General Hassan, Uche Jibunoh etc who joined me in planting 85 trees to make up the “GARDEN OF 85 TREES”. They had planted at least one tree because the message has always been “Each one, Plant one”. A world where each citizen plants one tree, we would have millions of trees to help deal with the negative trends of negative climate condition.
It is only in Nigeria that you have such self-imprisonment without knowing it. Most Nigerians now feel threatened not only outside the public but also in their homes. We HAVE A saying in my place that “mmadu anaghi ano Na-be ya ebute okwu” which means “you don’t get into trouble in your own home”. It then imperative to protect and nurture the very thing that ensures our existence. We don’t have to look very far to witness the damaging effects before we can set ourselves free from its shackles.
To conclude therefore, it is worthy to note that a combination of climate crisis, massive corruption and the mismanagement of our common wealth and insecurity has affected commuters all over the country bringing about banditry, kidnapping and have such forced many Nigerians into self-imprisonment without knowing it.
