By Emmanuel Olurunfemi
A degrading Nigeria's environment and the pathways to sustainability
Nigeria's environment is as diverse and rich as its people. From its arable land in the north to rich swamp in the south to rain forests in the west and to deep soils in the east; Nigeria expresses an abundance of natural endowment. The number of natural resources in Nigeria is beyond average when compared with other nations of the world. However in Nigeria just like most nations of the world, humans activities are disrupting and degrading the planet. In Nigeria, economic-motivated actions are the mother of man's disruption of its environment. And to meet the massive development demands like poverty alleviation and infrastructure development, its environment suffers heavily.
Nigeria's environment and economic activities
The extent to which man's economic activities have tampered with Nigeria's environment is huge and needs conscious redirection. The manner in which economic activities have tampered with Nigeria's environment includes; oil exploration, open grazing, logging, and urbanization. These activities contribute more to negatively impacting the country's environment, and brief discussions on them follow hereafter.
Oil exploration
Crude oil was first discovered in Nigeria in 1956 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta region, and its exploration started in 1958. Unequivocally, different military regimes and civilian administrations in Nigeria failed in tackling environmental hazards as a result of oil exploration. Rather most of them in one way or another mastered the art of silencing environmental advocates. The environmental degradation in oil-producing states is evidence in poor air quality, loss of aquatic lives, and farmlands. On 22nd April for example, National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency confirmed large numbers of fishes along the coastline in Bayelsa state. Though the cause of this incident is not yet established, past occurrence suggests a link to oil spills. Additionally, the Ogoniland pollutions which its cleanup is taking forever is another example of how human activities have negatively impacted Nigeria's environment. With oil as the major source of foreign earning, the damages its exploration is causing to the environment negate income received .
Open Grazing
Another vehicle for degrading Nigeria's environment is widespread of open grazing of herds across the country. A study by T.E. Olagunju of Alex Ekwueme Federal University reports that about 580,841 km2 accounting for 63.83% of the total land in Nigeria is under threat of desert encroachment. One of the causes of desertification is the overly increasing of cattle and other herds feeding on grasses. To many Nigeria, the herders-farmers crisis is ethnic-religion in nature. However, the main cause is desertification. If this environment condition is not finally laid to rest, the crisis ahead is not what the country will like to witness.
Logging
The logging activities contribute also show how human activities have tampered with nature. The fact that logging activities are done illegally makes the situation worse. The importance of forests in mitigating climate change impacts is crucial. According to the World Development Indicator by the United Nations, Nigeria lost close to 50% of its forest cover between 1990 to 2010. A thriving logging black market, a high rate of wood fire consumption, logging as a source of livelihood among others are factors that cause the high rate of deforestation.
Beyond these three examples of how human activities have tampered with Nigeria's environment from an economic point of view, there are other ones. These include urbanization, international trade, manufacturing activities, agriculture, gas exploration, and water resources exploitation.
Environmental-friendly development pathways for Nigeria
Let me start with an observation, no country that fails to get its economy right can properly protect its environment. For example in Nigeria, governments do not have the luxury of delivering environmentally sustainable programs. Though in paper government at all levels are responsible but in reality, they are not. Understandably, it is a tough decision for the government to choose a sustainable path, however, it is the only way to develop. Despite these obvious challenges, it is possible for the government to develop and still achieve sustainability through holistic measures. These measures include; a data-oriented to poverty alleviation programs, better functioning Ecological Fund and realistic commitment to SDGs.
Data-oriented poverty programs
To start with, the current Coronavirus pandemic and the giving of palliatives to poor and vulnerable households are generating controversy because of a lack of verifiable and credible data. A comprehensive database of individual Nigerian is foundational to reducing poverty incidence. By having this database, the government will know the number of people who depend on natural resources for living and design programs that substitute their dependency. Also, government diversification agender will work better because it will be based on individual community needs, which is a move away from the current plan. Poverty-environment nexus is a well-established phenomenon in sustainable development practice, and the Nigerian government needs to approach environmental sustainability from this perspective.
PPP Ecological Fund
The country's Ecological Fund needs to evolve beyond current functions for Nigeria to toll the path of sustainability. Structuring the Fund to accommodate corporate businesses and selected non-governmental organizations will improve its transparency and quality of its service delivery. The new structure should come in the form of an increase in government contributions to the Fund. For example, 15% of crude oil earnings and 2.5% in corporate incometaxes. Furthermore, the funds should have an additional function of building sustainable infrastructure like renewable energy and waste to wealth projects.
Commitment to SDGs
Nigeria's commitment to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will help in scaling its environmental sustainability. Therefore, the government needs to ensure the achievement of these goals through a commitment to the principle of Agenda 2030.
So far, it is obvious how human economic activities in Nigeria continue to degrade the environment's health. Activities like crude oil exploration, logging, and open grazing contributed largely to the poor state of Nigeria's environment. To curtail this, development data that tackles poverty, PPP-modelled ecological fund that builds sustainable infrastructures and commitment to achieve SDGs that deliver the goals' targets are necessary.
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