Friday Olokor, Abuja
A civil rights organisation, One
Environment, has called on President MuhammaduBuhari, to re-enact the
popular ‘War Against Indiscipline’, to protect the environment and
enhance its sustainability.
The organisation also warned that except
stringent measures were taken to protect the environment, Nigeria
risked serious disasters in about 2040.
The Executive Director, Art Collective
Foundation, Mr. Comedy Nwanyanwu, stated this in an interview with our
correspondent on the sidelines of a press briefing held in Abuja to
herald the inauguration of One Environment scheduled for July 2016.
He also informed that the OE intended to plant 5,000 trees within the next 12 months in Abuja and its satellite communities.
The essence of the OE, he said, was to
bring together environmental experts to discuss the challenges and
articulate ideas that would promote sustainability organic contents.
Nwanyanwu said, “If the government can
enforce some of the policies that we have on ground like sanctions and
environmental sanitation and disposals, there will be sanity. If you go
to the market a lot of people are more concentrated on the goods that
they sell but less interested in the environment through which they
generate money. That is why you see people dumping refuse everywhere
even when they are in taxis and nobody is arresting them.
“That is what I am saying, the War
Against Indiscipline should be brought back, this time tor the
environment. The problem is not that we don’t have the policies but it
is about lack of enforcement of these policies. That is where we have
issues; so if the government comes up and becomes very firm in enforcing
some of those things we won’t have a problem.
“I don’t see any reason why people
should dump refuse on the road; we don’t have any recycling collection
point. Everything is all mixed up together and by the end of the day, we
find them in land fields and it is not supposed to be like that.
“If the government is able to enforce
what they have brought to the table, it makes it easier for us to get
along and it goes on to say that we can’t deny the fact that some of the
little things we do collectively affect the environment.”
According to him, Nigeria will be in a
serious problem in some years to come because of certain factors, which
constitute a threat to the environment.
He said, “We have already seen danger,
it will be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire if we just
keep up with this abusive attitude towards the environment. I don’t even
want to start imagining how it will be in the next 10 years. I will
rather imagine if we start getting our acts right because the projection
is that in 2040, Nigerian population will come up to 350 million. So,
you can imagine how much waste we will be generating if we keep on with
this abusive attitude. We are all here enjoying fresh air and beautiful
environment. Why should we mess it up for our kids to come and clean it
up? It doesn’t make sense.”
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