Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Tuesday asked Nigerian governments to fight against illegal felling of trees and poaching to protect Nigerian forests and its abundant resources.
Chief Obasanjo stated this in Ibadan while speaking at the 42nd annual conference of Forest Association of Nigeria (FAN) which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the association.
Speaking through Deacon Sunday Agusa, the former President emphasized that there is the need for all and sundry to ensure that the nation does not lose its endangered species due to negligence of Nigerians.
“We must ensure that we do not, arising from our negligence lose our endangered species. We must begin to harness, document and advance the innumerable benefits of our forests in solving contemporary health issues,” he said.
Chief Obasanjo added: “We must begin to look at and devise means of protecting our forests from those who are concerned about today without iota of consideration for the resultant effects of their actions and inaction.”
Former executive secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, in his remarks called on the Nigerian governments to arrest the ongoing spate of deforestation in the country to avert negative effects of global warming and climate change.
Professor Okojie said, “It is increasingly becoming difficult to check forest encroachment in Nigeria” and that forest protecting agencies should be equipped with the necessary tools to fight encroachments in the forest estates.
The former NUC executive secretary added that strategies for protecting the forest against encroachment should involve holistic approach that will incorporate social and energy security of the people.
Identifying “inadequate policy and measures, weak law enforcement, and lack of transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s forest reserves administration as bane of the forest policy in the country, he stated that the ” newly approved National Forest Policy 2018 is capable of addressing most of the challenges confronting growth and development of the sector.”
Prof Okojie said ” Nigeria’s forest is degraded” and that the sources of economic trees that “produce timber, veneer log, fuel wood or the medicinal plants have been over exploited and degraded with some of the species under the threat of becoming extinct.”
