Nigeria needs more environmental warriors —Dr Jibunoh

Better known as the Desert Warrior, Dr Newton Jibunoh is perhaps Nigeria’s foremost environmentalist with over 40 years of experience on environmentally related issues. The founder, Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE) speaks with DOYIN ADEOYE about various issues, especially as regards the Nigerian environment.

Nations will start signing the Paris Agreement. How realistic is this agreement for Nigeria?

We shouldn’t celebrate yet over Paris Agreement, because there are a number of issues related to it. I started attending the very first summit in 1994, so as an old player in the game, I have learnt not to go away with whatever draft agreement. For instance, countries will start signing the Paris Agreement in April this year, and by then I think a lot of the nations that attended the COP would have dissected the agreement. Until the whole 196 countries signs the agreement, which will go on for one year, that is when we can start celebrating.

For instance, a lot of countries did not even initial the Kyoto Agreement, not to talk of signing it and this draft agreement is very similar to the Kyoto Agreement. So there are issues so many people are worried about. For instance, if countries fail to meet up with agreement, how do you hold them accountable? This was missing in the agreement, as well as the time frame to achieve it. So I believe we should not celebrate yet, until countries begin to sign the drafted agreement.

Would you say the agreement put into consideration the Intended Nationally-Determined Contributions (INDCs) of developing countries?

A lot of the developing countries are underdeveloped and very vulnerable. So when it comes to adaptation to climate change, many of them find it difficult. In fact, Nigeria is an underdeveloped country; we are not in the same league with South Africa, Brazil or India, those are the developing countries. So when benefits that are meant for developing counties come, I doubt if we are in a position to tap into it.

Like I’ve always maintained, and I hope that the new Minster of Environment will take that seriously, most of the countries that are providing money and transfer of technology will not do that except they see what you have on ground. So the question is, what are we going to show that we have been doing?

From generator fumes, to car exhausts and other sources, how do you think Nigeria can cut down on its gas emissions so as to achieve the Paris Agreement?

In the 60s and part of 70s, you needed to have a licence to have generators in Nigeria. Then they saw what we are facing today; the poisonous air you and I breathe. Our life expectancy in this country is one of the lowest in the world because of the environment; poisonous air and acidic rainfall. The number of generators we have in this country must go into millions. The fumes they produce are poisonous, yet they pollute our air.

The country is almost broke, so this is the time to take stock of some aspects of our lives that we had neglected. We need to look at those little things that we had often neglected which in turn, have great effects on our environment.

You achieved the feat of driving from London to Lagos at 27. What inspired that journey?

My journey started in December 1966. In 1964, someone here in Lagos made a statement that the continent of Africa will remain in darkness until the Trans-Sahara highway improves. I was a young man and when I heard this, I was in London, so I decided to do my research and found out that this was because of the Sahara. It was and still is the only desert that is not tamed. Most of the other deserts in the world have been tamed. So I visited all these deserts and decided to cross it.

How do you think youths, especially, environmentalists can be encouraged to follow their dreams?

Everything we do about the environment, be it mitigation or adaptation takes time before we can reap the benefit. It sometimes takes between 10, 30, or even 40 years, depending on what you are doing. So there is a need to raise young warriors to continue with what we have done.

I have been an environmentalist for over 40 years, but I can’t always be there because I am not getting any younger. I just celebrated my 78th birthday, so there is need to raise environmental warriors from the younger generation.

I approached the Lagos State Government and we designed a programme ‘Journey of a Lifetime,’ where we intend to take 100 young environmentalists across the Sahara. The trip was part of what inspired me into what I am today. So the Babatunde Fashola regime bought the idea, and we did the first batch, where over a 100 youths went for the journey. It was an annual event, but we had to suspend it because of the Boko Haram insurgency which made the territory unsafe. When the insurgency stops, we will start again. We will raise thousands of environment warriors.

Talking about Boko Haram, what effect does terrorism have on the environment?

A very serious one. If they are fighting in an area, there is no way land recovering, especially in the desert, can be possible. Also, the food basket of the country is from the North, so the insurgency has affected farming. It has also caused degradation of the soil and people are losing their grazing fields. An average Fulani cattlerearer has hundreds of cows. But with the war going on, it has affected their grazing fields, which in turn affects their investments.

FADE started in 2000, has it achieved the purpose for which it was set up?

In advocacy, I’d say we’ve covered a lot of grounds. We started for advocacy to blow the whistle and let the country and the world at large know what desertification is doing to climate change and what climate change is doing to our lives. That was how we started. Then over time, we started implementing projects when I was fully equipped, both academically and financially.

I introduced tree planting competitions to secondary schools in the North, I built tree nurseries in the north, I started the ‘Little Garden Today, Little Forest Tomorrow’ initiative in Delta. So we are gradually bringing in innovations alongside with our advocacy.

Do you think desert encroachment ends with the 11 states within the Sahara?

Encroachment ends with the 11 states, but desertification is all over the country. All the dust we had in the last hamartan was coming from the Sahara; they travel with the air, we don’t see it and that is what brings a lot of degradations. I even have a feeling that there will be drought this year. I can feel and see it in the air.

How can a layman understand the Green Wall Project and how has the agency in charge fared so far? 

We sometimes tend to underestimate the roles tree plays in our lives. Trees are very important components; even the United Nations said sometimes ago that the whole world will need billions of trees to replenish what has been damaged in our forest. So the Great Green Wall is part of that initiative, to bring back a little bit of forest. Nigeria has 37 per cent forest cover at independence. It is only six per cent today.

So the Great Green Wall, though is concentrated along the Sahara belt, is to stop desertification, and then we can now begin to recover the lands.

You were a judge on the Green Education For The Youth (GEFTY) initiative. How do you think more of such initiative can be encouraged?

When her Excellency, the wife of the Ogun State governor, Mrs Olufunsho Amosun came up with that idea, I jumped on my feet; I was so impressed because the children are the future. In the past, we often keep children away from such initiative, so I really appreciate her for that.

She was able to reach out to the children in a wonderful way and I was quite impressed with how knowledgeable the children are about the environment. For those taken to the United Kingdom, they must have shared with their families and friends what they learnt on the field and in a way, the message spreads. So the initiative is raising future environmental activists.