Environment

By Talent Bassey Akpan

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing the world today. Nigeria is particularly vulnerable to its effects due to its diverse ecosystems, economic reliance on agriculture, and significant population density. The changes in climate patterns have profound implications for Nigeria’s environment, economy, and public health, making it crucial for the country to understand and address these challenges effectively.

In Nigeria, climate change has led to erratic weather patterns, manifesting in extreme floods and prolonged droughts. Since the late 20th century, rainfall patterns across the country have become increasingly unpredictable. For instance, while some regions experience heavy rains resulting in severe flooding, others suffer from acute water shortages and drought, particularly in the north.

The fluctuations impact agricultural output, as farmers rely on predictable rainy seasons for planting and harvesting. Consequently, food security becomes compromised, increasing food prices and poverty levels.

Agriculture is the backbone of Nigeria’s economy, employing a significant portion of the population and contributing substantially to the GDP. However, climate change severely threatens agriculture, disrupting the growing conditions essential for crops and livestock. Changes in rainfall patterns can lead to crop failures while rising temperatures can reduce yields for staple crops like maize, cassava, and rice.

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that many Nigerian farmers employ traditional farming methods, leaving them ill-equipped to adapt to these rapid changes. As agricultural productivity declines, rural communities are further marginalized, leading to increased migration towards urban centres and creating additional strain on city resources.

The health implications of climate change in Nigeria are also far-reaching. Heatwaves, rising temperatures, and poor air quality can contribute to an increase in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, changing weather patterns can spread vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, as the habitats for mosquitoes and other carriers expand.

Food insecurity and malnutrition resulting from agricultural decline may also lead to increased susceptibility to diseases and weakened immune systems, particularly among children and vulnerable populations.

In conclusion, the effects of climate change in Nigeria require a multifaceted approach, combining immediate action with long-term strategies. Efforts must include investment in climate-resilient agriculture, enhancement of water management practices, and promotion of sustainable land use. Furthermore, community awareness and education should be prioritized to prepare residents for potential climate impacts.

As Nigeria continues to grapple with the challenges posed by climate change, concerted efforts from the government, civil society, and international partners are essential to safeguard the future and ensure a sustainable environment for future generations. It is imperative for all stakeholders, including the citizens, to engage actively in combating this pressing global issue.

Talent Bassey Akpan wrote from Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano.

By Anwar Usman

Bulbula-Gayawa, a once-thriving community in Kano, has been ravaged by the devastating effects of gully erosion. The erosion has not only claimed lives but has inflicted untold hardships, from the tragic loss of farmlands to the dangers faced by children in the neighbourhood. 

Gully erosion is a lingering problem caused by inadequate drainage systems, poorly managed waterways, and irresponsible sand excavation. As a result, people from the same area have been separated, creating a physical barrier within a single community.

Residents lament the erosion’s crippling impact on their lives, posing environmental challenges. The Daily Reality gathered that the erosion claimed the lives of nine young children in a single day a few years ago while coming back from school following heavy downpours.

Three local governments, including Ungoggo, Nassarawa, and some parts of Fagge, have been affected by the erosion.

Muaz Abubakar, a resident of the area, explains that “the erosion started a long time ago. We are doing our best to protect ourselves from this danger. Due to inappropriate waterways, rainfall washes away whatever we build to prevent direct access to the eroded site.

“Thousands of houses are at risk, and as a result, the site has been turned into a refuse dumping site and an avenue for smoking and other criminal activities”.

The Daily Reality contacted Mr Abduljabbar Abdussalam, an advocate of climate change and natural resources management, about the challenges and causes of gully erosion. He responded, “It was due to inadequate waterways and enough trees that can contain and consume the amount of water passing through the eroded drainage.”

He explains that trees slow water flow and absorb large amounts of it, helping to prevent flooding. However, because of poor waterways, residents are directing water pipes to the eroded site, causing flooding. Additionally, they’ve made the area a dumping ground, redirecting heavy water and worsening the situation.

“People in this environment are in grave danger; there’s the need for a call to action. To prevent themselves and safeguard their younger ones, there’s the need for the government to come to their aid by constructing drainages that can contain vast amounts of water.

The Ministry of Environment has made clear that the Kano state government intends to tackle the serious challenges facing the eroded environment.

During a visit to the site, the Kano State governor revealed that the work to address the damage would be done through the Agro-climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscape (ACReSAL), which the Kano State Ministry of Environment supervises. The ministry partners strategically with the World Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria.

By Abubakar Idris Misau

“…Muslims need to look no further than the Quran for guidance, where there are approximately 200 verses concerning the environment.”  — Ibrahim Ozdemir

Asked about what Islam has to say about the conservation of natural resources, here is my take: Like the secondary school students who would want to start arguing their points by defining the key terms of their topics, this writer defines Islam, conservation, and natural resources before connecting the dots. However, the terms are concisely defined, requiring only the essential information for even those unfamiliar with the terms to understand their existence. By defining the terms, the writer intended to allow as many classes of readers to take a message home from the article as possible. 

Meanwhile, unlike in the case of secondary school students, the intent of this article is not to score points but to reiterate, for it has often been neglected that Islam is the most compatible religion to science and remains the mother of many scientific disciplines. The religion explains and advocates for the conservation of natural resources – to say mildly. 

Islam, not because it was founded some 145 decades ago, but because it is often defined as such, is the Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred on the Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. It has five pillars and six articles of faith. With the followers of this faith, called Muslims, numbering close to 2 billion worldwide, Islam is not only universally seen as the second-largest but also the fastest-growing religion in the world.

Collectively referred to as Ummah, Muslims believe that their religion, a Deen or comprehensive way of life, is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith revealed many times through earlier prophets such as Adam, Nuhu (Noah), Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), and Isa (Jesus) may peace and blessings be upon them all. Perhaps in the most concise edition, this can be said to be the meaning of Islam.

Conservation, however, carries different meanings depending on the time and situation in which it is used. For example, the meaning it conveys in the sciences as physics is not the same as that which it takes in arts. Meanwhile, in this essay, the meaning relating to natural resources is strictly considered. It is thus the triangle of protection, management and wise use of the resources in question for the benefit of current and coming generations. The natural resources meant to be conserved are the tangible and intangible materials drawn from nature – which are utilised with little to no alteration. Examples of such resources include vegetation, wildlife, land, water, sunlight and so on.

Given the above definitions, this article suggests that Islam as a religion and a way of life speaks about natural resources and even strongly preaches that they must be protected, managed and wisely used.

While there is no one place in the Qur’an where it is said, “Oh you who believe do well to conserve your forests…” and or that failure to protect wildlife could amount to crumbling in the fire of Jahannam; evidence from the same book and other sources such as the tradition of the Prophet (Sunnah) are very clear and enough to debunk [to say mildly] any opinion that is against conservation of natural resources – at least from Islamic viewpoint.

To start with, Allah The Exalted [SWA] says in Surah Yunus, Qur’an chapter 10 verse 14, “Then we made you trustees (Khalifa) on the earth after them, to see how you would act.” Other verses, such as in Surah Al-Ahzab (Q 33:72) and Surah Al-An’am (Q 6:165), directly emphasise the same message. In line with this, the Prophet [PBUH] said, “The world is a beautiful and verdant, verily God, The Exalted, has made you His stewards in it, and He sees how you acquit yourselves” (Saheeh Muslim).

According to Muhammad A. Chakaki, an independent environmental consultant and a founding member of the American Green Muslims in the Direct, that man is made the khalifa, trustee, steward, successor, custodian, …name it, “does not mean absolute power of humans over nature. … It is a trust, an immense responsibility.” Indeed, Chakaki’s explanation of this stewardship could hardly be far from the truth. 

For in Surah Al-Ahzab, chapter 33, verse 72, Allah [SWA] says, “Verily, We offered the entrusted property (Amana) to the heavens, and the Earth/land, and the mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it;- He was indeed unjust and foolish.” As man is allowed to use the natural resources upon which he is made a custodian, being warned against using it extravagantly presents stewardship as a double-edged sword: remaining as an honour whilst also a test.

At the heart of the famous George Washington University stands the Islamic Studies Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Of the highest order, Nasr is a faculty, an environmentalist, a philosopher, and an author of more than 50 books and over 500 articles. The erudite scholar expresses his environmental philosophy in terms of Islamic Environmentalism and Resacralization of Nature. According to the more-than-90-year-old distinguished academic, environmental crisis cannot be understood, much less solved, without a wider spiritual approach. In his view, man must humble himself as the steward he is and stop the dictatorial approach in his relationship with nature. [See, for instance, his book ‘Religion and the Order of Nature’].

While many of Nasr’s propositions are frowned at and thrown to the dust bin, labelled as too unscientific and religiously induced – because ours is an over-obsessed-with-technology sort of a world – the very idea that environmental crisis is a self-inflicted wound caused by human activity, remains a universal convention. Surah As-Shura has it all said: “And whatever misfortune befalls you, it is because of what your hands have earned…”

However, influenced by Nasr, in an opinion published by Aljazeera, a renowned environmentalist and a professor of philosophy at Uskudar University Turkey, Ibrahim Ozdemir said, “Islam teaches its followers to take care of the earth.” And that in his opinion, the one simple yet neglected solution to the environmental crisis is ‘interpreting the issue from an Islamic perspective’.

In this line of thinking, when this writer [of this article] writes, he shall discuss Hima (Protected Area), Waqf (Endowment), and Israf (Prohibition of Wastefulness), among other natural resource conservation concepts – from an Islamic viewpoint. Meanwhile, suffice it to say that climate change and its resulting environmental crisis are real, and Almighty Allah says in Surah Al-Ra’ad, “… Verily, Allah does not change the condition of a people unless they change what is in themselves…” [Q 13:11].

Abubakar Idris Misau, a graduate of Forestry and Wildlife from the University of Maiduguri, writes from Yola, Nigeria. He can be reached via email at abubakaridrismisau@gmail.com.

By Aliyu Muhammad Aliyu

Water affects people’s livelihood every year during the rainy season, forcing them to find an immediate solution just to be repeated in the subsequent year as in the previous one.

People should consider the effect of mounding granite, debris of demolished buildings or black and smelly sand removed after gutter clearing in undulating places that collected water on the ground in front of houses, hoping to level the ground surface so that rainwater runoff to the gutters. Instead, the water moved to the new undulated spot created by the mound next to the existing one when only levelling the ground to flatten the surface was all needed. The process was continuously repeated without success, ironically without thinking of an alternative way that might work better. With time, houses became lower than outside ground level, necessitating raising the gutter level that caused water from homes to remain inside.

The common lazy practice of leaving behind the excess soil dug up when excavating building foundations, constructing gutters, soakaways, wells and what have you instead of taking it away to fill unwanted ponds and eroded places causes many more problems. Local government authorities and philanthropists contributed at the largest scale; several truckloads of granite are mounded in town lanes as a quarter of developmental projects. People requested it and appreciated it despite the harm it caused that they couldn’t realize when a grader levelled the topsoil and removed it when in excess was the only requirement. That practice inconvenience lives, especially during the rainy season; one should either manually remove the water from their house using containers and pour it outside or enter their rooms, destroy properties, and erode the house gradually until it finally collapses.

To the middle class and civil servants, their savings and retirement benefit were used to renovate the house instead of using it for other better purposes. To the poor, the house must be sold and moved to less developed areas, which consequences had a direct link to poverty.

Please don’t allow anyone to dump whatever in front of their house; elsewhere, they could be influenced as a short-term solution. They can use local tools such as hoes and shovels to level the surface, making rainwater runoff. The long-term solution is for rich and local and state governments to interlock every lane in the cities so that there is no need for such practice in the future. Major drainages must be constructed in the major roads linking the state to the state from all cardinal points to immediately drain the water after the heavy downpour in the ever-expanding city of Kano.   

Aliyu Muhammad Aliyu wrote via amabaffa@yahoo.com.