The extent to which Nigeria is blessed was brought to limelight following the discovery of oil in that small town. It’s discovery changed Nigeria’s oil history as it launched Nigeria into the elite club of oil producers and brought instant wealth to the nation with a daily output of 5000 barrels a day. I’m sure children bathed in the rain that day, fathers drank to stupor that night and treated themselves to bowls of cola. Mothers sang and celebrated. But with blessing, comes responsibility.
Fast forward to 2017, early this year I was at my village at Ovah community just after Egor. I walked down a familiar place very close to my grand father’s house. At the far end of the road was a stream. Walking along that path, I just couldn’t recognise the place anymore. It was once full of trees and lower vegetation, with a very dense and cool atmosphere. Now I just couldn’t withstand the scorching heat! The trees were now gone, cut and burnt down to the ground. Deforestation in that place led to the influx of erosion. Lots of dirts and debris were washed into the stream. I wondered if children still went there to swim! The stream, a major source of water for that village and the trees were gone. The forest was a major source of firewood for cooking the wonderful meals I usually ate there(what happens now?) . This act goes way beyond Ovah community towards our amusement parks and tourist centres. Trees are cut down everyday, leading to desertification and infiltration of rivers and streams. The reasons for this act can be traced to population growth, farming, building and even ‘spiritual reasons’ (in some regions of the country some trees are believed to bring bad luck so they are usually cut down). While these reasons are purely rational and lucid, a dilemma exists due to the fact that deforestation also leads to climate change and many environmental hazards. Think about how dry the soil would become, how much of our rivers and streams would be made useless. Or even the species that lived there, the wildlife. It is also a well known fact that forest trees absorb greenhouse gases that could cause a serious damage to the environment and the human race.
Ignorance has always been man’s major problem. Ignorance of the facts of a situation has brought us a lot of harm. Now in my village, a large percentage are illiterates, and those that even attended school barely made it through primary or even secontalklessol. So you have an illiterate man, married to an illiterate woman having three kids who can barely eat three square meals a day talk less paying for the expenses involved in training a child in school. Now due to his financial status, he relies on firewood for cooking so he cuts down trees every day to supply timber for cooking and even sales, completely oblivious of the risks involved.
One thing you would also observe in my village is that very few own a TV or a radio set. And those that do don’t seem to understand what is being said through these mediums. TV and radio presenters nowadays speak with British English that could easily confuse the average Nigerian. In matters as sensitive as the environment, clarity and originality of speech is very vital.
Pooh pooh pooh! Right now I’m actually coughing. I live very close to a refinery and the gases I inhale everyday.. I should consider finding a new home. An article was recently published by the American Public Heath Association on health impacts of the environment. It stated that about 40% of world deaths are related to environmental degradation to pollution of water, air and soil. Earlier on, it was stated how Nigeria’s oil history was changed in Oloibiri. Sadly it has also become a curse. The air and rivers have become a dumping ground for the organic and inorganic wastes from fuels. (I really hope I’m breathing in clean oxygen right now!). Pollution occurs, on one hand, because the natural environment does not know how to decompose the unnaturally generated elements and we humans are at fault too, for being ignorant of how to decompose these pollutants artificially. We just release them into air, soil and seas without caution. Do you remember that man that died of heart disease that his mother-in-law was being blamed for? Well she might be the culprit or it could also be the large volumes of carbon monoxide he inhaled while working in that industry. Carbon monoxide gas has been linked to heart disease which has taken many lives in our country.
Now I’m not saying everyone should be Buddhists or Hindus, but everyone should adopt a karmic view of life in terms of cause and effect. This should also be considered in the seemingly unimportant scenarios like dumping of pure water sachet on the floor instead of a waste bin. This act as little as it seems, could cost the lives of many. This is because pure water sachet is a fuel, and when it comes in contact without fire, it could be highly combustible.
It should also be stated that not all are ignorant of these potential hazards onormalisemental abuse. They throw caution in the wind and still pollute the environment. Not noticing any instant negative effects, they normalize the risk. This is why the karmic law is important, whether now or the future.
Everything about our actions is based on our beliefs, beliefs about the world, our country and our environment. And these beliefs drive our actions. But what we fail to understand is that everything on our planet is interconnected, and while nature supplies us with valuable environmental services without which we cannot exist, we all depend on each other’s actions and the way we treat natural resources. We and our environment are one close entity, the nature is us and we are an invaluable part of it. Knowing this, we would build dams in villages, promote awareness about environmental hazards and safe practices to be adopted ( no British English!), we would also encourage afforestation and find a way of minimizing the pollution of our environment.
The oil dried up in Oloibiri doesn't equate to the environment being polluted. It would normally dry up. But what we're concerned with is how a blessing has become a curse as oil being discovered in Nigeria has led to the pollution of the environment because of lack of responsibility in controlling the waste.
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