The Nigerian Environmental Society, NES, says there should be delibrate measures of afforestation, sustained campaigns and capacity building to save the Benue environment.
The newly inaugurated Benue State Chairman of the NES, Dr. Timothy Ishi, who stated this at the weekend shortly after assuming office, assured that his leadership would engage in aggressive campaigns and capacity building, alongside engaging major stakeholders in the sector to tackle environmental challenges in the state.
He lamented that “deforestation is ravaging our state so much particularly the practice of turning our woods into charcoal. Some of our trees are almost going out of extinction because they are being used for fire wood and charcoal.
“So as an organisation we are in the vanguard of taking the massage to our populace that these trees are important and we need them. They are important to our health and to preserve our environment.
“They fell the trees and nobody is planting them. So there should be delibrate measures of afforestation in Benue state for which we will engage the Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia on the need for some hectares of land to be allocated to the NES so that we can lead by example and it would be said that this is the forest created by the NES.
“We are also going to build capacities, we are going to adopt the policy of catch them young. We are inaugurating clubs in Primary and Secondary Schools. We are going to have students chapters across all the tertiary institutions in the state.
“As We all know, the environment is the bedrock of our existence: it supports our livelihoods, sustains our health, and forms the basis of our economy. Therefore, the task of protecting and improving our environment is not just an obligation but a necessity for our survival and well-being.
“The inauguration of the Benue State Chapter of the NES signifies a new dawn in our efforts to tackle environmental issues locally while contributing to national and global environmental goals.”
Dr. Ishi commended Governor Hyacinth Alia for his delibrate efforts and passion
for environmental sustainability saying the steps he had taken so far had helped to reduce the challenge in the state.
He said “some two weeks ago, the state government engaged a consortium that would very soon begin to generate energy from the waste we are generating within Benue.
“When that consortium is fully in place, I believe that the indiscriminate disposal of waste within Makurdi metropolis will be solved because when it is solved we have reduced almost half of our challenges within the town.”
The National President of NES, Dr. Efegbidiki Okobia who did the inauguration, informed of the plan of NES to organise a waste management summit noting that with multidisciplinary experts in different environmental fields there should be stakeholders engagement with regards to solving and mitigating environmental challenges in he country.
He said, “I also want to point out that waste management is a major challenge not only in Benue state but a national phenomenon. And we are also working to have a waste management summit. It will not be a summit for rethorics but a summit to give a direction in resolving the challenge of waste management in Nigeria.”
The Chairman of the Inauguration Committee, Prof. Celestine Aguoru pointed out that the NES was taking seriously the warning by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency of an impending heavy rainfall “and we are make all the necessary efforts to support the government in dealing with the issues of blocking of water channels and drainages in the state.”
