I was opportune to attend a 3 day conference at Sheraton Hotel Abuja. The environment was quite clean. Trees and grasses were deliberately planted and taken care of. The green nature of the lawns and the well ventilated public toilets with its stylish closets and taps sent a clear message to all –This is no place to mess around!
The beauty and health of the environment contributes greatly to the way we react and respond to the people around us. There is this particular undergraduate girl who went to live with a couple who just started having children. The woman of the house noticed that the girl was always standing on the toilet seat each time she went to urinate and defecate. When accosted, she claimed that it was how she did it in her university hostel. Another girl despite the availability of a functional water system toilet still employed the “shot-put” method. This girl in question, despite a clean toilet seat, will always spread newspaper sheets on the toilet floor, did her thing and then dislodged the waste into the toilet. The point I am making here is that a man brought up in a dirty environment will definitely make a very neat environment dirty if he or she comes across one. The other day I was at a mechanic workshop that had some “batchers” around it. The “batchers” made the entire environment appear like a slum. Suddenly a beautiful well dressed girl walked into one of the ramshackle building constructed with rusted corrugated iron sheets. I whispered to the electrician working on my car, “do you mean such well dressed beautiful girl could live in a place like this?” The electrician replied, “That girl is not as beautiful as you think, she is a terror in this entire compound. If she starts her fight the whole compound will not rest.”
Where are the Non Governmental Organizations that collect money from foreign and local donors for the purpose of protecting our environment? Why are they watching helplessly as areas which were marked out as green belts are now bulldozed for what may seem to be urban development? The entire Owerri Capital Territory is gradually becoming a fledgling mass of “concrete forest” as prophesied by the erudite Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba in his 2012 inaugural lecture. If one is to take a survey from Uratta, Nekede, Naze and Owerri West to New Owerri area, you will discover that there is no deliberate effort made to live a mass of green forest to be untouched forever. Every available vegetation in Owerri Capital Territory is being ravaged by the urbanization scourge. The population density of the area known as Owerri Nchi Ise is so much that one wonders the cleanliness of the bore-hole water in the area. This fear is because population density implies that a large quantity of sewage matter and water is dislodged daily into the underground and the helpless Nworie River. We are in December and yet the rains are still with us. The atmospheric temperature too is increasing. The climate change effect is catching up with us at a rate we never expected. In the next ten to fifteen years it might be that the entire Owerri Nchi Ise might be submerged in a flood that might have devastating effect on lives and property. This possibility should make our city planners to think more on how we can avoid this tragedy.
The Owerri City area is like a basin that receives the entire flood from Akabo, Uratta and other places. The question is what effort are we making to ensure that this basin is not overloaded? What effort is being made to checkmate the perennial floods that ravage Egbu and New Owerri? The truth is that we have a warped idea of what a developed City is. A developed City apart from having roundabouts, event centers and other high rise buildings should also have extensive forests and natural vegetation for the purpose of preserving plant and animal species that are very vital for the survival of the ecosystem. There is inter-connectivity between every plant and living organism on earth, including humans. The life of the vulture, the ant, house fly and even mosquitoes play a prominent role in human survival. Without the house fly for instance, decomposition of dead organisms might be slowed down. Think not that the most insignificant of God’s creature do not play a vital role in the balance of our environment. There used to be leopard, falcon, deer, “edi abali,” and other wild animals in Owerri. Where are they now? Apart from ecological balance these animals if left in a natural game reserve will help to attract the much needed tourists and its concomitants like investments. Countries like Kenya in East Africa make most of her foreign exchange through tourism. This tourism thrives because they have put in place deliberate efforts aimed at conserving and protecting the natural environment. With the growing militancy in the North of Nigeria, some of the game reserves over there will definitely lose patronage. The Okigwe axis of Imo state has vegetation akin to that of the savannah of the North. This can be conserved for those who desire to see once again the animals that are no more but still reecho in our traditional folklore.
Unfortunately the wild animals and environments around the Okigwe area are being heavily decimated by hunting and urbanization. On your way to Okigwe you will see the uncontrolled slaughter of deer, monkeys, baboons and other wild animals. This portends great danger to our future. A serene and protected environment has a way of creating sanity. Sometime in 2005, I traveled to Emeabiam for a personal quiet retreat. I was opportune to listen to the chirping of birds both small and great. I was opportune to peep through a mass of forest that had not been cut for up to five years. The air was fresh and clean, without the odious heat that often emanates from the gutters early in the morning in Owerri metropolis. When I returned from the retreat, I discovered that I treated everybody and every situation around me with a good measure of tranquility. I was able to think well and while there I was also able to write a lot of poems. We need this environment in Owerri once again!
