TAKING NATURE TO MAN: THE OSUN EXAMPLE Saturday, 17 August 2013 GENERALLY, tree planting has become part of policies of governments at all levels in Nigeria. Tree planting which has been permanently keyed into the various governments’ statutory programmes with a particular day set aside annually by every state government, is one of the major ways of responding to the call by the United Nation on member states and other stakeholders to re-grow the ozone layer and reduce the increasing danger its rapid depletion poses to mankind. In Osun State, the programme is completely different in concept, implementation, sustenance and participation strategies. The State government aptly demonstrated this when it recently launched its Green Environment Programme tagged Igi Iye, meaning ‘Tree of Life’. The programme officially launched at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) on June 25, 2013 has also been launched in all the state’s three senatorial zones while plans have been completed to do same in all the state’s 30 council areas to be followed by the ward to ward and towns to town phases. Governor Ogb Rauf Aregbesola who performed the official launch, underscored the importance of the project to the general wellbeing of people in the state. His words: “We shall be doing ourselves a mortal disfavour and even risk the curses and wrath of the generations to come, if we stand akimbo doing nothing to enhance and rejuvenate the ecosystem, to create conducive atmosphere for the regeneration of the fauna and the replenishing of the flora which we daily deplete and poach into extinction. “Hence our resolve at making the state of Osun a centre of ecotourism enclave where the living cares for the environment and where the environment oozes forth clean air for the living to enjoy long life in good health. “What we are initiating today by the launching of Igi Iye scheme is not a jamboree or a social celebration, but an essential step which we must take now in order to reconnect the broken chain between the land and the atmosphere”. The project has been launched in Ilesa for Osun East senatorial district, Iwo for Osun West senatorial and Osogbo for the Central senatorial. At the end of the senatorial launches, a total of 2.5 million trees were planted. Mr Bola Ilori, Special Adviser to Aregbesola on Environment and Sanitation whose office coordinates the project, in an interview with The Guardian spoke on the Igi Iye concept. “For us, coming up with Igi Iye is the realization of the need to take nature back to man. This is a clear departure from the general objective of ecotourism, which is to take man to nature. When a man goes to tourist centres with the hope of re-uniting with nature, it is usually a temporary thing because one day he must return home. But when nature is taken to a man in his residence, it is a permanent thing. “These are two distinctly different things. Go to a typical African setting, there is no house that would not have some fruit bearing trees around it or a garden. So, we deeply reflected on this and we came to the painful conclusion that the absence of this eco-culture in our contemporary homes today, is the cause of many preventable diseases today. Its absence has done more damage to the immunity level of an average African. Having realized this missing link, we now concluded that we must quickly arrest the worsening situation by taking trees back to people’s residence. Again this is different from foresting, that is forest regeneration which ongoing now. What we are doing under Igi Iye is residential tree planting”. Ilori noted that God Himself appreciated the importance of trees to man and the inter-relationship between the two when at creation, He established the Garden of Eden where He put Adam and Eve to live as husband and wife. To buttress this position, Ilori said: “Before God created man at, He first created the Garden of Eden. The truth of the matter is that God Himself is the first environmentalist in the world having realized the strategic importance of the eco-nature to mankind which is that trees and man are inseparable. When God got angry because of the way man abused the garden He bequeathed unto him, He sent man out of the garden. In our own modest view, the farther a man is from plants and nature the farther he is from the will of God and the closer a man is to plants and nature without abusing it, the closer he is to the will of God. It is as simple as that”. The involvement of the corporate world was attested to with the pledge of the Corporate Business Department of the Gurantee Trust Bank (GTB) Osogbo, when Ilori took the tree planting message to there. A top official of GTB, Mr Jelleel Olaleye who received the state government team, said: “GTB will plant the trees as directed by the government not only because it is a state government project, but essentially because we believe in it and share the vision of the state governor at making Osun an eco state where natural and ecological disasters are preventable”. The involvement of youths, particularly students, in the planting is also serving another strategic purpose as the vehicle to sustain and carry the project to the future. of the environment. This clearly is the objective Aregbesola sought to achieve when he used students to launch the project in the state’s three senatorial districts at Ilesha Grammar School, Ilesha, Oshogbo Grammar School, Osogbo and Iwo Grammar School, Iwo. “Our efforts at ensuring the fortification of the environment by planting trees and other schemes, will end up in futility if our youths who are the custodians of the future are not only involved, but saddled with all the mechanism of trans-generation of the idea. “Igi Iye is about the present but of more importance, is about the future and we will be deceiving ourselves if we refuse to partner with the students, our youths who own the future. They are the pivot of our endeavors in the process of development and we cannot relegate them to the background,” he said. Another feature of the Osun experiment is the monitoring content where the state has partnered with the OAU’s Institute of Ecological and Environmental Studies which, apart from offering professional advice on the project, is also responsible for its monitoring. This is not only novel, but it is another missing link in the implementation of such projects in other states. The strategic importance of the partnership towards the success of the project was attested to by the Acting Director of the Institute, Dr Olusegun Awotoye when he said: “It is commendable and remarkable to note that Governor Aregbesola is the first governor to formally see the virtue and necessity in partnering with professionals in environmental sector in Nigeria. Hence, the collaboration and partnership which our department is strengthening and exploring to boost the well being of the earth”. Article by Abiodun Fanaro Source: Guardian
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 16:47:54 +0000
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