By Ebere Agozie
The Conservator General, National Park Service (NPK), Alhaji Ibrahim Goni, has called on Nigerians to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision on climate change to save the nation from impending danger.
Goni made the call in Abuja at the Park headquarters while receiving a donation of 112 seedlings from two youth corps members serving with the Department of Agric and Rural Development Secretariat of the FCTA.
The donors are Abdullahi Suleiman Gbale and Izere Iyamide Martha.
According to Goni, `the Service appreciates the gesture and the timing of the donations, it is clearly in line with the vision of the present Government on climate change mitigation.
“Nigeria’s seven National Parks cover about three per cent of the country’s total land area and this to me is grossly inadequate for a country of over 200 million people.
“I want to therefore, urge all of us to support the vision of the President to keep and protect the environment for the sustainability of the present and yet unborn generations’’.
The C-G said that awareness creation of the ugly trend of climate change cannot be overemphasized and that therefore, Nigerians must join the world in the race of mitigating the effects of climate change.
“The negative impacts of climate change can be seen in the recent flooding across the various States of the Federation. “Even in the upsurge of diseases in plants and animals, degradation of land in and around the Parks, desertification in the north, siltation of Lake Chad, etc.
“It is my belief that this effort of donation of these seedlings is an attempt in the right direction to reverse the ugly trend of climate change and climate action’’.
He commended the corpers who have keyed into the vision of biodiversity preservation as part of their contribution towards community development in the service of their fatherland.
He also assured them that the seedlings will be shared to both primary and secondary schools in Abuja environs as part of the service’s conservation education programme.
Miss Martha Iyamide Izere, the leader of the team, in her remarks stated that their passion for a healthy environment began during their Industrial Training Attachment in Old Oyo National Park, Oyo in 2017.
She said that having met her colleague again during their service year, they decided to push their passion a step further by making the environment a better place for all to live in.
While recounting some of the debilitating effects of climate change, Izere noted that this donation is a service to humanity in an attempt to support the mitigation of effects of climate change and enhance development in our contemporary society.
She also used the occasion to solicit assistance from the National Park Service to support them in this very noble course.
The seedlings donated by the corps members include: Neem: Azadirachta indica (27), Gmelina: Gmelina arborea (27), Guava: Psidium guajava (27), Teak: Tectona grandis (27), Orange: Citrus aurantium (2), Mango: Mangifera indica (2)