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Nigeria must address poverty and ignorance to tackle environmental degradation – Don

Prof. Imo Ekpoh, Dean Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Calabar on Wednesday disclosed that Nigeria cannot solve its environmental challenges without solving the challenges of poverty and ignorance.
Ekpoh said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar.
The prof. of climatology noted that as a nation we needed to carryout measures that would ensure that rural dwellers lived sustainably with the forests and not destroy them.
“Telling people who have been logging or burning bushes as a profession they learnt from their fathers to stop logging and burning bushes at the beginning of the farming season because you want to check greenhouse gases emission won’t work.
“This is because they will not understand, unless they are educated and given an alternative means of livelihood.
“Today, many of our rural communities take bush burning as a way of life and when village A, B, and C continue to burn the forests, it becomes a major challenge contributing to global warming, he maintained.
Ekpoh stated that the major factor that was enhancing global warming was the amount of greenhouse gases such as carbon-(iv)-oxide, methane, nitrous-oxide and chlorofluorocarbons released daily into the atmosphere.
He said that preindustrial level of atmospheric carbon-(iv)-oxide was in the region of 280 parts per million but at present, it was over 400 parts per million.
He added that if not for the efforts of some communities like Cross River in planting trees, it would have risen to 500 parts per million.
“Planting of trees is important because it helps in the absorption of carbon-(iv)oxide which escapes into the atmosphere from different sources and enhancing global warming.
“Global warming brings with it surprises because earth’s atmosphere becomes unstable, making it difficult for scientists to predict.
“This is why you see massive flooding in China, storms in America and bush fires at the same time, some other countries are witnessing draught and even Nigeria is not left out with the effects of desert encroachment and other disasters.
“As a nation we need to start enforcing the use of catalytic converters in our vehicles and factories and also provide an alternative and safe means of survival for our people, if we must save our environment,” he asserted.(NAN)
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PANDEF Clarifies Visit To Tinubu, Knocks Wike Over Inflammatory Comments

The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has called on President Bola Tinubu to prevail on the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike to retract his publicly disparaging remarks made recently against the socio-political body.
PANDEF described as regrerrable and embarrassing comments by Wike in the aftermath of the group’s visit to Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, even to the extent of insulting the late former Federal Commissioner for Information and South-South Leader, Chief Edwin.
Recall that the FCT minister had, on Thursday, during a media chat, described PANDEF as “the worst organisation anybody can rely on”, while also calling the board of trustee members of the body “political merchants”.
In a statement signed by PANDEF Chairman on Saturday in Abuja, Ambassador Godknows Boladei Igali, urged President Tinubu as the father of the nation, to prevail upon the Honourable Minister to retract his inflammatory statements and extend due respect to these eminent.
Igali clarified that the meeting with the president provided a valuable platform to discuss pressing issues of national and regional importance. Adding that “PANDEF remains unwavering in its commitment to peace, stability, and equitable development in the Niger Delta. We will continue to engage with great vigour, all relevant stakeholders in pursuit of lasting harmony in Rivers State and the broader South-South region.”
His words: ^To set the record straight, PANDEF the foremost socio-political body representing the South-South regions, composed of some of Nigeria’s most distinguished personalities. The delegation to Mr. President included chairpersons of at least four of the six SouthSouth states’ traditional councils, senior traditional rulers of major ethnic groups, former governors, past presiding officers of the Senate, prominent entrepreneurs, academics, and high-ranking retired military officers.
“It is, therefore, highly regrettable and totally unacceptable that a serving minister in the Federal Government would exhibit such brazen disrespect towards individuals of this standing. This attitude perhaps explains his continued refusal of the Minister to engage with the Peace and Reconciliation Committee, which PANDEF constituted as far back as October 2024, despite repeated attempts to reach.
“The Honourable Minister (Wike) characterized PANDEF as the worst organization ever” and accused its members of visiting the Presidential Villa merely to solicit financial favors. These statements are not only false but also unbecoming of a public official of his stature.
“PANDEF hereby calls upon Mr. President, as the father of the nation, to prevail upon the Honourable Minister to retract his inflammatory statements and extend due respect to these eminent Nigerians and traditional rulers who were, after all, esteemed guests of the Commander-in-Chief. It is apt to remind that the Minister does not own the Niger-Delta and his errant conduct should not be condoned.
“Notwithstanding this regrettable development, PANDEF remains unwavering in its commitment to peace, stability, and equitable development in the Niger Delta. We will continue to engage with great vigour, all relevant stakeholders in pursuit of lasting harmony in Rivers State and the broader South-South region,” Igali stated.
On efforts to restore peace in River State, Igali restated PANDEF’s commitment for peace in the oil-rich State.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Peace and Reconciliation Committee, which remains committed to resolving the Rivers State crisis,” Igali stated.
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