THE Director-General of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), Dr Muhtari Aminu-Kano, has appealed to religious bodies in the country to be involved in environmental conservation.

Amina-Kano made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos.

According to him, the rate of deterioration and degradation of the Nigerian environment is such that all hands are required to be on deck to salvage the situation.

“Religious bodies’ involvement in salvaging the environment has been happening in many other places in the world.

“We, in NCF, have not seen it happening at the same level in Nigeria.

“The time is ripe now for us to get the message of conservation home through getting conviction of the hearts also,’’ he said.

Earlier at the 17th Chief S.L. Edu Memorial Lecture, Aminu-Kano had said that the Foundation needed to appeal to the brains with facts and figures on the need for environmental conservation.

He also appealed to the hearts through the religious bodies for their involvement.

He said that NCF had three publications in pamphlets forms on Religion and Ecology in its library.

The Director-General said that the publications were on ‘Religion and Christianity’, ‘Religion and Islam’, and ‘Religion and African Religion’.

He said that while sensitising their faithful at their various gatherings as written in the Holy Books, the religious bodies could also help in designating some areas for conservation as sacred grounds.

“Other creatures, plants, trees, water bodies, various bio-diversities, animals, living creatures, etc., are all parts of the earth.

“It beholds on human beings to protect them and provide a safe place for them to dwell as well.’’

According to Aminu-Kano, not only do they have equal rights as human beings as part of the environment, all of them contribute to the well-being of humans on earth.

The NCF boss said that destroying their existence would amount to gradual extinction of human lives on earth. (NAN)

– Jan. 18, 2018 @ 13:05 GMT |