|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Jun 5, 2017 @ 17:25 GMT  |

NIGERIA today joined the rest of the world to commemorate the 2017 World Environment Day, with the theme “Connecting People to Nature.”

Governments at all levels, companies and non-governmental organisations, NGOs, organised different activities to sensitise the people on the need to preserve environment.

Shell Nigeria started the day with Costello, vice president, Shell Nigeria and Gabon, and Bayo Ojulari, managing director, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited, SNEPCo, planting trees at the Marina area of Lagos.

Also, the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, held a town hall meeting in Abuja, on June 5. Nnimmo Bassey, director, HOMEF, said this year’s theme is appropriate considering that man has lost the vital connections that make him conscious of being part of a community of creations on earth.

He said the country should look at the disruption of that connection by the politics of infrastructure that is sometimes pursued without recourse to national or even natural laws. “We see roads build without drainages and where they are constructed they are invariably emptied into streams and rivers without any consideration of the wellbeing of the aquatic life in them and of the people that depend on the water downstream.

“I once asked the manager of a phosphate factory dumping toxic effluent into the Atlantic Ocean at Kpeme, near Lome, why such a harmful practice was permitted. The answer was that you cannot make an omelette without breaking the egg. If you ask why international oil companies have been routinely flaring gas in the Niger Delta over the past fifty-nine years, they claim it became industry practice because there was no market for the product when oil extraction commenced. Can you see how low we can sink?” he queried.

Bassey said one of the infrastructural projects that has astonished the world and stunned local communities is the 260 km Superhighway proposed by the Cross River State government to originate from a deep sea port at Esighi in Cross River State and rip through the National Park and community forests to terminate at Katsina Ala in Benue State.

He stated that the forest is more than a collection of trees. The town hall meeting resolved to demand a holistic regard for the forest and the intricate values it provides ecologically, socio-culturally, and economically. “A plantation of trees cannot be used to replace a forest and the dependent communities that have existed for hundred of generations. The community representative expressed severally that while they are in need of good roads to serve their needs, they require a repair/upgrade of the currently existing roads which was abandoned by the previous government, instead of an unjustifiable super highway,” he said.

The ministry of environment also joined the celebration with some activities which started with a clean-up exercise on Saturday, June 3, in Abuja. The exercise was organised to show solidarity for a cleaner environment, especially when the globe was battling with climate change.

The World Environment Day is a yearly event established by the United Nation to create worldwide awareness and encourage programmes to protect  environment.