One Million New Trees for Lagos
By Kazeem Akintunde
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Lagos State government is set to plant one million trees in four years
The Lagos State government in its drive to improve the aesthetic beauty of the state and protect the environment from further degradation is set to plant one million trees in the state in the next four years. Babatunde Raji Fashola, governor of the state on September 3, led top government officials to plant trees in major parts of the state to kick-start the state tree planting campaign.
Fashola, who defied the rain of that day to lead the tree planting exercise which took place simultaneously in all the 20 local government areas in the state as well as the 37 development areas, said tree planting would be given a serious attention by the state government for two reasons. The first was the need to protect the environment "as the entire planet faces serious ecological threat and the second is the need to add to the beauty of the environment."
He said the city of Lagos had suffered various environmental degradations in recent years, but expressed satisfaction that the state was gradually being transformed from that of neglect and degradation to an aesthetically appealing and friendly society with its beautification programme. "I remember with nostalgia those days when the streets of Lagos, especially Lagos Island, Ikoyi, Apapa, Ikeja and Lagos Mainland were adorned with beautiful trees, which did not only add aesthetic values to the city, but also protected the environment from degradation," he said.
Fashola said that a recent tree tagging, enumeration and identification exercise carried out in Ikeja, Apapa and Ikoyi, revealed that apart from the fact that tree-planting culture had been abandoned, the existing trees were being felled indiscriminately without replacement. "This is not only against the global practice of tree planting and preservation, it is antithetical to the protection of global ecology," he said.
He said it was imperative that the tree planting campaign be taken seriously by all arms of government, corporate organisations, schools, transport unions, market men and women and all citizens to complement the efforts of the government at preserving mother earth for the next generations. "Apart from the ecological benefits such as a cleaner and safer environment, aesthetics and prevention of erosion, we have through this initiative created a new economy and thousands of jobs for the hitherto unemployed people who now work on our various beautification sites," the governor said.
Newswatch learnt that the state government has employed 40 youths to plant and nurture the trees. Those employed would be on a monthly stipend of N10, 000. The governors pleaded with Lagosians to continue to plant tree for the benefit of the people. "I implore all citizens to endeavour to plant five new trees in place of each one felled when inevitable and avoid unwholesome attitudes that may destroy such trees such as deliberate burning, poisoning, unauthorised felling, debarking and uprooting."
Muiz Banire, commissioner for environment, said with the programme, the state was strengthening its resolve to take beautification and greening of Lagos to the next level by ensuring that the state wears the look of a pace-setting city capable of competing with other modern cities of the world.
He said planting of trees is also useful in stress control "which Lagosians, like residents of other cosmopolitan cities of the world need and which can be achieved by having natural plants, beautiful flowers and trees around everyone."
Fatai Amodu, representative of the Nigerian Institute of Landscape and Florists, in a goodwill message, commended Lagos State government for taking the initiative in the tree planting campaign and urged other states to emulate it.
Newton Jibunoh, founder of the Fight Against Desert Encroachment, said the world is being threatened by the desertification and that it would need about 87 billion trees to replenish the planet. He said it is a thing of joy that Fashola was trying to restore Lagos as the planet is dying because of severe weather conditions.
Lawal Owodunni, an octogenarian, who had lived for the past 65 years in Lagos, told Newswatch that the tree planting exercise brought back memories of the early 60s and 70s when the beauty of the city of Lagos was still glowing.
He said, Lagos, "particularly Victoria Island, Ikeja, Yaba, parts of Ebute Meta and others were beautiful places to behold. Green plants and well cut lawns neatly planted; gardens and parks with well-arranged seats were the pride of this city. Then it was an offence to tamper with the beauty of the environment and life was radiant. Today we are living in another Lagos that is different from the one of those good old days," he said.
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