In 2015, just before the countdown as the clock ticked towards Christmas, we launched the maiden edition of Nature on our Watch (NOOW) e-magazine. Ever since then, NOOW has remained steadfast in its quest to reach the top spot of environmental activism-cum-information sharing in Nigeria and beyond. Indeed it has been a great year and as a team, we have been able to build on the success stories of the previous issue and at the same time address the flaws and weakness accrued from the said edition.Need I restate that NOOW is not a noun! It’s a movement and as such at this point I draw comfort from the words of Mother Teresa when opined “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” Like the maiden edition, as you flip through the pages of this publication you sure would be wowed and marveled as our esteemed contributors advanced inspiring, thoughtful, educative and instructive articles. The brevity of this editorial is deliberate; however it will be incomplete without recognizing the efforts and generosity demonstrated by our sponsors: NeonCore Clothing Co, Goshen Global Consults and Eco Consults, and TheMolashDesigns. Also to our Contributors and Partners please do accept my heartfelt gratitude. We have come this far, only because of your support and encouragement given freely either physically or across all our virtual platforms. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you NOOW ISSUE II. Do read and endeavour to share with someone NOOW!

Yours truly,Ajobiewe Tolulope.

EDITOR’S NOTE

“The Earth does not belong to us.We belong to the Earth.”

- Marlee Matlin.

IN THIS ISSUE- tap page number to go -

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Editor’s Noteby Ajobiewe Tolulope2The Persistent Pollution Problemby AYASHAR, Jerry Mkaa

9 Things Every Nigerian Can Do To Show Love To TheirEnvironmentby Immanuel Galadima

Environmental Awareness: How Much Do People Know?NOOW Special

Environment on State Buildingby Chukwudi Chiemezie Okoko

What We’ve Been Up To

Masterless Plan:A Tale of our Cities

by Othman Yahaya

The Great Green Wall:Myth or Mystery?

by Nasir Abubakar

Renewable Energy:A Case of Nigeria

by Ajobiewe Tolulope

Editorial Policy/Note to Contributors/

The NOOW Team/Sponsors & Supporters/

Connect With Us.

hat We’ve Been Up ToSince the launch of the first issue in December 2015, we, The NOOW Team, have not relented in our quest to achieve environmental protection and sustainability by creating platforms that foster awareness and promote environmental friendly actions by all and sundry. This, we achieved by reaching out to hundreds of people across the nationon the social media platforms, mainly Facebook and Twitter. The result? Massive turn out! Massive response!!!

The first of these efforts was the 2-day tweet chat held on 24th- 25th of March 2016. The subject of discuss was “SUSTAINABLE CITIES OF THE WORLD” with the hashtag #SustainACity where the team hosted two dynamic speakers and social change agents in Olumide Idowu (@OlumideIDOWU) and Olanrewaju Gideon (@LanreShaper). Olumide Idowu is an advocate for YouthPower, and a youth ambassador for @UNISDR and @SaveChildrenNG, while Olanrewaju Gideon is the

founder of AREAi, a non-profit organization that aims to improve the level of education across Africa. A summary of the tweet chat can be read here.

The second of the attempt was the tweet chat on “NATURE CONSERVATION” which held on Thursday, 28th of April, 2016. The team had the honour of hosting an insightful speaker in@KudzieChimzy. Kudzie is a Zimbabwean Agricultural Economist and Environmental activist. She’s also a spouting advocate for environmental stewardship who raises awareness through staging local clean-up campaigns. The response was also amazing; needless to say it was a huge success. The tweet chat is summarized here.

The most recent of the team’s effort to promote environmental awareness and protection was the Facebook hangout that took place from 30th June – 2nd July 2016. The hangout focused on “The Ogoni Oil Spill”. It produced insightful interaction between NOOW team and the audience and can be seen here. The facebook event delved into a lot of issues including the brief history of what the oil spill is all about, how it happened, how it affects the environment and people in that area, the possible alternatives, etc. It was nothing short of revelation.

For the 2016 World Water Day, which is marked every 22nd day in March, we engaged our Facebook friends and twitter followers by asking them how much water they consume daily. This brought about a wide range of answers and opportunity to shine light on the need to reduce overuse of water.

In future, we seek to carry out bigger and better awareness activities and also cross the virtual boarder to bring awareness to people off the

internet. Join us in any way you can by liking our facebook page, Nature On Our Watch, or

following our Twitter @NOOWmag. This way, you shall be up to date with all of NOOW’s activities.

3

Pollution is a genuinely human problem, and a 21st century nightmare. When you hear talk of pollution,

the first picture that come into the mind of an average Nigerian, or anybody else for that matter, is the awful

image of huge piles of solid wastes with the occasional stray animal, child, or the rarely seen environmental

sanitation workers...

But pollution goes deeper than just that. It could be anything from an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, to indiscriminate solid and liquid waste disposal, to

toxic mechanical and industrial emissions, to the release of GHGs into the atmosphere, an unhealthy concentration of very loud sounds in a single area. Pollution could also be seen as a presence (in large numbers) of unwanted and, thus, unhealthy biological life forms within a specific envi-ronment, although this is more preferably, albeit arguably, known as an infestation.Within the last four decades, man has assumed a more heightened sense for environmental degradation. World summits on environmental issues have been held, and one of the most pertinent issues being discussed yearly is environmental pollution, how it is swiftly altering the earth’s climate, and measures to reduce its effects. Some of these measures are usually scientific approaches, theoreti-cal, and oddly, political. At this point, the next statement about may seem either too heretic or pessimistic, albeit radical in nature, but let’s face it, we can’t stop pollution. To stop pollution would be to stop producing waste, and to stop producing waste inevitably is the annihilation of life upon the planet. A more practical approach would be to control man’s behaviour towards his environment, though controlling the amount of waste generated would not hurt either. To curb this ever dynamic problem, we have to go back to the very beginnings of planning. In planning, to create any efficient plan, the first step, no matter the school of thought, is always to identify the problem.

Whether it has occurred to people or not, the real issue we need to pay attention to is where pollution actually begins. Most times, we would like to imagine that pollution arises from poor environmental choices, but the more important question is, where do these choices stem from?It begins with choice, and what is choice? It is the ability and decision to select an option from a list of available possibilities. Whether mathematical, economic, environ-mental, or daily, choices are a result of our psychological scales weighing the options before us and deciding which is either more feasible, or easier for us to execute.Going by this, it is right to say that the decision to actively and consciously pollute the environment points that the very origin of pollution is the human mind. You must have gone out a few times and wondered where all the litter that you see all over the place comes from. The mind is where it comes from. Heretic once again, right? We are all guilty of this crime. There’s a field of study called Environmental Psychology, and it mainly deals with the study of transactions between individuals and their physi-cal settings†. It also tells us that most environmental prob-lems are rooted in human behaviour††. What this means is that, a lone polythene bag flying in the sky, while admi-rable to some, is the result of someone’s nonchalance about taking it as far as a proper dustbin, or forgetting to replace the lid over the dustbin – and this goes for all other forms of pollution. Consequently, we all know by inference that nonchalance is also a behavioural or psychological.

So what is the problem?

Most of us never stop to question our-selves before we throw that Gala wrap or empty La Casera bottle out through the car window; most of us never stop to ask why we blast music over speakers within neighbourhoods, health hazard aside; most of us don’t care to fix our engines and exhaust pipes in order to reduce the CO emissions, because so long as the vehicles move, we’re liter-ally good to go; most of us never stop to think of an alternative eco-efficient use for our wastes; most of us never stop to wonder what happens to these things when we ignorantly and indiscrimi-nately dispose of them. Well, to nourish your curiousity, nothing happens to most of them. A single plastic bottle has a life span that far outreaches that of an average human being. Further-

more, most people claim to do it – pollute the environment – because every other person is seen doing it too, that makes this pollutant psychology of ours an inherent vice, more or less. We may well say our minds have become the petri dish that cultures the habit of environmental pollution, because we consciously and at sometimes unconsciously make efforts toward compounding the problem, rather than streamlining our senses to avoid the habit of pollution, or at least correct others who engage in such habits. Pollution is how we think, not always necessarily how we act. It is a controversial thing to say, but pollution is human nature – we live in the midst of our own pollution. It is the way we as a species think and behave, although as earlier stated, sometimes, pollution is entirely accidental.Sadly, the biggest playmaker in our fight against this plague of our time is the one we ignore the most. We can’t stop being human beings, we should not look to utopian scientific breakthroughs that would someday heal the planet. We must look back into our minds, we must sanitize our minds in order to sanitize our envi-ronment.† Gifford, R. (2007a). Environmental psychology: Prin-ciples and practice (4th Ed.). Colville, WA:Optimal Books.†† Gardner, G. T., & Stern, P. C. (2002). Environmental problems and human behavior (2ndEdition). Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.Photo credits: AYASHAR, Jerry Mkaa (August, 2014)

AYASHAR, Jerry Mkaa is a writer, artist, and greener earth aficionado whose biggest career goal is to make the environment home for man and for the environment itself. As an environmental planner, his passion lies in landscape planning, minimalist and eco-architecture.

by Ayahsar Jerry MkaaOLLUTION

ROBLEM

ERSISTENTPTHE

4

Cities in Nigeria are increasingly experiencing steady alteration and modification as the pendu-lum of government’s policies swing back and forth.

However, these modifications, in form of infrastructural development, are rarely-if not completely devoid of any standardised blueprint, a master plan.Kent (1984) stated that a master plan is a general plan or instrument through which the city council considers, debates, and finally agrees on a coherent and unified set of long range policies for the physical development of a com-munity.Professor Vanessa Watson and Professor Babatunde Agbola in an article titled, ‘Who will plan Africa’s cities?’ published on 12 September, 2013 has this say, “Planning is the single most important tool that governments have at their disposal for managing rapid urban population growth and expansion”.Urban and Town Planning is indispensable as the cam-paign for global and environmental awareness intensifies. And as rapid urbanisation occurs with alarming frequency, the responsibility becomes more and more earnest.

In July 10, 2011, heavy downpour in Lagos state devastated property worth billions of naira in Lekki, Victoria Island and Ikoyi. Then, Governor Babatunde Fashola himself admitted that some of those houses were built on drainages and water ways. But the question that begs an answer is who allowed those houses there in the first place? Mr Chinedu Bosah, a Public Relation Officer, Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Right stated this in his article titled, Reasons for flooding and buildings collapse, August 8, 2011 Vanguard Online Newspaper; “Planning means that every area of life is put into consideration when putting and expanding basic infrastructures. When houses are built without putting into consider-ation a central water system, a central sewage, electricity, drainages, canals, roads, bridges, pipelines, rail lines, dams etc, there is bound to be a problem”. Our policy makers saddled with this responsibility of nurturing the environment through calculated and deliberate policies are either ignorant or merely reckless. Shopping malls, filling stations, storey buildings, are installed with no regard to environmental and safety standards. The citizens are without the faintest idea of what should be where, but these decisions to compromise one more time puts them in grave risk.What is the catch in all of these? Why even bring issues about adherence to a master plan in our cities to the fore? Society as it stands faces daily risks of unimaginable magnitude. It is enough that we are fighting hazards in which we have no control over. But urban planning is our responsibility. News about such disasters that traditionally greets us does not occur because of inexplicable reasons; a thoughtless decision or one moment of indiscretion brings them to our door-steps. That’s the tale of our cities. The authors are weaving their story with utter neglect to the characters in the script.

Tomorrow, we stand in some place, and with gleeful applause we cheer a new edifice or some project recently concluded; we heave a sigh of relief and imagine that our needs have been met, but we do not have the faintest idea what new risk has been introduced into our existence. We must act today through active participation to deter-mine and engender the development of our com-munities. This is the crux of a social contract.

Kreuzberg, Berlin

But here, in Nigeria, it is a tale of saggy and ill-fitting struc-tures littered all over the horizon with no discernible or coherent pattern of drainages, waterways, residential and public places. Our streets have a look akin to scattered seeds on untilled farmland; approvals are granted to cronies and loyalists without as much as a glance to the master plan. The plan is, there is no plan.Rapid urban expansion without effective environmental consciousness means that in virtually every urban center, a substantial proportion of the population is at risk from natural and human-induced environmental hazards (Lawanson, 2006).This occasional neglect, here and there, of establishing cities on a firm master plan has far-reaching consequences than appears apparent. Supposing that through a stand-ardised urban plan, a certain location is slated to house a public school, but through series of coordinated or unco-ordinated shady deals, approval is given to some figure or organisation to erect something else, our communities are deprived such opportunity of an institution of learn-ing. Unimaginable and numerous development opportu-

nities are stymied by these seemingly harmless policies. Environmental and urban planning, over the years, has tilted considerably from just government policies to daily issues affecting human lives-health, environmental risk, noise and pollution. These hazards are human-induced, government or policy mak-ers-induced. Every indiscre-tion puts the entire society at great risk.

MASTERLESS PLANThe tale of our Cities.

by Othman Yahaya

Othman Yahaya is a Legal Practitioner, a blogger, and a writer. He has acute interest in community and social development, public af-fairs, and sports. He lives in Lafia, Nasarawa State.

5

Ever wondered how you can show the earth some love? We have compiled 9 simple things that go a long way in conserving nature and keeping the environment in good shape. Every Nigerian can do at least five out of these.

Switch to Energy Saving LightingUsing Compact Flourescent Lighting (CFLs) and LED bulbs at home and at work save a significant amount of energy when compared to incandescent bulbs. What’s more, they do not generate heat (something you’d not want in this period of rampant heat waves), and they last 6 times longer than incandescent bulbs saving you significant costs. CFLs and LED bulbs generate little heat, last longer, and cut down your bills. A win for you and a win for the earth.

Switch off the lights(and other unused

electrical appliances)Switch off your lights when they are not in use. You know that neighbor who

leaves his outdoor lights on 24/7? That neighbor whose house we look to to know when NEPA has brought light? That’s part of what I’m talking about,

STOP IT! Keep lights that are not in use off. Switch off the fans and lights in the office when closing for the day.

Don’t kill every animal you run into.

Don’t kill every wild dog, cat, fowl that strays your way. Don’t kill and eat every wild animal you run into. Don’t eat bush meat, don’t

bedeck yourself in Ivory (elephants are wasted for that), don’t kill and burn birds just because you think they look ‘evil’. As much as is possible, call animal control

in case you run into dangerous animals*. God forbid our children do not know what an alligator looks like because we’ve eaten or shot them all.

Plant A TreeTrees do a lot of good to the environment. Plant one today. You could plant trees to commemorate special days, like one on the day Chichi was born, or another on the Friday when Rabiu got married. Whatever the reason, just plant a tree!

Save Paper, Transact ElectronicallyWhere you can, pay bills online, send emails, and recharge your phone online. Forests are cut down to make paper, the less paper we use the more forests we save. If you must use paper, use paper made from sustaina-ble forests.

Save WaterWould you throw your life away? Don’t waste water. Use only as much water as

you NEED to. Water is life.

RecycleRecycle materials you do not use.

Plastics that have been used can be recycled if they are not going to be used again. This helps conserve

resources that would have gone into producing new sets from

the scratch.

Join a GroupYou join a group concerned about caring for the environment such as NOOW, Nigerian Conservation Foundation, and the Wildlife Conservation Society all in Nigeria. You can also donate funds to aid such groups increase in raising awareness and other nature conservative activites!

Immanuel Galadima is an Urban Planner who iscares for the human habitat. His interests include innovativesolutions to urban problems through urban design and developingsmart and functional environments. He is also a writer andentrepreneur.

9THINGS

ENVIRONMENT

EVERY NIGERIANCAN DO TO SHOWLOVE TO THE

by Immanuel Galadima

Share This Post!As well as other such posts that can help inform other people on the benefits of environmental care.

Illustrations by TheMolashDesigns

6

Whenever I think of the word ‘desertification’, a little story my dad told me a while back always comes to mind. Some thirty or so years ago

while he was driving from Sokoto to Mafara with his Italian boss, they saw this young Fulani herdsman on a tree, his cattle underneath this tree & he was cutting down its branches to feed them. The Italian screamed, “fanculo!” while pointing angrily at this young man. He then said, “you see this?! Later he will be crying ‘Oh Allah, why bring desertification!’” At the time he told me this story and for a while thereafter, I always had a good laugh because of the way he tells the story but the enormity of the Italian’s wisdom totally eluded me. Until recently.Desertification has been defined as the process by which land changes into desert, for example, because there has been too much farming activity on it or because a lot of

In September 2014, the Federal Government approved the establishment of an Interim Office of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall during the 5th meeting of the National Council on the Great Green Wall in Abuja. It was described as “a people-oriented project by which Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathan hopes to impact positively on the welfare of the citizenry”.(5) The agency received legis-lative backing some 6 months after its establishment and was tasked with the development of a strategic national plan and approach which would address “the socio-eco-nomic situation of the people”. The FG then released the sum of N16 Billion to commence the implementation of the program which was estimated would cost the govern-ment between N85 to N100 Billion.(6) It was flagged off on November 24th 2014 in Arewa LGA of Kebbi State.Fast forward to 2016 and this laudable project has neither fully taken off nor its benefits began to be enjoyed. In fact it is currently, in my opinion, nearing its untimely death like many other extremely important programs embarked upon by the Nigerian government and I’ll tell you why. Amongst the 11 frontline states (Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara), majority are yet to provide the land for the planting of the trees, establish implementation committees at the state, local government, and community levels, as well as create the enabling structures for these committees to function. Also, only Kebbi state has specifically earmarked funds in its 2016 budget for the GGW with other states either saying they are only bound to provide the land and staff for the project or just ignoring it entirely.(7) There is also the issue of the Federal House of Representatives’ plan to create another desertification agency, stating that this new agency will cover wider areas under threat of erosion flood

and desertification.(8)

One is tempted to ask then, is the GGW just another myth? Frankly, I don’t think so, I just believe that our approach to implementation is not exactly the best because, as shown by nations like Burkina Faso (which as at March 2016, Ecosia claims to have planted the bulk of over 3.7 million trees)(9)

& Senegal (which claims to have completed & is already be enjoying the benefits of the GGW),(10) it can be done. We see this project as an avenue for youth employment and citizen empowerment (with claims of engaging over 50, 000 youths for tree planting)(5) all in a bid to score political points and until we begin to de-emphasize the political/economic gains & harp solely on the huge environmental impacts of this project, we are never going to go beyond take off point. Our environment is our life, our livelihoods & our collective future & we must protect it with everything we have. We must begin, as a nation, to sensitize the pop-ulace on the need to take ownership of the protection of our environmental resources because already, the effects of our recklessness hitherto is evident in the ever-changing climate year on year.As an alternative to the current government-only strat-egy for implementing the GGW project, we could embark on massive awareness campaigns on the numerous gains of this project across the frontline states, encourage the private sector to develop vast orchards with lucrative part-nership deals & also incentivize citizens to help plant and protect these trees. The overall goal is for the reclamation & protection of the environment for our collective gain & if citizen participation in implementation can help achieve that, I see no reason why it should not be sought. Why no one else thinks in this direction is such a mystery, really!

GREATGREENWALL

THE

MYTH OR MYSTERYby Naseer Abubakar

trees have been cut down.(1) Simply put, desertification can only occur as a result of man’s uncontrolled (and sometimes insen-sitive) activities on land. In recent times, a great deal of time, energy and resources have been spent on research, awareness/sensitiza-tion as well as various innovations to combat this towering monster & because of this, I decided not to rehearse the nature causes and effects of this menace in this piece. I will however discuss proposed solutions to desertification (particularly in Nigeria) and my program of interest is the Great Green Wall Initiative.The Great Green Wall, as developed by the African Union, is a planned project to plant a wall of trees (about 15km wide) across Africa at the southern edge of the Sahara desert with the aim of addressing detrimen-

tal social, economic and environmental impact of land deg-radation and desertification in the Sahel and the Sahara.(2) The project entails the partnership of eleven Sahelo-Saha-ran states (Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal & Sudan) & its goal is to strengthen the resilience of the regions’ people and natural systems with sound ecosystem management, pro-tection of rural heritage and the improvement of the living conditions of local population.(3) The project was proposed by Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2005 and after extensive studies, deliberation and planning, a harmonized regional strategy for the implementation of the project was adopted in September 2012 by the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN)(4) but our dearest Nigeria, the “giant of Africa” and a benefitting nation only keyed into the project in 2014.

Typical open landscape in the frontline northern Nigeria.

1. Cambridge Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, 2008. Desertification - The definition.

2. AU; FAO; GM UNCCD; EU, 2012. Great Green Wall for the Sahara & Sahel initiative: An African Wall. An African Partnership to tackle desertification & Land Degradation..

3. Anon., 2008. The Green Wall of the Sahara & the Sahel, introductory note No 3. Tunis

4. United Nations Environmen Programme (UNEP), 2015. 14th Ordinary Session of the AMCEN

5. Usman, T., 2014. Nigeria Creates Agency for the Great Green Wall Project. [Online] Available here.

6. The News Nigeria, 2014. Jonathan Launches Nigerian Component of Great Green Wall Project. [Online] Available here.

7. Abutu, A., Aminu, H., Muhammad, R. & A.M, H., 2016. Nothern States Display Apathy towards GGW project. [Online] Available here.

8. Krishi, M. & Sule, I., 2015. Rumbles over plan to create desertification agency. [Online] Available here.

9. Anon., n.d. What is Ecosia? The Search Engine that Plants Trees. [Online] Available here.

10. Mohammed, O., 2015. African Countries are building a Great Green Wall to beat back the Sahara Desert. [Online] Available here.

Nasir Abubakar is an avid planning and environment enthusiast with a background in Urban & Regional Planning, skills in digital design and a flair for creative critique. He aims to create a lasting impression in the field of town planning the world over.

7

There’s a saying that too much of everything is bad. But arguably, one can never be too aware of a thing. One knows or one doesn’t. There’s plenty effort by several individuals and groups to raise awareness on a lot issues, especially in developing countries where access to education and information does not come as easily as in more developed

countries and where even a healthy educated proportion of the population ignore issues that they don’t consider to be immediately harmful to their life, health, or property. Health and social issues have been given a lot of awareness in Nigeria lately. This includes awareness on issues like Sexually Transmitted Diseases, awareness on Sickle Cell, gender equality, poverty eradication, etc. Another form of awareness that is slowly digging into our ears is awareness on environ-mental protection.With the effects of Climate Change getting more and more devastating and obvious, people have begun to see reasons to check their actions with relation to the environment. Several groups (NOOW, one of) have begun to strengthen efforts in different ways to ensure that our beloved Earth survives as long as it can.It is in light of this that we decided to conduct a survey to assess just how aware Nigerians are about their environ-ment.

Online survey platform, Survey Monkey, was used to gather responses online on Environmental Awareness of Nigerians. The survey was launched on Earth Day, 2016, which is a day set out to remind people of their responsi-bilities to our planet. It was worthy of note that of over 50 respondents, about 74% had knowledge of the subject day. This means that more people were already aware of a world recognised day solely for Earth and, thus, the existence of a related awareness campaign. Hopefully, the other 26% have been made aware after taking the survey.Of all the respondents, about 17% claim they have never done a thing to show care for the environment despite almost all of them accepting that as much as the environ-ment serves us, it needs us to care for it and having beliefs about the reality of climate change. Other respondents have either planted trees, consciously reduced/stopped habits that are detrimental to the environment or helped in raising environmental awareness.

As much awareness as is being done, more respondents have had to personally observe the changes in climate in different ways to agree with its reality. This means that more and more awareness needs to be raised so that people know before hand, before it becomes too late, before it becomes an immediate threat to their life, health, or property. More and more, and, dare I say, it can never be too much.

Being mostly degree holders between the ages of fifteen to twenty-five, about 60% of the respondents have been made aware of the reality of climate change through formal edu-cation. Others through the media or personal research or a combination of all such infor-mation.Flooding was regarded as the most pressing environmental issue Nigeria faces with deser-tification, wildlife depletion, and drought fol-lowing respectively.Most of the respondents were from North Central Nigeria.

We, at Nature On Our Watch, urge you all to be extra careful with how you relate to your environment and to help raise awareness any way you can. It is never enough. Do Something NOOW!

Environmental AwarenessHow much do people know?

8

Renewable Energy and Nigeria

The term energy is used by all and sundry to describe the ability, inability or the power to make an effort and carry out a said task. It is the supply or source of

electrical, mechanical and other forms of power. In other words, energy exists freely in nature, some of them exist infinitely (never run out, called Renewable), while others have finite amounts (they took millions of years to form, and will run out one day, called Non-Renewable energy). Renewable energy is defined as energy that comes with resources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geo-thermal heat. It is now being seen by many people around the world as a cost-effective development solution. As a matter of fact, a report recently released by International Development Organization Oxfam argues that renewable energy source is a more affordable energy source than coal for poor people in developing countries around the world. Therefore, in a bid to create a cleaner, safer, and healthier energy future, it’s time to choose renewables first. This also reminds one of Arnold Schwarzenegger who posited that “the future is green energy, sustainability and renewable energy.” In another word, Al Gore in the same school of thought explained that the cost of energy will come down when a transition is made to renewable energy.Most renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from the sun. Sunlight, or solar energy can be used directly or indirectly for heating and lighting homes and other

Based on the REMP, renewable electricity would account for 10% of Nigerian total energy consumption by 2025. However, presently, Nigeria has the installed capacity to generate 2100MW from hydro, which is the only renewable source supplying the commercial grid. Hydropower rep-resents 20.9% of Nigeria’s power generation, as at January 2011 (Data from Trading Economics). It is expedient to state at this point that as of December 2013, the total installed or nameplate capacity of the power plants in Nigeria was 6,953mw (i.e. hydro-electric and the thermal/fossil fuel plants). The available capacity was 4,598mw and the actual average generation was 3,800 MW (2013 Year in Review, Presidential Task Force on Power,pg. 16.) Exactly a year later, there was yet another report that puts the total installed capacity of the power plants to be 7,445mw, with just 4,949mw as its available capacity (2014 Year in Review, Presidential Task Force on Power,pg. 16). Although the presidential task force on power’s peak demand forecast is 12,800mw (April 2015).Legacy assets currently have a total of 1,310MW installed renewable energy generation. They include, Hydro-power which has 1,300MW installed capacity (Kainji Hydro-power Station with eight generating units, Jebba Hydro Power Station with six generating units and Shiroro Hydro Power Station which has four generating units) and Wind which has installed 10MW capacity (pilot). The 10MW Wind Farm is ready for commissioning and concessioning.With the new investments and projects in the pipeline, this would bring the total renewable energy installed capacity

buildings, for generating electricity, for water heating, solar cooling and for commercial and industrial uses to mention but a few. Suffice to say that “sunlight” has a somewhat ines-timable value as the sun’s heat also drives the wind, whose energy is captured with wind turbines. The wind and sun’s heat cause water to evaporate. Energy from rain or snow flowing downhill into streams and rivers is also captured using hydroelectric power; hence energy from sunlight is a versatile one with overwhelming benefits to its credit. It is also important to point out that not all renewable energy comes from the sun. Renewable Energy requires less maintenance than tradi-tional generators (as is in the case of Nigeria) because their fuel is being driven from natural resources, hence reducing the cost of operation. However, with its enormous benefits and advantages, there are disadvantages attached to renew-able energy in the sense that it is difficult to generate the quantities of electricity that are as large as those produced by traditional fossil fuel generators. Also renewable energy sources have the issue of reliability in supply: this is because it often relies on the weather for its source of power. Hydro generators need rain to fill dams to supply flowing water. Wind turbines need wind to turn the blades, and solar collectors need clear skies and sunshine to generate electricity. When these resources are unavailable, so is the capacity to make energy from them. This can be unpredict-able and inconsistent.

to 21,648 MW. The past administration, under the President Goodluck Jonathan had an agenda; with a vision of a Nigeria where 30,000MW will be generated from renewable sources in the next one decade. A typical Nigerian like myself would consider that a fairy tale considering that in the last sixteen years close to $20billion has been expended on electric-ity supply in Nigeria, yet all the structures of power supply and distribution is still tinkering.Also, President Johna-than established a“Light up Rural Nigeria Project” which aims to electrify rural areas with renewable energy. The REMP details specific areas of investment for prospective investors, namely: • Small-hydro: 600 MW in 2015 and 2, 000 MW by 2025; • Solar PV: 500 MW by 2025; • Biomass-based power plants: 50 MW in 2015 and 400

MW by 2025; • Wind: 40 MW for wind energy by 2025; Despite these strides, more work still need to be done, not also forgetting that the current cost of renewable energy technology is also far in excess of traditional fossil fuel gen-eration. This is because it is a new technology and as such has extremely large capital cost. Making this transition will unarguably be a difficult task and decision to make owing to the fact that fossil fuel is, unlike many renewable sources of energy, are relatively less expensive to produce, and that is perhaps the reason why it is in higher demand as it tend to cost less.A recent Bloomberg report estimated that renewable energy investments in sub-Saharan Africa would reach the $5.9 billion mark in 2014, and grow to $7.7 billion in 2016. It however noted that the investments are predominantly expected from South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia, leaving Nigeria out of the top three countries investors seek out for renewable energy investments.

“Our energy choices have direct impacts on our health, our environment and our economy.” Sustainable and green energy is the energy of the future i.e. it will never run out. Nigeria is a signatory to the Kyoto protocol and rectified other conventions relating to energy issues globally. The intervention for sustainable renewable energy in Nigeria includes;Targeting electricity generation (Only 40 percent of Nigerians have access to electricity (EIA, 2007), Rehabilitate – Operate – and Transfer (ROT) targeted at Afam and Sapele power stations, Independent Power Plants (IPP) and Establishing quantity and price.Nigeria also has a “Renewable Energy Master Plan (REMP)”, which seeks to increase the supply of renewable electricity from 13% of total electricity generation in 2015 to 23% in 2025 and 36% by 2030. To attain this feat, several foreign invest-ments have been made in the renewable energy sub-sector of the energy sector. For example, A Korean firm, HQMC Korea Company Ltd, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Government to invest up to US$30 billion to build a 10,000MW solar power plant in Nigeria over several years. Apart from the effort by the federal govern-ment of Nigeria, here are some renewable energy development projects embarked on by State.

• The Jigawa State Government has signed an MoU with NOVA Scotia Power Development Limited for the development of a NGN34 billion, 50MW solar power project in the state.

• Delta State also joined the train when it entered into an agree-ment with Canada’s Sky Power to invest US$5bn in developing a 3000MW solar- powered electricity facility.

• 3,050MW Mambilla Hydro Power Plant Project, Taraba State, • 360MW Gurara II Hydro Power Plant Project, Niger State, • 38MW Dadinkowa Hydro Power Plant Project, Gombe State,• 40MW Itisi Hydro power Plant Project, Kaduna State, and • 700MW Zungeru Hydro, Niger State.

A Case of Nigeria

by Ajobiewe Tolulope

Solar Roof Panels

Ajobiewe Tolulope is a young social entrepreneur and environmen-talist with interest in creative writing, graphic design, community development, and public speaking. Tolulope is a photographer, an aspiring writer and also seeks an extraordinary career Urban Plan-ning. He balances his time with volunteering and writing a blog on ecoofreak.com. He lives in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

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These are not mere words but facts. Whatever we put into the environment is the same thing we get out of it. Hence, the way we treat the environment is how the environment would respond. In the context of this piece, ‘environment’ not only refers to the physical but also the human aspect. The environment is a major determinant of the economy because man is homo-graphicus and not homo-econo-mus, meaning there is no such thing as economic rather economic geography because location influences resource distribution and a lot more contributes to the economy of a region rather than just the economic factors. It is without doubt that population is a great determinant of any economy. In the face of recent research, you will agree with me that factors which support a densely populated area is the sustainable, productive, and conducive environment. Without this, one can assume that the economy of such society would be creeping. Also, the sitting of settlement and distribution of industries greatly add to the environment in the sense that there’ll be pressure on the region with abundant resources and hence an uneven distribution wouldn’t bring about un-tamed pressure on the use of the resources.Using the FCT as a background; When the then Justice Aguda panel sat for the creation of the FCT, they decided upon several factors and one is a favourable climate (i.e. good learning and favourable environment). Plateau was considered but the climatic condition was not favourable. Kogi was also considered but the terrain wasn’t favoura-ble. Kaduna state, too, was in the picture but the habitual

nature of certain areas was looked upon and this is as a result of the environment. This can be seen in the Greek philosophers work Strabo who said, “Climate influences the psychological disposition of different races.” This then reminds one of neo-environmental determinism which examines how geographic and ecological forces influence state-building, economic development, and institutions.Interestingly, the literature on state-building has been largely driven by the international relations and political science fields. However, although the development com-munity has not used the terminology of state-building to a great extent, the primacy of a good environment within development and the increasing focus of development policy on the primacy of politics and the state means that many aspects of environmental mainstream development activity are akin to state-building activities. Therefore, the fundamental argument of the environmental determin-ists was that aspects of physical geography, particularly climate, influenced the psychological mind-set of individ-uals, which in turn defined the behaviour and culture of the society that those individuals formed. A typical example would be that the tropical climates caused laziness, relaxed attitudes and promiscuity, while the frequent variability in the weather of the middle latitudes led to more determined and driven work ethics. Because these environmental influences operate slowly on human biology, it was important to trace the migration of groups to see what environmental conditions they had evolved under.

“As a man soweth, so shall he reap!”

ENVIRONMENTON STATE BUILDING

by Chukwudi Chiemezie Okoko

At this juncture, allow me examine briefly the environment. The atmosphere is the most important aspect of the environment because a large percentage of the pro-cesses going on the surface of the Earth is caused by the atmosphere. In addition, the troposphere (which is the most important layer to man in the atmosphere) sustains human lives. Undoubtedly, speculations are here and there, flooding the streets of every mind on what the future holds and how the growing population could be sustained. I will advocate that the neo-environmentalist concept and mindset be wildly intro-duced and preached across the length and breadth of Nigeria because it restricts exploiting the nature and so allows strict adherence to the mysteries birthed by nature. Conclusively, the environment would be decent, favourable and would greatly con-tribute to a nation’s state-building if only environmental determinisms are given a chance to surpass technology because a major restraint in the environment from recent research is the increasing rate of technology.

Chukwudi Chiemezie Okoko is a student of Geography and Environ-mental Management, and hails from Umuahia North LGA of Abia state. Chukwudi is a lover of the environment and therefore yearns to make the earth sustainable for the future.

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Editorial PolicyNature On Our Watch accepts for publication original, thoughtful, and practical articles and stories as they relate to the ‘environment’. NOOW is an urbanely led E-magazine that seeks to compile stories, thoughts, poems, and narratives of cities from across the world.

Notes to Contributors1. All submissions must be made to noowmag@gmail.com with subject ‘NOOW Contribution’2. All submissions should be original, and balanced. Originality in the sense that your submissions should be practical illustrative narratives of the city you are writing about and devoid of plagiarism of any kind.3. Entries should be attached as word documents, (or similar) file. That is, it must not be sent as the body of the mail but as an attachment. 4. All submissions should be accompanied with good quality pictures and images.5. All submissions should be between 600 -1000 words (optional for poems) 6. The cover page of your submissions should include; • The tittle of the piece, • Name of Author/writer • Country, region and state of residence, • A Fifty (50) word max. profile of the author. 7. A recent photograph of the author should also be attached as (jpeg, png, bmp, etc.) with your submission.8. All sources should be duly acknowledged and referenced where necessary.

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Editorial BoardAjobiewe Tolulope

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