Nigerian National Park Service was established by military Decree 36 of 1991, with five unit parks, Kanji Lake, Gashaka Gumti, Old Oyo, Chad Basin and Cross River national parks at the forefront of what can be described as Nigeria’s practical effort to protect and manage its natural flora and fauna ecosystem.
For the sake those who may be “lost” to the meaning of a “national park,” the concept is rooted in the United States of America, where the Congress declared Yellowstone as a national park in 1872, effectively raising a global attention to set aside a number of unique areas of a country for conservation. Indeed, it is defined across board as “one or several ecosystems not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation; where plants and animal species, geomorphologic sites and habitats are of special scientific educational and recreative interest,” which contains a natural landscape of beauty and to which visitors are allowed entry under special conditions, for educational, inspirational, cultural and recreational purposes.
We must state that, progressively, since the Yellowstone legislative process, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has broadened the scope of knowledge in these areas and the recreational sidelines of conservation, nearly distorting the primary purpose of national parks, particularly in Nigeria.
Specifically, the Nigerian attempt, which began as a modest action plan 31 years ago to secure special areas in the country and preserve such places for critical intervention to check deforestation and protect fauna ecology, struggled in the minds of Nigerians clearly exposed to green and safari tourism of East and South Africa.
No doubt, global broadcasting networks dwelling on geographic insights and primarily championing the recreational gains of conservation within these climes drove an incomparable pressure on the Nigerian concept, bedevilled by poor budget allocation and absence legislative backup and public buy-in.
Ours indeed is a labour-room experience, but fully determined to accept global changes and models without subjecting the system to imperial or colonial intervention.
Within the 31 years of strides by Nigerian conservation professionals and for the exclusively branded Nigerian protected areas, the succession plan has evolved full cycle without the usual business-as-usual game plan that is disruptive to very sensitive national sociopolitical institutions such as National Parks.
Significantly, these catholic creed in management mantra of the Nigerian park system separates and drives it to sustainability to continually evolve and enthrone certain landmarks on conservation.
From its founding father, Lawan Marguba, to the late Tanko “Technical” Abubakar, and new-generation pathfinders, led by Ibrahim Goni, PhD, certain achievements have been recorded.
There is no denying that new parameters, expectations and developmental benchmarks are clearly drawn and redrawn by critical stakeholders, thereby challenging to the fullest the professional competence of today’s natural resources managers.
From pressures of community developmental needs, unbridled herders’ attacks, urbanization, deforestation, poaching and illegal logging, the additional and most challenging national security situation posed by kidnappers and insurgents, using the cover of the thick vegetation covers of protected areas, puts to flight the gains of the system in the past five years.
I write and know that the Nigerian protected areas’ trajectory has left landmarks in view of limited resources available to it but most interesting is the determined and focal efforts in manpower training and retraining to brace for the sociocultural challenges, criminal re-mapping of the parks as frontiers of insurgency instead of conservation, with arrogant presence of heavily armed poachers and loggers daring the most intrepid rangers.
Goni, our focal assessment of leadership scorelines, remains the most tested conservator-general in the history of Nigerian conservation.
Rising from the ranks, Goni has opened the parks to futuristic collaborations, and inside the bowels of the parks system are visible but untold stories of achievements.
In our series, beginning from this outing, we shall attempt to tell these stories and, of course, the politics of poor funding, which seem to cripple and open the parks as frontiers and wombs providing cover to the troublers of Nigeria.
Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari, under whose watch Goni, through unprecedented legislative support, birthed 10 additional national parks in one swoop in 2020, brought our national quest to addressing climate change at the 50th celebration of United Nations Environmental Programme (UNIP) to global attention, reinforcing the truth that Goni was born to turn difficulties and hardships to success.
Next week, we shall look at the life and times of this conservation enigma, his scorecard and his dream for the National Parks S service. Does he deserve another chance on the beat as conservator-general in Nigeria’s most trying times? Can Nigeria make green tourism destination ranking?
Keep your eyes on this column.