Seeing without observing our Environment

Chima Nwafo

Henry David Thoreau – an American philosopher and development critic – regretted that most people you meet on the street are actually sleeping. If not, he wondered why many are incapable of observing things happening around them. On her part, Helen Adams Keller, another American, first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree (Wikipedia), once asked: “Is there anything worse than blindness? Yes! Eyesight, but no vision!” Centuries earlier, in response to a disciple’s question as to why he spoke to people in parables, Jesus Christ, in Matthew 13:13 (KJV) quoted from Prophet Isaiah, saying: “Therefore speak I to them in parables: Because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”

Although the foregoing instances happened centuries ago in the developed world, the sad truth is that they capture what one can say is a norm in today’s Nigeria. We’re either so busy looking for what to eat or too occupied talking and celebrating life so much that we can’t observe life-threatening anomalies in our immediate environment. Naturally, we look, but do we see? I doubt, because Cambridge Dictionary defines see as: “To be conscious of what is around you by using your eyes.”

Instances abound to substantiate relevance of the foregoing narrative. For example, we sell foods and drink around open drainages in industrial areas where industrial effluents flow through the gutters from factories. Who cares? Neither the consumers nor government agencies! Littering is habitual in our clime. As a result, plastic from sachet water, table water and other carbonated drinks are recklessly thrown on the streets, inside gutters, and even inside office and residential complexes. After all, the waste disposal agencies do not provide bins in public spaces. To urinate in open spaces, is a mark of “civilisation” or being a city-man. In fact, the rural migrant acquires such habit in the urban area. The travelled Nigerians return to continue in these uncivilised habits.

Our brothers and sisters in the Niger Delta go about their normal businesses oblivious of all the symptoms and warning effects of pollutants and deadly fumes from oil exploration and production companies. But for Ken Saro-Wiwa who fought the Federal Government and Shell up to the United Nations and European courts, Ogoni youths might still not have acquired the culture of environmental activism. Just ponder: Is there anything done to pollute Ogoni land different from other oil-producing communities? Nothing! The only difference is AWARENESS. That is why the current effort of Bayelsa State governor is commendable. It takes boldness and patriotism for a Nigerian elite to confront multi-national companies on an issue of communal interest.

Conversely, Romeo Barberopoulus (of blessed memory) – father of metal casting, and committed conservationist – was the founding chairman of Nigerian Foundries Limited and member of Nigeria Conservation Foundation/Nigeria Field Society. He was a Cypriot who came to Nigeria shortly after World War II. Sometime in October 1993, we were on a trip to a village in Rivers State, now in Bayelsa State, in his Toyota Land Cruiser. We planned to see the bronze casters of Benin; Nana’s Palace, Koko, before proceeding to SAGBAMA, to picture a house built on stilt, for the proposed Conservationist magazine. As the journey progressed into Delta State territory, he said: “Chima, have seen any bird flying around despite the green forest on both sides of the road?” It was then it dawned on me that I’ve not seen one, neither have I heard any chirping. Next, at the Koko River waterside, he asked some young people with canoes if they’ve caught some fish to sell. It was about 2.45pm. They answered in unison: “We never catch any fish; na since 6 o’clock in the morning we leave house.”

That is part of the price paid by oil-bearing communities due to the activities of oil exploration and production. To the average Nigerian elite cruising in the comfort of a Land Cruiser, what on earth will make him observe the presence or absence of birds in the air or forests on his way? The answer is nothing! The African big-man on a long a trip by road in such a luxury jeep should be engrossed in redolent exchange with his mistress. 

Given that Dictionary.com defines observe as: “to regard with attention, especially so as to see or learn something.” First, you must regard what you’re seeing with attention so as to learn something. For a people immersed in the epicurean culture of “enjoyment,” paying attention to details outside money-making is as undesirable as thinking and reading. We love easy life, short-cuts, and quick solution to issues. As the iconic Tai Solarin would say, we want omelet without breaking eggs. That is why supposedly exposed millionaires build houses wherever they find space: It could be under high tension electric poles, oil/gas pipelines, near telecom base stations or erosion sites; with total disregard for drainages.

Alarmed by the identification of 1,000 gully erosion sites, Anambra State Commissioner for Works, Mr. Marcel Ifejiofor, said most of the sites were caused by “wrong channelling of water,” regretting that “some people in the state intentionally build on water channels, which results in blockage of water flow.”

Explaining the effect of this avoidable error on soil compartment, he noted: “I want to visit Sakamori Drain linking water to Idemili River around Onitsha, because I got a report that the drain was blocked.”

  Meanwhile, the people of Orumba North/South Federal Constituency in April last year called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in Anambra. Rep Ben Nwankwo, who led a delegation of the town union leaders, described the magnitude of erosion as “war between erosion and the people as to who owns the land. Agulu-Oko-Nanka, down to Umunze, is the deepest gully erosion in the country.” In the absence of any figures to show how much is required to solve this gigantic challenge, let’s move to Niger State, where the situation may not be as acute. In October 2018, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, “approved the release of N300 million to the Nigerian Erosion and Watershed Management Project as counterpart funding, to help address erosion and flooding challenges in the state.”

Gully erosion is a major environmental challenge in most parts of the country, even though it is more pronounced in the South-East. As with other ecological encumbrances, the individual’s vision and observation in spotting threats to his immediate environment is as important as the millions of naira or dollar aid required to checkmate the threat.

•Nwafo, environmental/public affairs analyst, can be reached on: +2349065225130; [email protected].