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In keeping with a common practice in
modern, participatory democracy, Nigerians should ideally witness the
screening of new ministers live on television. It is mandatory that we
comprehend the knowledge level a minister brings to the turbulence of
governance.
Any ministerial nominee that
demonstrates ignorance during the screening exercise of those natural
processes that feed into economic growth, and the impacts of climate
change on them, belongs to the 19th Century, and should either be kept
in the National Museum or be politely requested to go home and do
something else.
So here’s a brief tutorial as an assist, both to the examiners in the Senate and their candidates:

Terrestrial habitats
Nigeria’s
terrestrial habitats are mainly savanna woodland and grassland. Montane
vegetation grows on some elevations above 1 500m in the eastern margins
of the country. Mambilla and Obudu hills are accessible examples.
40 million people
live and procreate at a rate of 3 per cent per annum. This has
consequences. All but 10 per cent of the original forest estate is left
in Nigeria! The resulting high ecological footprint is gradually
spreading to the country’s semi-arid, northern borders. In southern
Nigeria, the oil industry has shaved off swathes of rich mangrove
forests in the Niger Delta. Population drifts to coastal cities, Lagos,
Port Harcourt, Calabar, Warri, Yenagoa, Badagry, impacts moist forests
that protect a low-lying Atlantic shoreline from storm surges and
erosion.
With the exception
of patches in Ogun, Edo, Bayelsa and Delta States, 30 per cent of the
remaining forests in Nigeria are in Cross River State. The gene pool
there is impressive, because this area survived the great ice age that
affected the whole of central and West Africa many millions of years
ago. There are more than 400 varieties of trees, around 170 species of
reptiles and amphibians, 140 fish species in Cross River State. Of the
904 bird species recorded in Nigeria, 425 occur in Cross River.
Increasing demands
on Nigerian forests are mainly for wood, food, fuels, industrial
materials, medicines, unsustainable (largely illegal) logging,
agricultural encroachment, over-harvesting of non-timber forest
products, overgrazing of livestock in the savanna, infrastructure
development without impact assessments, inadequate and ineffective
legal frameworks for forest governance, poor research and insecurity of
land tenure, are the major threats.

Sustainable energy sufficiency
In the process of
photosynthesis, tropical forests can absorb 10 per cent of annual
man-made greenhouse gas emissions. But destruction of these forests
contributes over 17 per cent to these emissions per annum. Nigeria must
establish programmes for energy efficiency, to move away from
over-dependence on combustion of fossil fuels, while making sure this
does not impact food security and biological diversity.
Destruction of forests is an environmental problem that needs an
economic solution. Carbon credits must be generated for forested states
if they reduce vegetation loss to an agreed level each year. This can
be monitored by satellite technology. The monies paid for such
environmental services could then be channelled into forest
conservation, agricultural intensification, renewable energy, education
and small businesses, building better roads and infrastructure in order
to stimulate development and create alternative livelihoods.