The questions on sustainable and safe industrial food processing in Nigeria are legions and disturbing. How safe is the life of residents of industrial estates in Nigeria? How well protected is the ecosystem of areas near factories; especially where toxic and poisonous effluents are discharged directly intonearby streams and rivers? What about the continuous emission of Green House gases, harming the atmosphere the more? How standardised are the raw materials, processes and eventual products from such industrial operations? Has Nigeria got the enabling legislation to drastically reduce the disastrous socio-economic and health impacts on the quality of life of the host communities? And if so, are they being enforced to bring the culprits to book and safeguard our fragile environment from further calamitous deterioration?
Without an iota of doubt no single individual, organisation or country could effectively provide answers to these pertinent questions.Partnerships and pragmatic ones at that have become the sine qua non to fashioning the way forward out of man’s self-inflicted environmental woes. Indeed, as Ms Christine Kalui, the world-renowned Quality Systems expert and executive manager, African Eco-Labeling Mechanism Secretariatfrom Nairobi, Kenya rightly noted, “We should be afraid of Man!” But why you may ask?
The answers are not far-fetched.In the ecosystem, the most dangerous inhabitant is man. While other organisms (plants and animals) take only what they need and hardly harm the environment,man, in his overt greed and crass, irresponsible actions and inactions, takes from the environment far more than he really needs, causing increase in the level of diseases and poverty. And all, is in the name of exploitation.The truth however,is that that same man,‘the destroyer’ has the moral responsibility to fix the environment whose innumerable treasures he has so brazenly violated and vandalised. So, what is the way forward?
According to related experts, under the aegis of Greener Environment and Materials Sustainability (GEMS)Initiative who have held series of International Workshop on Sustainable Industrial Production, Nigeria has to join the developed economies on the adoption of more environmentally-friendly practices for a Greener Economy.
On his part, Professor Ifeoluwa Adewumi, an expert on Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, from the Niger-Delta University, Bayelsa state, seeking solutions to the mentioned challenges inspired the networking and collaboration of individuals, institutions and NGOs. Others include environmental officers, production engineers, health, safety and environment managers, company executives and the academia.The noble aim is to promote sustainable economic development of Nigeria and Africa in general through effective production and consumption methods.
That explains why GEMS is in partnership with African Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production,ARSCP.This is tandem with the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)back in 2002, as a follow up on the Rio De Janeiro Conference in 1992.With the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)and UNEP providing the financial and technical support,the promotion of Resource Efficiency and a Cleaner Production are well on their way to fruition.But much more still needs to be done.
To underscore this bitter truth, Professor Labode Popoola, a professor of Forest Economics and Director, Centre for Sustainable Development,at the premier University of Ibadan admitted that “Nigeria’s environment is grossly polluted and chaotic.”
The solution, in his experienced view is “to create a new set of leadership to think and work on sustainability, both in production and consumption.”
This would, according to Adewumi require individuals to change their mindset on environmental protection. He gave the telling examples of the visionary leaderships in Akwa Ibom, State of Osun and particularly the former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola-led administration in Lagos thathas made the desired impact on environmental protection.It was such vision that inspired the nation’s First Seminar on Waste Management in Lagos some five years ago.
Indeed,it was for Nigeria’s lack of the proper awareness on sustainable production, in line with internationally accepted Best Practices that some food and chemical companies have continued to spill much poisonous effluents into nearby rivers without the residents being protected from the debilitating health hazards.Years later,it has been discovered that not a few residents suffer from different types of cancer caused by drinking water that is highly polluted by heavy metals such as cadmium and lead.
In a similar vein, researchers have found that here in Nigeria, majority of water-related diseases are caused by non-treated and ill-disposed wastes from homes and factories that affect the precious lives of under-5 children. Subsequent to GEMS’ 1st National Conference on Sustainable Production held at Obafemi Awolowo University, in 2011 and attended by nations such as Kenya, Ghana, Cameroun, Tanzania and Nigeria it also holds the African Round Table.The series of workshops have assisted to enlighten famers on how to make more profit by recycling their wastes and stop the indiscriminate felling of trees.Ghana has moved faster than Nigeria in the area of environmental protection and we cannot afford to lag behind.
Taking this initiative closer to the people, the Centre for Sustainable Development,University of Ibadan is actively involving the local communities since 2010.For instance,the annual symposium tagged Sustainable Development Summit provides the veritable platform to teach them on the causes and dangers of Climate Change,issues of leadership and good governance,as well as tourism.Such is the impact that with the active support of Oyo state government,disposal of wastes has become more efficient. And now, the incident of cholera epidemic has drastically reduced.
The missing link is the enabling legislation. According to Andy Ukah, a representative of the Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria, the body has since 1973 been pushing for the enactment of the Public Health Law. Sad to note however, that existing laws are legacies of colonial administration. It was the Chief Obasanjo-led administration that by Act No 11 made courses on environmental health a profession. State legislators should similarly enact laws for the executive to implement on environmental protection,
What needs to be done now is to create sustained, national public awareness on the dangers posed by Climate Change, irresponsible disposal of food/chemical wastes and the immense benefits of a greener economy arising from a cleaner environment. And as Ukah rightly observed, Nigeria should adopt more preventive than curative measures for sustainable industrial production.
Ayo OyozeBaje
Baje is the first Nigerian food technologist in the media
