Jonathan’s Cousin Raises the Alarm Over Indiscriminate Wood Logging in Forest Reserves

Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa

A Niger Delta lawyer and businessman now turned explorer, Azibaola Robert, has raised the alarm over what he described as indiscriminate logging in the region’s rainforests and other forest reserves in Nigeria.

Robert, who is a cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan, called on both federal and state governments to stop and criminalise the indiscriminate cutting down of economic trees in the forest reserves across the country.

According to him, the business of felling trees and cutting them for timbers was depleting the thick rainforests around communities in the region.

Robert, who is championing a new cause of action for forest preservation with the launch of a 14-day ‘expedition into the deep forest’, said the indiscriminate cutting down of economic trees and other forms of exploitation of the forest reserves posed a great danger not only to Nigeria in particular but the world at large.

According to him, the unregulated practice of logging had impacted the ecosystem and the quantity of oxygen released into the environment for breathing by the people of the region.

He said most of the oxygen consumed comes from natural environments like the forest which he accused the government of failing to protect or educate the people on the consequences and effects on the environment and their livelihood, health and the economy.

Speaking with selected journalists who he took along to the deep forest of Otukeme Forest Reserve in Ogbia Local Government of Bayelsa State, Robert said the purpose of the journey in the deep forest was to create awareness on the urgent need to preserve the environment.

He said, “This is the first edition into the deep forest and we are starting from my own community, the Niger Delta, the aim of this expedition into deep forest is to highlight the natural endowments of Nigeria, the Niger Delta and the communities that are around here.

“We want people to be able to see the kind of lessons that nature has given to our country and how unexplored these natural resources have been and also how exploited these natural resources have been.

“There are some of these resources that are over exploited, there are some that have never been exploited before and we really need to balance nature, if we don’t balance nature in 20 to 30 years time maybe sometimes after we have gone our children will not be able to taste this kind of environment.

“Look at what we have seen here, is this not more sight-seeing than any natural environment we watched on television from abroad? This is supposed to be a tourist attraction but nobody explores that part.

“I’m also highlighting the fact that the forest has been so devastated by logging, people have cut down trees, natural trees, heavy trees that protects the environment that give us oxygen, people have logged them down and there is no regulation when it comes to wood logging in the Niger Delta and in fact in Nigeria, so it is a disaster that is waiting to unfold.”

Robert further said, “We are highlighting the fact that the forests have been so devastated by logging. People cut down natural trees that protect the environment that gives us oxygen.

“There is no regulation when it comes to wood logging in the Niger Delta and Nigeria in general. So it is a disaster waiting to unfold. The trees are being cut down for the purpose of economic gain.”

He said apart from unbridled felling of trees, the devastation of the region’s environment through oil and gas exploration and its associated carbon released into the atmosphere “has really caused havoc to the natural and beautiful environment, especially the rainforests.

“Have we tried to calculate the percentage of oxygen that comes from the rainforests of the Niger Delta and why we should not deserve the trees of the Niger Delta, instead we are busy logging wood at random? ‘’ he queried.

He further explained that the project would be packaged to deliberately showcase the beauty of Nigeria’s thick rainforests and create local content for audio-visual consumption as against what is currently obtained on some television stations within and outside the country.