Varsity Don Seeks Promotion of Environmental Sustainability 

Funmi Ogundare 

The Director of Global Affairs and Sustainable Development Institute, Osun State University, Prof. John Agbonifo, yesterday, called on industries in Nigeria to look for ways of contributing to environmental sustainability that would benefit the society.

Agbonifo, made the call at the 2023 two-day International Sustainable Development Dialogue, jointly organised by the institute in conjunction with African Network of Environmental Humanities (ANEH) and Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society, a research Center of Ludwig Maximillian University, Germany.

He expressed concern that the industries contribute majorly to environmental destruction because they release large amount of effluent. 

According to him, “the industries need to look at their production processes and ensure that action of such processes that impacts the environment negatively, needs to be transformed so that they can contribute to the green economy and ensure sustainability.”

He stated that the government could also do its own part by promoting awareness among the citizens and educating them about what was going on in the world on global warming, adding, “but that awareness is not enough. The government must also find a way to provide incentive to make people begin to act in accordance with their knowledge. Some people have argued that there is no direct link between knowledge and action. Somebody might be aware and knowledgeable. In addition, some incentives must be provided. However, for those who act in contrary, sanctions should be meted out to them. These sanctions will serve as deterrence for others who have the tendencies to have that kind of action, but deterrence and incentives are lacking.” 

Speaking with journalists on the essence of the dialogue, Agbonifo explained that the world was going through a global environmental change and that many of them come with negative economic consequences.

Africa, the director noted, was vulnerable to some of the changes, adding that the institute was concerned about the impact of the global processes not only on the economy, but on the people and environment. 

“We felt the need to begin to find better understanding of the forces behind these processes and what we can do on the disruptive impact of the global environmental warming.”

The theme of the conference was, ‘Making and Unmaking Africa: Global Developments and Environmental Humanities.” “We have the understanding that Africa is not an island. Whatever happens to the global world, affects Africa and Nigeria and so we are concerned about how development affects our country and understanding,” the director stressed.

Earlier in his remarks, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Odunayo Clement Adebooye, explained that environmental humanities (also known as ecological humanities), remains an interdisciplinary area of research that draws on the various environmental sub-disciplines.

 “It is geared towards employing humanistic questions about language, culture, values, ethics and responsibilities to address the globally pressing environmental challenges.”

 In the last two to three decades, Adebooye who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, Research, Innovations and Partnerships, Prof. Anthony Kola-Olusanya, noted that there had been growing concerns about the human and natural disruptions of the ecosystems. 

“The concerted efforts of scholars globally have led to the identification of key issues that have each constituted a body of knowledge, with growing scholarly interest, efforts and output arising from each. These issues include, but are not limited to pollution, global warming, overpopulation, ocean acidification, deforestation, ozone layer depletion, among others.

“It is the contextualisation of these issues to Africa, and the exploration of the effect of these from Africa on the global environment that I am sure this dialogue is hoped to address,” he stressed.