By Ayo Akinfe
Nigeria desperately needs to enter into an environmental conservation agreement with Malaysia and Indonesia. Once more, the planet looks to the world’s largest Black nation to step forward in the face of a climatic and ecological crisis. As the giant of Africa, Nigeria must rise to the occasion and rescue humanity.
Indonesia and Malaysia have run out of land, having destroyed virtually all their tropical rainforests in the pursuit of socio-economic development. These forests, described as “the lungs of the earth,” are vital to our survival. If Nigeria does not intervene, the planet is doomed.
The plight of the Bornean orangutan illustrates the urgency. Populations have declined by 60% since 1950, with projections showing numbers falling to just 47,000 by 2025. Nigeria has the land to open sanctuaries in tropical states like Ondo, Edo, or Delta, relocating these magnificent creatures before extinction becomes inevitable. On Sumatra, the situation is worse: fewer than 14,000 Sumatran orangutans and 800 Tapanuli orangutans remain, with the latter now the most endangered great ape in the world.
Beyond wildlife, crops like cocoa and palm oil depend on rainforest canopies. As Malaysia and Indonesia run out of land, Nigeria must prepare by establishing joint venture plantation companies. For every facility opened in Southeast Asia, a parallel plantation and processing plant should be built in Nigeria. We have the rainforest; they do not.
Land hunger is a genuine threat to human existence. Nigeria must learn from Malaysia and Indonesia’s crisis. Our rainforest states — Ondo, Edo, Delta, Anambra, Ebonyi, Ogun — must be ringfenced against industrial expansion. Instead, Niger Republic’s barren desert should host mega cities, solar farms, and industrial estates. Malaysia’s $350 million solar plant in Johor will devastate its environment, but Nigeria can build one ten times larger in Niger’s Sahara without harming a single tree or animal.
I look forward to governors of Nigeria’s rainforest states drafting a conservation agreement to present to Malaysia and Indonesia. If the Nigerian Governors Forum were firing on all cylinders, they would lead the way with initiatives like a special rainforest park spanning Edo and Ondo. Nigeria must act now, not only to save endangered species but to secure the planet’s ecological future.
📧 ayoakinfe@gmail.com
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