A rape of Edo forests, destructions to livelihoods, rural communities and the environment (II)

Preambles:
The 2025 stanza of the World Environment Day (WED), has been marked. ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ is its theme. But in Edo State of the country, issues on Forestry, Biodiversity and Livelihood, are more topical and dominant. One should, therefore, do a recap on the first thesis as leading this version. Edo State Government, with Mr. Godwin Obaseki as its governor, from 2016-2024 (eight years in all), was reported as having led a ‘pack of the infamy’, amidst Nigeria’s 37 comity of states, where Edo was (and is) the single highest driver of land grabbing, deforestation, acute losses to biodiversity, habitats, agriculture and other local community’s lifestyles, in Nigeria.

The findings are sticky and verified statistics of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and other painstaking global institutions.

An official visit to the current state governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, came to confirm the bone of contention between Mr. Obaseki and the Okpamakhin Community Initiative (OCI), Coalition Against Landgrabbing and Deforestation (CALD) and other civil society organizations (CSOs). The Onitsha Zone Stakeholders Association, the visiting group, led by Bishop Goodluck Akpore, said thus, “Edo State had given Presco 36,388 hectares of land. Obaseki was enjoying those two companies (including Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc), milking in billions, not N2 or N20. I have the records”.

Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu had added; “The last time they were forced to pay tax was when Comrade Adams Oshiomhole shut them down. Our state has been plundered by these multi-billion companies. What they cannot do in other places is what they have been doing here. And it has been worse in the past eight years”.

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Governor Okpebholo, who was shocked by the revelations, promised to investigate the matter, and to retrieve the said forest and community lands to their owners. During his electioneering campaign, the governor had pledged to look into all accusations of grabbing of farmlands, private community and forest reserve lands. That must have re-enforced the recent avowal declaration by the state’s Deputy Governor, Hon Dennis Idahosa, to protesting farmers in the state, that government was poised to revoking and reclaiming the lands, where they had been unjustly acquired.

Problems at Benin-Ogba Zoo and Park (BENZOPA):
The foremost ecotourism destination and conservation education/awareness resource enclave, is one of the last remnants of the Guinea lowland rainforest of the sort that is located in the city centre of Africa. BENZOPA is mostly neglected by the state government, but would have since gone-under without concerted protection given to it by Everal Services Limited, its management consultant. OCI has placed its usual demand from previous governments, but now on the table of the Okpebholo’s led government, which is mainly the actualization of the Arbitration Agreement, reached between Everal Services Limited and Edo State Government, since November, 2000.

*Undue Forest Reserve Concessions to Multinational Companies and others*:
Obaseki’s government unwarrantedly ceded vast land areas from the state’s rainforest reserves to his friends, the big-time mono-crop plantation owners, than any governor in the history of the state. Such disputed land areas include the over 13,750 hectares of land from Okomu Forest Reserve and Owan BC 12 Forest Reserve, which the executive council of ex-Governor Oshiomhole had revoked. Ex-Governor Obaseki, who was a vital part of the Oshiomhole’s government, that revoked the lands, was the same who soon gave it back to Okomu Oil Palm Company, that earlier grabbed them. Fresh huge lands were later ceded from within the forest reserves of Ehor, Urhonigbe, Ekiadolor, Owan BC 12 and Iuleha-Ora-Ozalla, respectively to Obaseki’s business fronts.

There were protracted street protests and court litigations, including one pending at the Regional Court of Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), by Okpamakhin Community Initiative, on behalf of the forested local communities, against Edo government. There were excessive bulldozing of farmlands, crops and standing forests, bek9ng to the villagers, which caused acute scarcity of staple food and farmlands, together with the once-rich biodiversity forest, in replacement with single-crop plantations.

*Appointment of Hon Valentine Asuen as Chairman of Forestry Commission* :
The wider complaints is that the recent appointment of Hon Valentine Asuen, as chairman of the Edo State Forestry Commission, was uncalled for. They claim that the position deserves a forest professional or one who is knowledgeable about it. After the slipshod establishment of the commission by ex-Governor Obaseki, an individual professional was appointed, where he ran the commission all alone, without backups. That gave Obaseki the elasticity to give out forest reserve lands, at will.

So far and interestingly though, the Hon Asuen, who is said to be unqualified, has conducted the affairs of the commission much better than the said Obaseki’s professional. Hon Asuen seems to be a good listener, who could do better. A collaboration with Okomu National Park, Arakhuan-Udo, a global monument, which was once undermined and violated, without tangible support from Obaseki, is a huge plus for the Asuen’s forestry commission and Governor Okpebholo.

Asuen’s drive for monitoring the scanty remains of the forest reserves and illegal logging activities is quite commendable. But it would’ve been worth the efforts if that was done before the era of Obaseki, when there were sizeable forest reserves and standing trees remaining. The real fact is that there are an insignificant forest reserve lands with no more trees of measurable girths remaining. No thanks to the Obaseki’s government that squandered them!

To substantiate this, even Hon Asuen wouldn’t be convinced that the sticks (which looked like bamboo stems), which were loaded into trucks, that were said to be seized illegal logs, can’t pass as timbers!

However, this is a wakeup call that Edo state government, prompted by the Forestry Commission, could immediately go into aggressive afforestation or tree planting drive, where the remaining over-exploited forest reserves, could be planted with short-gestation trees, that could be matured in no time.
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Dr. Festus Onogholo and his Africa Initiative for World Peace, with its tree planting project at Ehor Forest Reserve, of Uhunmwode LGA, are already setting the pace for government and private investors.

Pointedly, Hon Asuen and his commission mustn’t be tricked by an IDH National Initiatives for Sustainable and Climate Oil-Palm Smallholders (NISCOPS) project, which will be established on the scanty leftovers of the forest reserve estate of the state. A populist government of Senator Okpebholo, shouldn’t indulge in such anti-people project, which gave the Obaseki’s government awkward image at national and global stages. In Edo, we already have on hand a severe food and land scarcity crises, which would be aggravated if more lands are wrested from the poor of the poor.

No one will stand against the said NISCOPS project, which Mr. Augustine Ninyio, its manager, was said to have introduced to Hon Asuen, whereas it is reserved for the smallholding oil palm project that should also be planted on private lands belonging to individuals. Such project is better handled by the state’s Ministry of Agriculture, and not the Forestry Commission. A single crop, not oil palm nor Iroko tree can make a forest that is the business of a forestry commission.