Dr Olajumoke Morenikeji, an associate professor of Parasitology/Ecology and Environmental Biology Unit of Department of Zoology, University of Ibadan has charged Nigerian Governments at all levels to pay attention to wildlife and revitalize it.
This charge came after the inauguration of the Nigerian Association of Zoological Gardens and Wildlife Parks (NAZAP).
It has since been registered with the Federal Government in November 2017, with the motto, “Biodiversity, Conservation and Stewardship”. Its Governing Council had their third meeting recently.
Dr Morenikeji spoke with tribuneonlineng.com some days back. Excerpts
The potential of national parks
When I was the director of the Zoological Garden, University of Ibadan, we hosted national and international workshops. NAZAP was an offshoot of those workshops, because all the zoo workers and practitioners came for those workshops. So, we agreed to do something about the sector because nobody was doing anything about zoos in Nigeria. We talk a bit about national parks – Nigeria has seven, but they are not well catered for. They don’t even know what they are doing! And I tell people that the United States has about 60 protected areas designated as national parks, and they know exactly what they are doing. If you go there you will be impressed, and they are actually adding a lot of money to the US economy, because of the number of tourists coming each day. So, this is a lot of money coming to the States from all over the world.
Finding the money in wildlife management
We don’t even take care of our national parks, not to talk of zoos. I had the privilege of speaking to the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed because I was invited to a tourism summit in Abuja, and they were discussing ways of making the economy do well through tourism. When I stood up to speak about zoos, everyone kept quiet because it had always been about hotels and those kinds of places. But I said zoos are the most visited places on earth, anywhere you go. So, we have to do something about the zoos and parks sector to bring money to the country. I told him there is a need to have a zoo in every state. It will not just benefit those working there, by creating jobs, it will also benefit the locals around and the country, because there are some animals in Nigeria we don’t have anywhere else in the world. People will travel to see them. When they see that the sector is well managed, they will come.
But you know the way Nigeria is. If you want to achieve anything you have to pick it up yourself and sell it. I told him that we have a group now, and that what we are advocating and soliciting for is that the government should shift attention to wildlife management.
That governing council was one of the meetings we sat down to discuss this. It was good that the National Parks Service was there. And what the stakeholders – people from zoos across the country were involved. We decided from the meeting that we would set up a wildlife advocacy group. And it is going to be represented in every state of the federation. The group will champion anything that has to do with wildlife; like the government building animal rescue centres. The ones we have now are abandoned. Some have become dump sites. It is a shame. We are hopeful that the association will be able to do something in this regard.
How to create environment lovers
We have spoken with several state governments. There was this Benin episode where they wanted to convert the land for building purpose. We went to the state government and said no. the land they wanted to take was one of the richest forest areas in Nigeria. You should preserve what you have and not unsustainably destroy them. In Port Harcourt, they wanted to relocate the zoo because they felt it was not useful. Meanwhile, zoos are educational hubs where children can come face to face with animals for the first time in their lives because most of them will never enter the forests and they are able to learn, understand and appreciate nature, which will translate to them loving the environment. Zoos are also research hubs. So, we were able to convince them not to relocate the zoos to some lace nobody will go. These are the things we are doing as an association and I think we are getting some success.
What to do
Federal and State governments should upgrade their zoos, make them functional, make them meet international standards, and operate with best practices, so that our wildlife can do well. Apart from recreation and education purposes, the zoos are also conservation hubs where we keep animals from going extinct. That is the issue with the pangolin. When animals go extinct, it is not good for the ecosystem. Things go out of balance, and everything will bounce back on humans. That is not how it should be.
Credit: tribuneonlineng.com
