NAN-H-14
Bush burning
Omu-Aran (Kwara), Feb. 5, 2017 (NAN) The management of Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara, has said that it was spearheading an anti-bush burning campaign to stem losses arising from such fires in the country.
The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Aize Obayan, made the assertion at the inauguration of the anti-bush burning campaign organised by the institution in Omu-Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the campaign, tagged “Stop Bush Burning Campaign’’, was organised as part of the activities marking the 59th birthday celebration of Pastor (Mrs) Faith Oyedepo.
Oyedepo, whose birthday reached its climax on Sunday, is the wife of the institution’s Chancellor, Bishop David Oyedepo and also Vice-President, Education, Living Faith Church Worldwide.
NAN reports that the campaign was jointly organised by Landmark University Community Development Impact Initiative (LMUCDII), College of Agricultural Sciences, Landmark’s Physical Planning Department and Omu-Aran Fire Service Outstation.
The campaign, which involved distribution of hand bills to educate the people on the dangers inherent in indulging in bush burning, also took the team to Eleyin and Ipetu-Igbomina communities.
A free medical outreach was also organised simultaneously by the institution’s medical centre at Oke-Igbala Leprosy Hospital, Oke-Igbala, a suburb of Omu-Aran, to coincide with the birthday celebration.
No fewer than 200 patients benefited from free tests, diagnosis, drugs and treatment for different ailments during the exercise.
Obayan, who decried the negative impact of bush burning on humans, soil and environment, said the menace had become a stumbling block to the socio-economic development of communities.
The institution’s boss noted that the regulatory responsibility against incessant bush burning, especially at the grassroots had gone beyond the government alone to shoulder.
She advocated a stakeholders’ collective effort to achieve the desired results.
Obayan expressed the need to checkmate the activities of some animal hunters whom she accused of deliberately setting bushes on fire thereby causing unquantifiable losses in the process.
She listed the negative consequences of bush burning as depletion of soil nutrient, environmental pollution, reduction in farm yield and income, rendering farm harvest unsafe for consumption, as well as destruction of the ecosystem.
The vice-chancellor, who used the opportunity to extol the virtues of the celebrator, described Oyedepo as having unquantifiable affection for spiritual devotion, liberating and restoring the dignity of the black race.
“These activities are geared toward honouring a woman of immense spiritual values who detest human oppression in all its ramifications, Pastor (Mrs) Faith Oyedepo on her 59th birthday,” Obayan said. (NAN)
ISHO/MUYI/PDE
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(Edited by Muhyideen Jimoh/Peter Ejiofor)