Osun’s 2.5 million tree seedlings

Although there have been successes in many regards, OLUWOLE IGE writes that bushmeat hunters, electricity company officials, as well as seeming nonchalant attitude of the people, have contributed to negatively affect the promising Igi Iye project, launched in 2013, as part of efforts to tackle climate change. However, the Osun State government has expressed readiness to remedy the situation.

There is no doubting the fact that local and international campaigns for the protection of the environment against climate change and global warming have been on the front burner of public discourse globally for decades, with the calls on governments, relevant agencies and stakeholders to redouble efforts aimed at promoting afforestation in our societies.

It is not out of place to conclude that envisaged natural disasters, such as torrential rainfall, whirlwinds and other sudden change in weather conditions, may have propelled world leaders, meteorologists and environmentalists to intensify their appeals to embrace tree planting, with a view to fighting deforestation and checkmate indiscriminate felling of trees in the woods or forest reserve.

Apart from enhancing the beauty of the environment, different species of trees, ranging from milicia, almond, mahogany, Iroko, teak, among others, also possess commercial values, for instance, in the production of furniture, just as they serve as a veritable source of foreign exchange earners for individuals, corporate organisations and governments.

The launching of the Igi Iye project

In tandem with the critical need to protect the environment, combat the vagaries of climate change and compliment the aesthetics of its capital, Osogbo, Osun State government in 2013, embarked on a project, christened “Igi Iye,” which was designed to re-awaken the culture of tree planting among its citizenry.

Aside restoring the consciousness of individuals, as well as community leaders and other stakeholders to the significance of tree planting and the natural advantages of trees, the concept and implementation of the Igi Iye project also dwelled on the planting of trees on the medians of highways leading into the state, along the border communities in Oyo, Ondo and Ekiti to create distinct features for Osun.

Shortly after the launch of the Igi Iye project, most especially with thrills and frills at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, in 2013, where the popular hip-hop artiste, Olamide, mounted the stand to entertain dignitaries, including Governor Rauf Aregbesola, his deputy, the then cabinet members, notable traditional rulers, farmers, community leaders, members of the academic environment, students and other stakeholders, many were presented with seedlings of trees for planting.

Although, a symbolic presentation was made during the launch at OAU, while other launching programmes were held in strategic communities to create effective awareness of the culture of tree planting, no fewer than 2.5 millions seedlings were distributed freely to members of the public, religious organisations, farmers, traditional rulers, purposely to ensure that landscapes in Osun were dotted with trees.

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Disappearing trees

However, findings indicate that the objectives of the government for the laudable programme may have been defeated owing to the nonchalant attitude of the majority of those that collected the seedlings and their failure to key into the concept and implementation of Igi Iye.

Besides, a sizable number of such trees, planted on the median of the highway, starting from Asejire bridge, where Osun shares a boundary with Oyo have disappeared, while others have withered. From Asejire end to Ikire, Wasinmi to Chief Bisi Akande Trumpet Bridge, Gbongan, only a few of the trees survived. Many of them have been cut by seemingly unscrupulous individuals, probably searching for wood to cook, just as occasional bush burning on the median may have destroyed others.

Similarly, some of the trees, planted on a demonstration along the setbacks from the popular Olaiya junction in Osogbo to Abere, where the state secretariat was located as part of the urban renewal programme, are nowhere to be found.

Although the project remains one of the laudable visions of the state government, worthy of emulation in terms of effective ways of tackling climate change and beautification strategies, an investigation revealed that lack of maintenance and failure to nurture most of the seedlings were majorly responsible for the seeming challenges bedevilling the Igi Iye project.

 

We launched Igi Iye programme to tackle climate change –Commissioner

In the same vein, most individuals and categories of other people that collected the seedlings for planting may have failed to buy into the project, just as what may be termed the absence of follow-up on the part of government officials for effective monitoring have gone a long way in whittling down the gains of Igi Iye project.

Barring his mind on the development during an interview with our correspondent, former Special Adviser to Aregbesola on environment when the Igi Iye project was conceptualised and implemented and now Commissioner for Regional Integration, Mr Bola Ilori, said: “The motivation and concern of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola government on the Igi Iye project was really to change the paradigm of tree planting.

“We are concerned about climate change and the only solution to the issue is much more likely around tree planting. That is the most effective way to fight climate change. Then, we thought of how we could contribute to addressing the issue of climate change, and we came up with the Igi Iye concept, and the idea behind it was to change the paradigm of government planting trees to people owning trees.”

 

‘It’s not possible that the trees were embezzled’

He continued: “As far as we are concerned, it was for us to change the sense of ownership of trees from it being a government thing, and bringing a different concept from what people are used to. Before that time, people were used to government coming together on a particular day and planting trees. However, we decided that we wanted to bring the concept of tree planting into peoples’ neighbourhood and not just on the roads. People, over the years, have been used to government planting trees to line the roads. That was not the design of the Igi Iye programme.

“The main focus of the project was for people to plant trees within their domains, and we are happy that people bought into the project, and took the trees seedlings for planting in their homes. We targeted a total of 2.5 million trees and people collected the seedlings.

“It is not right to say some people embezzled it. It is not possible to embezzle trees. Nigeria is so blessed that even if you forget the trees, the only thing you need to do is just to plant, the trees would germinate. We are conscious of that and it would take deliberate effort for the seed not to germinate. We know that people took it and it is our belief that majority of them planted. Some planted it; we cannot be sure that all planted it. We cannot know those who collected and failed to plant.

“You know that some of the palm trees that we see today were planted by rabbits and squirrels. That is nature and majority of mango trees germinate naturally. It is only few years back that people started deliberately planting mango, orange seeds, and the like. Most of the fruits we eat were planted by squirrels and rabbits because the land here is so fertile. So, if you take our tree seedlings home and plant it at your veranda, it would germinate. Even, if you drop it in your backyard, it would come up by itself,” Ilori explained.

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‘Tree seedlings were freely distributed, not sold’

Commenting on the impression that government sold the seedlings, he contended that “we gave the seedlings out freely and why would anybody think that we sold it. It is not rice and beans. People took it free of charge. You know we shared out the seedlings massively and the media was present at the launch, which held at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Ilesa, Iwo and Osogbo Grammar School. We shared the seedlings all around. We did not stop there; corporate bodies, private individuals, among others also came to the office to collect.

 

‘The Aragbiji of Iragbiji has been outstanding in tree planting’

“The only thing we requested from those who came for the collection was that they should write official applications. Some collected in tens, others in thousands. Traditional rulers keyed into the project. In fact, there was a traditional ruler that was outstanding and that was the Aragbiji of Iragbiji. He must have collected more than 10,000 seedlings to plant in his community. He has been doing it yearly; he takes around 6,000 to plant within his Iragbiji axis, and we have been supporting him with free seedlings. He is one of the outstanding Obas on tree planting in this state.

“And there are so many chiefs, schools, churches and private organisations that took the trees. We have their applications. It was shared out, not sold.”

 

‘There are no penalties for not planting’

On monitoring those that collected the tree seedlings, Ilori said “our role was largely sensitisation. For those that collected and did not plant, there was no provision to penalise them. Our monitoring has not been too deep, I must say that. Really, it was to create awareness and so it was an awareness creating exercise. The issue is to encourage the people to understand the benefit of tree planting.

“The fact is that in peoples’ neighbourhoods, there should be trees and not on the road. So, it is difficult to monitor. For you to monitor, you have to go to their compounds. So, we gave it to them to take home. It is not easy. We tried to follow-up on some people and they did plant their trees. For instance, the Kabiyesi of Aragbiji and a number of private schools did plant theirs. We had some fair monitoring, so we could not have monitored 2.5 million houses. It was not part of our plan. It was sensitisation thing. We gave it out and so many people planted. Our programme was not heavy on the issue of monitoring, it was awareness creation effort.”

 

‘We can’t stop the trees from dying, but there are plans for replacement’

On the ones planted by the government on the medians and roadsides, which have withered, or burnt, Ilori asserted that “the government could not have burnt it. Let me tell you that the director that even coordinated it has died. So, if human beings can die, what stops trees from dying? Ours is to plant it, just like is the duty of a parent to give birth to a child. That the child would die or survive is the act of God. Since trees are living organisms, you can’t stop them from dying.”

Speaking on the possibility of replacing the trees that have withered or died, he explained that “we have that in our plan to replace the ones that government planted. I can tell you that for the ones that government planted on the roads, we still have more than 70 per cent survival of those trees. Then, people went there and started cutting them down. You won’t know when they cut them. They would have finished cutting before you see it. Some people cut them because they wanted to catch rabbits, and thus, they would set the bush and trees on fire.

“It is only the fire that you would see and at times before you get there, the fire would have consumed the trees. So, you cope with ones that have survived and see what you can do. We intend to do something when the rains stabilise this year. As far as we are concerned, the Igi Iye project did well. We designed it and it met our expectations. Whoever now misunderstands the concept is not clear on what we are trying to achieve. We did not say government would plant one tree. The ones we planted were just for demonstration. We said clearly in the concept that it was for people to have ownership and take them home. Our focus was for people to plant them in churches, mosques, homes, among others. Go to Muslims’ prayer grounds in Osun, there is evidence of the Igi Iye project there. For us, those trees succeeded according to designs of the programme.

 

As far as we are concerned, the project was not a failure –Govt

Osun Commissioner for Regional Integration, Mr Bola Ilori, also noted that in spite of the challenges highlighted, as far as the present administration was concerned, the project had major impact.

“As far as we are concerned, it was not a failure. I read so many funny things about some people saying we organised the Igi Iye project with over N1 billion. I can tell you categorically that Osun did not spend up to N50 million, inclusive of jingles and all the ceremonies, conceptualisation and the actual seedlings.

“So, when they say we spent billions of naira on the concept, I would just laugh. Because the success was huge, people attributed huge money to it. Osun used minimum amount of money to achieve maximum impact. That was what happened. Outside the Igi Iye and Omoluabi Weighing Scale projects, I doubt if any programme of the Aregbesola administration has that level of major mobilisation and sensitisation,” he stated.

On the challenges that dogged the project, Ilori posited that “it is still about the consciousness of our people to trees. They did well when they were collecting the seedlings. What could be challenging is that some of the demonstration trees planted by the government died and you will leave that to vagaries of nature. Go to OSBC, you will see evidence of the Igi Iye project there.”

He continued: “We have plans to replace the ones at Asejire. You know it has added serious beauty to Asejire, Gbongan axis. What is left now is to plant. You will see that the success is more on one side than on the other side. What accounts for that is that we had issues with PHCN regarding their poles; they felt if trees should continue with the rate of their growth, there would be problems with their poles, so they started cutting them down.”

“The original cuttings that you saw were by PHCN. You will see that coming from Ibadan, on your right side, you have more success on the left side. They left the ones that were not near their poles. The remaining ones near Ikire and after Ikire were cut by people hunting for bushmeat,” Ilori remarked.

He advised the people to be more supportive, noting that “we would be leaving Osun better in terms of consciousness than we met it. People come to the ministry now to ask for tree seedlings, unlike before.”