Nigeria: Rich in Oil, Dependent On Firewood

It is a paradox of note: the fact that while Nigerians live in the world’s sixth-largest oil producer, most of them still rely on wood for their fuel.

Of the country’s population of over 140 million, about 70 percent live in rural areas and are directly or indirectly dependent on forest resources — especially wood — to meet their domestic energy needs, says Musa Amiebinomo of the national Department of Forestry.
This is leading to destruction of forest cover, a situation aggravated by illegal commercial logging.

Figures from the 2005 ‘ State of the World’s Forests’ report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) indicate that between 1990 and 2005, Nigeria lost 35.7 percent of its forest cover.

Boniface Egboka, an environmentalist and dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies at Anambra State University in south-eastern Nigeria, blames the continued use of firewood on corruption.

“Nigeria is still dependent of firewood when we have abundant oil and gas because our so-called leaders are fraudulent and corrupt. They care less about the welfare of the citizens and so they allow the forests to be mowed down,” he told IPS.

“We have no reason to be using firewood. We have the financial and human resources to pipe gas into homes for domestic use We are deforesting the whole of the north through harvesting of wood for fire, and now we are shifting the savannah southwards into the rain forest through logging.”

AllAfrica