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Adekola of UNILORIN makes case for cleaner, safer environment

Wednesday 26 July 2017
A Professor of Environment and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Ilorin, Folahan Amao Adekola, has underscored the need to preserve the environment and shun environmental pollution in order to avoid ozone layer depletion, global warming and climate change because the environment is key to a sustainable future.

University of Ilorin

Prof. Adekola stated this penultimate Wednesday (July 12, 2017), while delivering the maiden lecture of the Association of Students of Peace and Strategic Studies (ASPASS), Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies (CPSS), University of Ilorin.

The Lecture, organised to celebrate the World Environment Day, was themed “Connecting People to Nature; Protecting the World We Share”.

The celebration was aimed at creating awareness on the importance of preserving biodiversity, identifying environmental related problems, proffering solutions to these environmental issues, as well as encouraging people to keep their surroundings safe in order to enjoy a more prosperous future.

In his lecture, entitled “The Earth, Our Common Heritage”, the Guest Lecturer noted that pollution, climate change and over-exploitation are threats to nature, stressing that because environmental components are interconnected with each other in order to maintain a balanced ecosystem, any form of pollution in the environment causes the ozone layer meant to protect the earth from solar radiation depletion.

Prof. Adekola added that the ozone layer depletion poses a threat to human and animal health, terrestrial plants, aquatic ecosystems, and air quality,

In his address, the Director of the CPSS, Dr M. A. Adedimeji, stated that environmental security has been an issue of global concern, adding that “the environment is so important as a component of security that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) identified environmental security as one of the seven forms of human security because when the environment is not secure, we are also not secure.”

Dr Adedimeji noted that because of the changes and dynamics of the constantly evolving environment, a way forward, especially for those in the Niger Delta, should be established so as to enable people maximise the use of the environment  in such a way that oil spillage will not disturb the ecosystem that people's survival and livelihood are dependent on.

Emphasizing the importance of the environment, the CPSS Director said, “Without the environment, there is nothing we can hang on to”.

On his part, the President of ASPASS, Mr. AbdulFathi Arabi, disclosed that one of the mandates of the Association is to create awareness on the importance of peace and development in the environment in order to reduce the danger done to the environment because “the environment is the most precious asset given to mankind”.

 The Director of the School of Preliminary Studies, University of Ilorin, Prof. M. M. Akanbi, urged the participants to be mindful of their activities in the environment by looking out for one another in order to have a sustainable environment.

Also in her remarks, the pioneer President of ASPASS, Sister Josephine Olagunju, stated that the Association has been able to achieve its aim of making students see what the Centre stands for. She submitted that a rally to the Government House should be organised in order to attract the government's attention to the environmental pollution on the roads.

AcademicsNG Team.

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