There’s a saying and proverb in my place that “what a father can see sitting down, his son cannot see it standing up.” When I started this weekly column five years ago, it was partially to break away from the country’s plans to do good but lacking implementation and accountability. After my expedition 50 years ago, when I started my advocacy in many spheres of life and wrote my second book, “Me, My Desert and I,” as part of the sustainable development agenda, I predicted the climate change crisis. The foreword in the book written by the then UN secretary-general, who is now the chief of staff, Professor Gambari, says: “Desertification is an environmental phenomenon that has intrigued scientists over the years. It ravages about one-third of Africa, about a quarter of Australia and occupies a significant portion of America and Asia. It is, therefore, a worldwide phenomenon. Jibunoh plans to corroborate with the Israel Research Institute to develop methods of combatting desertification within the Sahara regions. He hopes that with such works by him and others in the international community we may one day hold back the huge advancing dunes from burying us all.” 
In my prediction, I expanded the effect it would have on climate migration. I also predicted the disappearance of water bodies making most of the lands in 11 states of the country unfarmable, especially the hamlets and those that live on the fringes of the Sahara who are today experiencing some phenomena such as drought and lack of rainfall. By then 40 years ago, I had driven across the Sahara twice, London to Nigeria and Nigeria back to London, which I followed by going back to Israel for my M.Sc. at Ben-Gurion University to study the science of desertification. On my return, I started a land reclamation programme in the Makoda, Danbatta area of Kano State, in conjunction with the Kano State government. In hoping to have such initiatives replicated, I also travelled with President Obasanjo to Damaturu, later with President Goodluck Jonathan to Katsina,
I took the risk of going back across the Sahara the third time. This time with a group of young men and women, in conjunction with the Lagos State government, which was done because age was no longer on my side, and the fight to mitigate against climate change and desertification will take more than 50 years. Though nature and The Creator have been kind to us, but not for too long, so involving the young men and women was the process of passing on the torch to those who will carry on the fight when I am no longer. You don’t have to go very far to see the effect of the climate change crisis and devastation because the land that was given to us so much and keeps giving without we humans giving back has started to fight back. We can see its fists and vexation in the earthquakes, the volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, bushfires, and flooding.
I wish I was listened to 50 years ago after my first expedition across the desert because that was when I saw first-hand desertification and the effect it was having on climate change. I also wish I was listened to 30 years ago when I predicted what was likely to occur following the encroachment of the Sahara and the migration crisis that followed. I wish I was listened to when I predicted the disappearance of forest cover will result into massive drought all over the country and the effect on the bio diversity. I wish I was listened to when I commended and praised the state that started the mission of planting millions of trees with 98% mortality and predicted what was likely to occur. What I call planting without basic infrastructure because if half of the millions of trees had survived today in Nigeria, they would have formed a big forest by now, so I beg to be listened to, especially at this very old age. We don’t have to wait for the kind of disaster happening in the pacific countries to do something.
A few weeks ago I attended and chaired an occasion by the Federal University of Petroleum Resources. I commend the university for employing my attention and attendance. All of my recommendations made was if the government was to save our planet, some of these laws in place will help:
I. To make the cutting of trees illegal and continue the nations scheduled census for trees vigorously
II. To stop the use of generator below 2.5kva
III. To stop the use of plastic
IV. To stop the killing and eating of bush meat
V. To stop building on flood plains
VI. To reward buildings that promote greenery
VII. To punish those that abuse the air, water and physical environment.
The first point I would love to expand on the most are the afforestation programs. Many countries have succeeded in taming their deserts into agricultural grounds and have created beautiful habitations in the desert. Their deserts are no longer just men eaters but are tools used to pass a better ideal to the present and future generation. They have used their deserts to create a sustainability culture and not sustainable disasters that have come on many countries because of their negligence of the epitomical force of nature in our seas of sand. The grandeur of the desserts of the world is a beautiful thing when embraced but not so beautiful when left to fallow.
The use of plastics in Nigeria is no use at all but an abuse as Nigeria might just be the new dumping ground of this climate and health killer called plastic. From its production to its use we find how ill-suited it can be especially to our health and planet. The process of production makes it difficult to maintain the global temperature below 1.5C. As scientifically proven the negative increase of endocrine disruption in our bodies caused by plastics threaten human health on a global scale causing cancer and leading to reproductive, growth and cognitive impairment. Many may say there are weightier matters to discuss than climate restoration but I will well inform you that this ideals are what health care, industry, legislation and nation building are all about. Countries that have abandoned themselves to these vices have had to pay heavy prices such as disease outbreak, food shortage even flooding due to these plastics clogging and increasing the volume of the water bodies.
Crisis usually follows where so-called natural mishaps lay. In a certain African country, which now serves as base to migrating fanatical groups otherwise called terrorists, who make life impossible for inhabitants of the border towns of Nigeria and the country, taxing them for their livelihood such as cattle, farm product and provision, having refusal as a lethal option. All these are the direct products of our negligence. As Franklin Roosevelt says and I quote: “A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself…Forests are the lungs of our land purifying the air and giving fresh strength to the people.”
I risked my life by crossing the Sahara many times, followed by the study of soil science in Israel. I also touched the lives of many young men and women that I took with me to the desert, and even though we were fortunate to have come back with all to Nigeria, I imagine if one of us had died in the process. So my demand is simple: for the sake of those young men and women that risked their lives with me looking for a better way of saving our planet, I wish to be listened to at 85 plus.