Professor Olukayode Bamgbose of the Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, (FUNAAB) has sought the collective efforts of all in addressing the impact of environmental degradation caused by human activities.
Professor Bamgbose stated this while delivering the 84th inaugural lecture of the institution, held at the Oluwafemi Balogun Ceremonial building, last Wednesday, saying that there is a need for public awareness on unwarranted human footprints on the environment.
The title of the lecture was “In the Footprints of the Environment: Every Contact Leaves a Trace on our Common Future.”
The professor of Analytical Chemistry submitted that a fight for a healthier environment must be promoted by the populace.
He explained that the exponential rise in population has led to the heightened energy, food and material consumption, signifying a significant surge in human impact on the environment.
He stressed the critical need to preserve a healthy environment, noting that this responsibility extends beyond personal interest to encompass future generations, while advocating for a legacy of a clean, habitable and safe environment for the global community.
He, therefore, called on the Federal Government to utilise the existing geopolitical zones as laboratory complexes with state-of-the-art equipment to fulfill the mandate of monitoring and understanding environmental impacts comprehensively.
Professor Bamgbose called for increase in government’s funding for universities across the country in order to sustain ongoing research on identifying and mitigating human impacts on the environment.
He also decried the economic state of the nation, and urged government to improve the economy with a resolve to pass down dividends of democracy to the people.
He said, “Government must be alive to its responsibility of funding universities so that there could be sustained research in the identification of man’s footprint on the environment.
“Government must also, as a necessity, find a way to improve the economy of the country with a resolve to pass down the positive dividends of democracy to its citizens.”
FUNAAB Vice Chancellor, Professor Babatunde Kehinde, stated that the lecture marked the second in the department’s history and the 12th in the College of Environmental Resources Management. He described Bamgbose as a brilliant academician who stood by whatever cause he believed in.
