Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has made a strong case for the planting of trees as a way of driving environmental sustainability and wealth creation.
Soludo made the remarks on Saturday, in Onitsha, the commercial hub of the state during the official launching of the 2024 distribution of economic tree seedlings to the people of the state.
During the distribution of the seedlings, the governor emphasised the need for tree planting, because they play a pivotal role in sustainable development, preservation of ecosystem and environmental conservation.
He lamented that Anambra is currently being ravaged by erosion and as a result, the state has become the gully erosion capital of the world, due to the neglect of tree planting and environmental conservation.
He added that the people must utilise every inch of the land to drive technology innovation, and commerce because that is the foundation for the future which the state is laying.
He said, “Today is a big day in Nigeria and Anambra. We are here to signpost one of the remarkable environmental activities that will drive society to sustainable empowerment and wealth creation as well as having an environment that will be sustainable.
“We are launching an ongoing programme designed to plant at least 10 million seedlings in Anambra. These trees will in the medium term constitute Anambra’s crude oil. This activity lies the industrialisation, entertainment and leisure.
“Anambra is in many ways the second Lagos, we have the second largest land mass after Lagos, but the difference between Anambra and Lagos is that while Lagos is reclaiming its land from the ocean, Anambra is encumbered with erosion.
“Anambra has become the gully erosion capital of the world, we must utilise every inch of our land to drive technology innovation, commerce and that is the future we are laying the foundation for.
“The other human capital and social agenda to drive economic transformation and wealth creation is tree planting. In Anambra, our environment is our existential threat and we must do everything to recover our lands and make Anambra the greenest state in Africa.”
The governor insisted that the state is making progress in all strata, as traders have started coming back to Anambra because the touts have been changed away.
He said the state is currently doing well in infrastructure as almost 500 kilometres of roads were earmarked for construction and in two years, about 300 roads have been completed.
“We will be breaking our 33-year-old record soon to give Ndi Anambra a befitting governor’s lodge and banquet hall. We are building our Silicon Village through our one-youth-two skills programme. We are doing more with less and without borrowing. And Anambra is now among the first five states in the country in terms of infrastructure.
“Okpoko, a big slum community is now a new haven where the slums have been urbanised. They now have a functional general hospital. Anambra is on the rise. What we have come here to do is to send the message that part of our future lies in our past. Today, we celebrate our founding fathers who helped to create the foundational wealth for the future.
“We celebrate people like M.I Okpara for the oil plantation in the east, Obafemi Awolowo for the cocoa in the west and the likes of our founding fathers who ensured we had a sustainable future. We must build on our past to sustain our future.
“China reduced poverty through innovations. Today, we fought through that one of the silver bullets that we must do to reinvent ourselves is to empower over one million households to plant economic seedlings.
“Our agenda is to empower people sustainably, we want to give them something to enable them to fish for life so that they won’t be hungry anymore, we are building a sustainable ecosystem in Anambra.
“One million seedlings between 2022 and now have been distributed and today, we are launching additional over one million and forty thousand seedlings distributed in over 360 wards in Anambra. If we nurture these seedlings, in the next four years, poverty will be tackled, a new economic prosperity is emerging,” he added.
