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AYOOLA: Intensive Planting Of Trees Will Enhance Health, Prolong Life

By ODITA SUNDAY
05 July 2015   |   3:27 am
Environmentalist and businessman, Mr. Lanre Ayoola, is the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Lamango Company Ltd. In a chat with ODITA SUNDAY, Ayoola raised the alarm that with the way Nigerians have neglected planting of trees, life expectancy may drop from 45 years to a lesser age. The engineer-turned-researcher urged government and corporate organisations to embark on aggressive tree planting in order to reduce the risk.

LANRE-AYOOLA--copy-CopyEnvironmentalist and businessman, Mr. Lanre Ayoola, is the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Lamango Company Ltd. In a chat with ODITA SUNDAY, Ayoola raised the alarm that with the way Nigerians have neglected planting of trees, life expectancy may drop from 45 years to a lesser age. The engineer-turned-researcher urged government and corporate organisations to embark on aggressive tree planting in order to reduce the risk.

How did your journey into tree planting begin?   
AS an Engineer, I was involved in construction works. Along the line, I delved into researching the environment research because I travel a lot. In the process, I see what governments are doing in different countries of the world to save their environment.  I noticed how they beautify their environments using trees and different types of plants from shrub, palm trees and various trees. This contributed very substantially to the wellbeing of the people.
 
When your environment looks beautiful, neat and tidy, you are happy.  When you are happy, you are well. A lot of trees on walkways and parks, along the roads bring oxygen; trees remove toxic wastes in the air.  I have been seeing this all over the years, I appreciate the importance of oxygen the more and I asked myself how do I participate in the business of improving oxygen supply in my local.

What is the detail of your 10million tree project?
Five years ago, we started planting trees.  We started with 30,000 trees.  We have 20 different species of trees.  These trees are located in Ikeja and Lekki.  We have plans to open up a major tree nursery in Ogun State and my state, Osun.

They would be utilised in the beautification of the cities, local government areas, federal roads, schools and hospitals. You can also have trees in office environments.
 
You cannot imagine the high level of toxic gases that come into the office environment from papers, furniture, chemicals and air conditioners that we use. They bring free air along the gases like Triun, which can cause cancer. 

When you have trees, plants, shrubs etc. in the office environment, you are going to have a healthy office and happier work force.  A more productive work force and even customers coming into your office will be very comfortable.  We have the indoor, and outdoors trees.  Both contribute to the physical and psychological wellbeing of the people that are in that environment. 

Different corporate organisations, government’s should start planting trees.  Let the government begin to implement beautification projects involving the use of trees. The kinds of palm trees that we have are the royal, queen and golden palms.  These are the most common palm trees that we have around, but we have gone beyond that and have gotten the exotic palm trees.  They come from other countries of exotic tropical locations, the Far East, Malaysia and India.  We have the bottle palm trees, folktale palm trees and sky dusters.

We have been careful to select the trees that are easy to grow in Nigeria. 

We have those that do not require intensive care, because we want people to enjoy them and not feeling they have intensive care patients in the house. All our trees can grow in the ground and in pots.

How do we prevent desert encroachment in Nigeria?
Nigeria needs urban afforestation programme. When you look at afforestation programmes, you normally think of planting of trees on a massive size of land outside the urban areas.  It is usually intended to replace forest that have been cut down for firewood or to prevent desert encroachment.
 
But I feel that 50 per cent of Nigerians live in the urban areas. Oxygen is needed in the urban centres.  It is estimated that by the year 2050, there will be about 300 million Nigerians.
 
It means that 150 million people will be living in the urban centres breathing oxygen, producing garbage, and other human waste matters, all of which consume oxygen in the process of decay; these materials suck up oxygen and emit other gases such as carbon dioxide. 

Cars that are going to be transporting these people will be emitting carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, both of which are poisonous to human beings.

How are we going to combat these expected elements?
It is a serious issue, where we have about 150 million people living in the town and cities and where there is not enough oxygen.  The risk is that more people would fall sick more often, because the less oxygen human beings have, the more they fall sick, and there are chances more would die young.  The reverse applies, the more oxygen human beings have, the more they don’t fall sick, and the greater the chances of living longer.
   
In Asia, people live up to 140 to 150 years but in Nigeria, the life expectancy for the average male is from 45 years old.  In Asia, people are living an average of 120 years old.  A man who lived 120 years old is considered to have died young.
 
In Nigeria, when a man lives up to 90 years old, we celebrate and say the man has tried. When we know the truth that it is only oxygen that will keep us alive, we will spend money in those things that will produce oxygen.

A Reporter went to investigate the secret of longevity in Asia.  On getting there, she discovered a man who looked quite old and she asked the man where is your family and the man, who was about 75 years old said he was not yet married as his father who is about 120 years old has not given him permission to get married as their culture is.  The 75-year old knew he could still live another 75 years, but in Nigeria, a 75-year old is thanking God for making him live long.

Are you emphatic that tree planting can cut down industrial gases and toxic gaseous effusion and improve health?
The solution is intensive planting of trees by the government, corporate organisations and individuals.  We expect the corporate bodies to be socially responsible.  A lot of the oil companies and manufacturing firms pump toxics gases into the air.  They also pump toxic liquid into the water system. 

They have a duty to invest a certain percentage of their profits into the rehabilitation of the environment for the improvement of the environment.  However, some of them are actually doing that.  Some of the companies are Eco friendly. 

In fact, landscaping in some of these offices are very impressive.  As their workers are coming to work, they will be received by beautiful garden in the industrial centre.  But apart from their immediate environments, they should contribute to the beautification of the environment of the cities in which they are located. For every two trees that you plant, you provide enough oxygen for a family of four.
 
In Nigeria, we are estimating 150 million in the cities, it means we need 50 million trees.  Let us have 50 million trees in the cities.  The question is, where are we going to put these trees?  Many compounds don’t have soil because concretes have covered them.  If we plant the trees, it will cover the car parks.  But in front of every compound, there is at least one metre along the wall.  At the back of every compound, there is an area of about five metres.
 
In the highways.  I went to the densely populated area in Lagos, there is no flower, no trees and we have thousands of people breathing in the same populated area, I saw a compound where a man has 10 palm trees planted in pots.
 
If you are afraid that trees may damage your fences, plant palm trees and coconuts, they do not damage fences.  Forest trees are the ones that damage fences but desert trees like palm trees and coconuts fall into that category that don’t damaged fences.
 
If you have enough space, plant neem trees (Dogonyaro). It is very viable tree to healthy life.  If you are afraid that trees may damage your fences put them in flowerpots.  If you go to places like Ikoyi and GRA Ikeja, you will see trees all
over because the Europeans that lived there in the past knew the value of trees to health.

It is the trees that keep us alive, not only the food.  If the trees go away, the weather will change and there will be no rain and if there is no rain, there will be no food.  We need to take tree seriously.  If we don’t have change of attitude, by planting trees, we are going to deprive our children of life.

A wise man leaves inheritance to his children and children’s children.  What inheritance are we going to leave for our children?  It is our responsibility to plant trees. 

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