The director-general of the Nigeria Conservative Foundation, Joseph Onoja, has called on Nigerians to organise tree-planting events to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries rather than throw lavish parties.

Mr Onoja made the call on Friday in Abuja at the maiden edition of the Abuja Garden Festival against the backdrop of severe heat waves being experienced across the country.

He said that a focus on tree planting by channelling resources to it would go a long way to reducing the effects of climate change in the country.

“Rather than throwing parties during your anniversaries and birthdays, organise tree-planting events. This is so that we will have trees around us that will be able to play the role we are supposed to play to create more resilience, especially in the face of climate change.

“In the coastal areas, we have erosion, while in the North, we have desertification coming in. So, we need to have trees around us to be able to stop that from happening,” he said.

Ede Dafinone, in a keynote address, said Abuja had taken steps to revamp the capital city’s green areas.

Also speaking, the facilitators of the event, Eyamba Nzekwu and Nana Gbolahan, said the need to protect the environment motivated them to organise the event.

Ms Nzekwu said since Abuja was still being developed as a city with a lot of construction going on, trees were being cut down without replacement.

Ms Gbolahan said that if people continue to cut down trees, the effects would be erosion, desertification, excessive heat, and even some other plants would die.

Ms Gbolahan added that the initiative was to complement the government’s efforts and get support from the government.

(NAN)