- By Tony Erha
When the proposed national park has taken off in Abia, the State, titled “God’s Own State”, would have terminated the spell of non-existence of a national park in the entire South East geopolitical zone, consisting five states, one of which is Abia. The South East had had the snag of not having a national park or a fully protected area, although it is profiled to have a strong presence of biodiversity in its different ecosystems. Biodiversity is the diverse ‘endemic’ and ‘endangered’ wild plants and animals species, found in a natural habitat.
With 17 old and new national parks existing in the country, and distributed across its five geopolitical zones, the South East, Igbo-speaking region of the country, had no ‘fully protected area’, which add up to criticisms that the absence of a national park is another vital aspect of national development, in which the region is marginalized, amidst Nigeria’s geopolitical zones.
Environmental or nature conservation, which the proposed national park in Abia represents, is a core pillar of the United Nations (UN) global principle of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), upon which humanity estimates progress and life’s fulfilment.
Recently, extensive media news had echoed it firmly that Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti, with Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu, Board Chairman of the National Park Service (NPS), a federal agency that oversees national parks in the country, are architects of the proposed park, which the Abia State government had reportedly endorsed.
With Dr. Ibrahim Musa Goni on the saddle as its Conservation General, the agency had improved greatly than anytime of its existence, more so that new parks have been established in the country.
“Although some notable development specialists had confirmed that Abia State governor, Alex Otti, is up and doing at bringing tangible development to the Abia people, which one tended to believe, but I haven’t been to the State recently to ascertain.”
This wasn’t the exact wording, but simply a thought process on the prompt response of Prince Clem Agba, when I sought his views on the actual performance catalogue of Otti, who is said to be popular in the state.
Confirming the strides and populism status of Governor Otti, a ‘hard-to-please’ longstanding columnist, Ochereome Nnanna, wrote generously on August 19, 2026 in his notable column;
“Governor Otti trends not just because he does what other high-performing governors do. He also does what they don’t. Within three years, he turned the smelliest state around into the cleanest, with wide, well-paved roads furnished with street lights”
The heart of the question to Agba, was if Governor Otti, because he is acclaimed to have done well, is exempted from his usual claim that Nigerian state governors, than the federal government, are blameable for the hardship and poverty wrecking the country, which he repeated in a recent public dialogue held in Lagos?
Agba was the immediate-past Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, who is gainfully mentioned in the wordlist and history of the development of Nigeria. And he ‘dared the odds’ releasing the country’s 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Report, which implicated the very federal government that he served, as also liable for the restricted growth and poverty gripping the country, thus offering remedies.
Whilst he approved the establishment of the first South East national park in the state, to a team from the National Park Service and other key conservation stakeholders, in Umuahia, the state capital, Dr. Otti had stated the obvious.
His expectation was that the national park’s designate land area be carved out from 18 out of the state’s existing 19 forest reserves, located in its 17 local government areas. The governor’s optimism that the project have major positive implications for environmental conservation, tourism, job creation, revenue generation, investment, security and crime reduction across Abia and the wider South-East, can’t be faulted. Same was his assertion that connects the proposed park to the ideals of nature conservation, with the re-enforcement of Abia’s natural resource base.
Governor Otti on the proposed park and environmental conservation, which most of his peer-governors lack, speaks volumes about his diversity of knowledge and more readiness for the business of governance, for which voters of Abia had elected him. And that, as far as one could say, makes the Abians the luckiest of Nigerian voters, whose state governors are found wanting.
“One man’s meat is another’s poison”, the saying goes. But, much as his endorsement of the national park is praised by the populace, however, there is one Abian, an Igbo man, who does not buy into it. He insists that Otti terminates the moves.
Brother Ochereome is a doubter of the project that ordinarily elates all and sundry. But, when it comes to doubting government on public projects and its intents, our brothers from across the river Niger, tend to be more cynical than other Nigerians. Also, most government’s forerunners are not trusted; or are feared. Anyway, a child once or severally burnt by fire will dread it ashes.
With a screaming headline: “National Park for Abia State? – No!” Columnist Nnanna tries to shoot down the Abia’s project. His reasons, though seemed justified, are far from being realistic. That a man sighted a rattle snake in a part of the bush doesn’t mean that all the bushes must be avoided, because they are snake-infested. Hear Nnanna complaining aloud:
“Our leaders need to be mindful of this before they dole out scarce land for suspicious jamborees like “national park.” More importantly, if we give out this parcel of land, one day, long after Otti has left office, a Buhari-like Fulani president could simply allocate it to his “herdsmen” kinsmen for Ruga because, as they laughably claim, federal lands “belong” to them. Their Fulanisation and Islamisation agenda is a 1,000-year vision which they relentlessly pursue through various stratagems. We must not hand it over ourselves in the name of environmental “conservation”.
In Abia State alone, Nnana, who is its indigene, bemoaned the ill-fate of Ohafia people, who he said “have been crying since a parcel of land belonging to the Goodluck Jonathan Barracks was allegedly “donated” by an unnamed commanding officer for the settlement of a Fulani community. He also rebuked Orji Kalu for ceding a parcel of land in Lokpanta to northerners, who turned it into a den of kidnapping and human slaughter.
Whilst Nanna, a professed conservationist, provided an answer to the same fears he raised, that Governor Otti himself deftly resolved the Lokpanta’s land grab debacle, the constitutional duty, therefore, lies every state governor to act as the first and only custodian, who revokes such land grabs.
Contrary to Nnanna’s fears, national park’s designate lands in the country are protected by arm-bearing forest rangers, where there are hardly incident of grabbing.
For Nnanna, a national park is not needed in Igboland, whilst numerous Ibos, even from his Abia nativity say it’s very desirable. Also, aforesaid Dr. Ononogbu, Chairman of the National Park’s board, an Abian, who proposed the national park, will have written his name in gold.
Paddy Ezeala, a conservationist and journalist from the Umudike suburb of Umuahia, Abia State capital, would have shouted Eureka that his long desire for a national park in the South East, was finally realized. Ezeala, my soulmate, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Development Agenda magazine, who passed on about a year ago, had joined me to carry out several recovery projects on endangered species of animals of the South East Zone, especially the vulture.
The “Vulture King”, a BBC documentary, done by a local conservation volunteer, Chukwuemeka Igwe, a south easterner, with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), had in 2027 helped to grow protected local vulture counts in Awka-Etiti, Anambra State of the region.
In a three-day conference, held recently at Abuja, by the Wildlife Society of Nigeria (WISON), the National Park Service and PEPSI, was opened by Mr. Balarabe Abbas Lawal, the Environment minister and the aforesaid Dr. Goni, boss of the NPS, supervised by the Environment minister Herein, various speakers had groaned about substantial biodiversity loss in the country, particularly in the South East region, to which they offered remedies.
One or few people may not like it, but numerous others positively do. Definitely, a South East national park in Abia State has come to stay!