Prof. Olukayode Bamgbose of the Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), on Friday called for collective action in the fight for a healthier environment.
Bamgbose, a professor of Environmental and Analytical Chemistry, made the call while delivering the 84th Inaugural Lecture of FUNAAB at the school premises in Abeokuta.
Speaking on the topic, “In the Footprints of the Environment: Every Contact Leaves a Trace on our Common Future”, Bamgbose said there was need to halt unwanted human footprints on the environment.
According to him, there is need for the populace to fully understand the need to do away with indiscriminate ugly footprints on the environment.
He said the collective action must aim to significantly diminish unwanted human footprints on earth through increased public awareness.
Bamgbose stressed the imperative of acknowledging and addressing the escalating environmental impact caused by human activities.
He called for increased governmental funding for universities to sustain ongoing research on identifying and mitigating human impacts on the environment.
“Government must be alive to its responsibility of funding universities, so that there will be sustained research in the identification of man’s footprint on the environment.
“There is need to utilise the existing geopolitical zones as laboratory complexes with state-of-the-art equipment to fulfill the mandate of monitoring and understanding these impacts comprehensively.
“Government must also, as a necessity, find a way to improve the economy of the country with a resolve to pass down the positive dividend of democracy to its citizens,” he said.
In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Babatunde Kehinde, said the lecture marked the second in the Department’s history and 12th in the College of Environmental Resources Management.
Kehinde applauded Bamgbose’s virtues, saying he remained a brilliant academic who stood by whatever cause he believed in.
