The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) and ATC Nigeria (ATCN), a wireless infrastructure provider, on Thursday, September 26, 2024, partnered on a commemorative tree planting exercise at the Lekki Conservation Centre.
The exercise was a part of ATCN’s commitment to environmental sustainability.
Speaking at the event, the Director-General, NCF, Dr Joseph Onoja, underscored the importance of taking care of the environment by making it habitable.
Onoja said that environmental conservation indirectly means human conservation.
He added that the environment had the capacity to take care of itself.
“Environmental conservation is indirectly linked to human conservation.
“We are not doing the environment a favour, but it is the human beings that we are doing a favour because our lives are closely linked to the health of the environment,” he said.
He urged Nigerians to be intentional about nature conservation for environmental sustainability.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of ATCN, Mr Soji Maurice-Diya, said it was important to take care of the environment through the planting of trees.
Maurice-Diya said that the company would be planting about 6,000 trees in 11 locations across the country.
“For us, tree planting is a bit of a low hanging fruit, especially in an era of a lot of urbanisation and modernisation.
“It is something our team members and staff and the general public can think of doing on their own for environmental sustainability.
“As a company, we have invested heavily in renewables thereby reducing our per site consumption of diesel to about 50 per cent,” he said.
Also speaking, Chinwe Odigboegwu, the Executive Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, ATCN, said that tree planting was important for the sustainability of the environment.
“Personally, tree planting is something I am involved in to make the earth a better place,” Odigboegwu said.
The climax of the event was planting of trees by the members of staff of the company and the NCF director-general.
By Fabian Ekeruche
