 As many as 9 in 10 people breathe in polluted air, an air pollution causes about 7 million premature deaths every year and that number is estimated to double by the year 2050 if nothing is done about it. And that's why a United Nations resolution of 2019 decided to declare September 7th every year as the International Day of Clear Air for Blue Skies. Now it's a programme facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme and the theme for this year is healthy air, healthy planet. Let's invite our convener, stop the sooth movement, Tunde Bello, to join us. Good morning Mr Bello. Good morning. All right, I want us to begin with air quality in Nigeria. What's the situation like? Good morning. First, I'm not part of the convener, so for the stop the soothed campaign, a river state. As regards clean air, we all know that Nigeria is one of the most polluted countries in the world. So that is to tell you that we cannot be arguing that because we know that our air is not clean. Due to various reasons, many factors have contributed to the issue of air pollution, including industrial activities, unregulated activities in the manufacturing sector, oil production, as well as chemical production in all the areas that they have, these plants and investments in Nigeria. So if we're talking about clean air, we are not close to breathing clean air in Nigeria and say that in the statement of fact. All right, we're going to go deeper into the Nigerian situation. Potakot, of course, is a river state, generally, is a place of concern. But I have looked through the UNEP statement and of course it says healthy air, healthy planet. That's the theme for this year's celebration. But I want your thoughts. Do you think that there are certain UN goals or concerns that are difficult to sell in developing countries and third world countries? Because there's just too many other concerns that make things like this almost irrelevant. But you agree with me that our attitude, our orientation, our survival instincts and the way we go about our things in the country is just not the normal way. A country where everybody seems to be the providers of whatever they need. For example, I can't remember how long we have bought kerosene in the first stations in the river states. I've been living here for almost 20 years. I can't remember the last time I walked into a field station to buy kerosene. So now imagine just escalate that to the sea states, to the third sea states of the country where it is difficult for people to get what they want, where they're supposed to get it. So people need to go and fend for themselves. You have to buy kerosene that is under treated. And what that means is that whenever you're burning the kerosene, you're releasing into the air unsafe pollutants. Things that will hurt everybody that is breathing in that air at a particular place. So for developing countries, because of the way we do our things, look at the manufacturing concern, for example, technology is not used in most of the manufacturing concerns that we have in Nigeria. Where countries are going into automation using technology to do their manufacturing concerns and processes. If you go to a place like protocol refinery to look at their processes, look at the technology that is in use, you will agree with me that we are way, way, way behind. And that is a federal government establishment. So if you're talking about achieving the union development goals in developing countries, we are way, way behind. Nigeria inclusive because we do not have the capacity. The human capacity is there, but we do not have the technology. Now if you want to narrow it down to reverse it, for example, where people involve in illegal refinery. And what does that mean? What makes it illegal? The process is not refined. The process is not complete because they have to circumvent. Instead of using maybe gas, they are using fire, they are using firewood. So all of these things contribute. Look at the fuel we are using in our cars. You are not, I mean, you are illegal. If you go through the streets or even in Abuja, you see the emission from our cars. These are the contributors because even if the fuel we are buying are not clean and then the maintenance culture is not there. So all of these things contribute to the issue of air pollution and then the inability to achieve the minimum development goals is very simple. We cannot achieve that if the technology and the capacity to do it is not there. And the reason I pointed that out is also because of the poverty aspect. How do you tell a woman who fries her car at the roadside to feed herself and her family that she needs to stop using that firewood because well, it is polluting the air? Let me quote you. Now, in three weeks or say in one month, I have bought 2.5 kg gas for 5,000 lira, for 5,008 and for 7,000 lira in one month, within a month. And when I put it out there that can somebody explain to me why we are buying LPG for 7,000 lira for 2.5 kg? The responses I got from enlightened people shocked me. Now some of them are saying let's go to firewood. Some are saying let's go to coal. I mean, these are things we shouldn't be talking about in 2021. So if it is difficult for people who are earning 200,000, 300,000, 500,000 a month to get gas, to boil water, to make food, then how much more the majority of Nigerians that are in the rural areas or even within the cities that are very, very poor, or who can afford 3 square million. So it's a whole lot of issues that we must look at. The fundamental has to be the poverty level, has to be the orientation, has to be government ability to provide from taxes collected, from revenue earned and give back to people. The taxes collected, the revenue earned is for distribution, not for a particular asset. So if you look at all of that, it contributes to the issue we are on the ground and I am not sure that we are where we are as of today. Okay, so I want us to also talk about how we can improve the air quality in Nigeria, like the practical steps. We know the government needs to do something. What are the practical steps that we can take to begin to have cleaner air in the country? Okay, while we were compelling for us to stop the suit and ensuring that we have clean air in reverse state, one of the demands, one of the 14-point demands was that the sources of this pollution. Number one, the JTA activity by this constructing illegal products ceased. I mean, if we talk about illegal products, the illegal products are gotten from somewhere. So we need to track. This is a national wealth. This is something that belongs to Nigeria. So if these things are being stolen or they are being received in the wrong hands, we should identify how is that done. Now, petrol or fuel or crude oil is pumped from one source to another. How do people get to know when this thing is being pumped? How do people get to know when these things are being distributed? What methodology do we use in distributing our national product? Because if you say that somebody is stealing your product, then you should find a way to stop that theft. So the first thing we must do is to identify the source of theft. Where people are getting this product from. Secondly, if this product has ceased, do we have the capacity to warehouse them or to append it? Because if you catch a thief, for example, and you find something that the person has stolen from him, what do you do to that thing? It becomes an exhibit. You have to keep it somewhere. So if the JTM, the security agencies are seizing products from people who are stealing national products, where do they keep those things? So we need to find out. We need to have a technology or a farm tank or a place where these seeds products are kept, not just destroyed and brought into the air like that. Because most times, there is no space to keep all of these things and what the JTM does is they just destroy them and then the pollutants come into the air. So secondly, we must encourage and engage in technology. It is very, very important. If when we are talking about a lot of countries are moving away from it, people are changing and technology is changing every space of life. So Nigeria has to develop a pattern, a policy, a regulation that controls the issue of what we use. Now we talk about gas flaring. That is another pollutant. We've been saying that we are going to stop gas flaring since 2010 and this is 11 years. We haven't done anything major in that area. Another thing, of course, it has to do with the things we use in producing all the things that we're using. If you go to the petrochemical, for example, you'll be shocked and I'm challenging you journalists today to do a little bit of more investigation into the processes of all of these plants that we mentioned for you to see how these seeds are done. And I mean, we can achieve it if the fundamentals are not being touched and the fundamentals are not. The refineries, the illegal refineries and all of the things that we're using in the environment. There is, of course, the call to stop burning seized petroleum products by the JTF, like you mentioned. I think it also goes to the Nigerian Custom Service and the NDLEA, because every now and then there's either chicken being burnt or marijuana, seized drugs or whatever, being burnt in different parts of the country. Mr. Bello, I want you to share your, you know, moving to talking about the health concerns underlying health factors or health concerns that aren't even spoken about a lot here in Nigeria from polluted air. Well, I'm going to use reverse. I've lived in Lagos for 31 years before I moved through reverse state and I know how it is. If you stand on the co-bridge, if you stand on Cata Bridge, if you go to Ikorabu, if you go to Magodo, if you go to Oshisei, if you go to Ojota, if you go to Idemu, if you go to Moe, you'll see all of these sites where various activities are going on uncontrollably, where people just do whatever they like for survival. And the reason, of course, we've discussed the issue of poverty and orientation. And then let's look at the health implications and I'd like to use reverse state, for example. We're breathing suits and then we are here, we are with the coronavirus and, you know, affecting everybody in the usual respiratory system. You see a lot of that occurring this year and you need to wonder what is the cause. It is not about which is or which kind of wizardry or whatever. I think the underlying factor is that people are now having respiratory issues because of air pollution and unclean air. And I think Nigerian governments whether at the state level, at the federal level or at the local government level needs to be more responsible for its citizens. You know, it's important that we understand that all of these policies that we're doing as regards taxes, digital economy, Twitter, a lot of those things, you're not doing this for yourselves. You're doing this for the people of this country. And it is absolute irrelevant for anything to be done where people are not healthy. People need to be healthy for them to enjoy policies. So if you're doing any policies that is not people-friendly, we must look at our health policies. How do we even manage? There is a Claim Health Act in Nigeria of 1950s or whatever but I think it was, they are trying to adjust it for something. I think the legislators need to also look at the issue of the act governing the issue of whether it is federal government that is exclusively responsible for environment or the state, because I remember meeting with the governor, with my team and all of the stops to campaign and the governor said something, they said, go back to Abuja where they have the responsibility to take care of the environment. It is not within our powers. Of course, the government at the center will tell you go back to the state that has the numbers, the data of the people who are into illegal refinery. So you see, government need to be responsible because this thing that we're building it is cancerous. Whether we like it or not, and it is not developed now. In the next five years, in the next 10 years, you'll just see the majority of the people living with cancer and health people have spoken about it several times. Times have done number that once these things are not attended to, we risk the issue of people who are living with cancer. That's just a simple truth. Alright, finally, get to share with us the campaign for this year, how the planet, what is the campaign pushing this year and what do you think Nigeria should be able to tap into? Nigerians should tap into this year's campaign. I think first, as a group, today we are going all out, although on social media, because gathering has become an issue now. So we're passing the message through our social media platforms on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, on our personal pages and what are some statuses that first, people need to understand that the environment is the responsibility of everybody. Not minding that we are the state of the argument. I mean, why should people don't refuse drainages, blocking drainages? Why should people just eat things in their cars and drop remnants on the streets? I see when it's raining, people just dump their refuse in the drainages. I mean, in 2021, in 2021, we still have this mentality about when it's raining, we need to dump our refuse into the gutters and into the drainage so that the rain can take them away to where exactly I don't know. So people need to be more responsible. If you can generate the refuse, you can dump it responsibly. One of the campaigns that we're doing is that people should learn to take care of their environment. And then, of course, we need to also make sure that we do not add to the pollutants. If you go to the slaughter everywhere in Nigeria, you see where people are using car tires to burn and get meat from cow, from a pit from rams and all of that, that is dangerous to our health. You see people cutting down trees. We need to start making reservations for this kind of thing. Our streets should not be lit with dead and garbage. We should ensure that our areas, our cities are covered with trees. We engage in tree planting and honestly, you will be sure to see that. People are just saying that why are you planting trees in front of my house? Why are you planting trees on this street and all that? I think we also need the National Realtation Agency to come into this space to ensure that people are everything important and enlightened to understand that the environment's responsibility is from everybody. Apparently to teach their children, children need to understand that the environment is for us. If you look at the amount of plastics that we generate in this country, there's a lot. There's so much. There need to be new policies. There need to be completely new policies even with plastic bags and some of all of that. Tree planting also is something that needs to be spoken about more often. Tundebello, thank you so much for your time this morning. Thank you. Thanks for speaking with us and we wish you a successful campaign looking forward to speaking with you again. Thank you very much. All right. Yes, that's it for today. This is a very interesting conversation that I'm very passionate about. Your perspective is that we have hunger to deal with first. I mean, if the air pollution kills us all, who will be there to eat the food that's available? I was just saying that there are certain conversations that are difficult to sell to people because they first of all need to survive. It's going to be hard for the United Nations, for the UNEP, for these NGOs and the likes to convince anybody who's still struggling to even find a kerosene to cook that they should start using kerosene to kill people. They're struggling. We need information. We need enlightenment about this. I think it was two weeks ago that I put out something on my Instagram about how many houses these days we grew up in environments where there was a tree in every house. Your home had your house had something. And that brought fresh air. Orange trees, banana, purple, tangerine, we all had gardens. Yeah, there was something. Not even necessarily a garden. But every house, in the 90s when I grew up, there was a particular tree. Even if it was the almond tree, there was something in every home. And every time, you know, if you couple a month, you know, it gets ripe, you're excited because you want to pluck it and eat. If you go to your friend's house, there's something to pluck. There's a mango tree. These days, there's nothing. In the whole of phase, like in phase one where I leave, the whole of Foul Archibald, I don't remember any house that I can think of right now that I can say, cut them down in the beauty of many flags in France. It's crazy. Oh, that's a show for you today. Tuesday edition of The Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. If you missed out on any part of it, you can follow us on all our social media platforms. It's at Plus TV Africa on Facebook, Instagram, and on our YouTube channel as well, at Plus TV Africa. We also have a new YouTube channel. It's at Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. Look forward to you subscribing and engaging with our content online. I am Annetta Felix. And I am Osaugi Ogboan. Have a beautiful Tuesday.