Three years after a hippopotamus was killed in controversial circumstances by some hunters in Gombe State, another one was felled last week. This time, the proper documentation was sought and secured before the execution.
According to the head of forestry unit of Yamaltu/Deba Local Government Council in Gombe State, the Hippopotamus in Dadinkowa dam was ordered killed because it that had been terrorising the community for the past two years. “The community wrote to the local government council, complaining about the threat of the animal and we forwarded same to the Ministry of Environment, seeking the approval of the governor to take action. We received the approval last week, and decided to go hunting for it, an exercise that took us one week before the animal was finally spotted…we used military men to shoot it, with the help of the local hunters”, he said.
While we commend the authorities of Gombe State for going through the appropriate protocols before putting down the hippopotamus, we must reiterate the fact that hippopotamus is ordinarily an animal that deserves protection. Nigeria has a list that contains animals and plant species that are endangered or vulnerable and the Hippopotamus is listed as ‘vulnerable’ to extinction by The World Conservation Union (IUCN) in the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. It is also protected by Decree No. 11 of 1985 which prohibits the killing and or trade in endangered species of wildlife.
Unfortunately, while Nigeria is a signatory to the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), poachers have almost stripped the nation’s protected game reserves in Yankari, Bauchi State, Okomu, Edo Sstate, Gashaka-Gumti National Park in Adamawa and Taraba states, Cross River National Park in Cross River State and Omo Forest Reserve, Ogun State. Recently, at the Yankari Games Reserve, wildlife poaching, particularly of the elephant population, worsened so much so that the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) warned that the reserve would soon be empty of animals as it is possible to find meat of elephants, roan, waterbuck and buffalo in the surrounding markets–all from the Yankari Games Reserve.
Regrettably, it was because these unwholesome activities went unchecked that Nigeria has had issues with CITES. In 2003, after two gorillas illegally trafficked were intercepted in Kano, international and local conservationists labelled Nigeria a hub in the illegal trade in endangered wildlife. The two captured female western lowland nine-year-old gorillas were subsequently sent back to their homeland in Cameroon that year to the shame of our country.
Incidentally, Nigeria was once said to have the most diverse population of monkeys and apes in the world, but as its forests have dwindled many animals have been hunted to extinction. Nigeria’s remaining gorillas are from a particularly endangered subspecies of the lowland gorilla: the Cross River gorilla that lives in the rugged mountainous jungle on the Nigeria-Cameroon border. At the start of the 1980s there were thought to be 1,500 gorillas in the area, but today, the United Nations’ Great Ape Survival Project (GRASP) believes there may be less than 250 left.
We call on the federal government to do all within its powers to protect the nation’s wildlife, particularly the few remaining elephants and gorillas. We also believe that government needs to act fast if we are to avert the consequences of a 2008 USAID study on Nigerian’s biodiversity which says the nation faces increasing and extreme pressures on biodiversity and tropical forests.
Specifically, as recommended in the report, government needs to stem the overharvesting and poaching of wildlife and to provide relevant information about the present status of most habitats and species, about the actual extent of protected areas, and about other key data that could ease management of these natural resources. Lastly, government should ensure that adequate funding is made in annual budgets because of the economic importance of wildlife and other natural resources.
