Candidate info
Particular qualifications:
I am a native of my sub-region of West and Central Africa, where I live and work. I have carried out most of my studies in my sub-region. This goes to indicate that my awareness with respect to my sub-regional concerns on the environment and conservation issues is high. In addition, I have been relating with IUCN activities and IUCN members in the sub-region for about 20 years. During this period, I have served in the Board or Executive committee of the sub-regional committee, then known in French as ‘Comitee de Membres de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CMAO) for eight years, as Vice President and later President for the period of four years each. Thus, I am up to date with the activities of the IUCN members in the sub-region. I can also interface freely with the members either in English or French, thus language comprehension has not been a barrier. I have reached out, through some travels, to various geographic locations in my sub-region, and I am generally familiar with the ecologies presented in my sub-region, including the desert, the sahel, other various savannas, the forest and the coastal vegetations. In addition I am also familiar with the prevailing environmental challenges these ecologies face. I am available from my statutory work to voluntarily take up assignments that concern further development of interventions that will ameliorate the different environmental crises faced by the region of Africa from time to time.
Experience in fields of concern to IUCN:
My early professional career was in forestry tree nurseries and plantation establishment. Conserving aspects of flora and fauna and phenological observations exposed me to ecosystems and habitats challenges of species in the wild. Involving in protected Areas work in my country and my sub-region, updated me with the conservation issues and protected. Climate change mitigation and adaptation, form part of daily work locally in Nigeria. And opportunities exist to interface with communities on adaptation projects and sustainable livelihoods. Activities on these cut across the ecological and cultural divides in the country. Further activities are, addressing other various environmental challenges like land degradation (soil erosion/ soil contamination due to oil exploration). Others are poor waste management, deforestation, occasional drought and poor coastal zone management. In all these interventions, the special cases of gender and other vulnerable groups are always considered.