Right to Breath: The Challenge of Environmental Governance in Nigeria

By: Chiwuike Uba

It is no longer news that Nigeria is currently classified as one of the most polluted
countries in the world. Despite the poor environmental condition, the Government has
no clear road map and ‘will-power’ to reduce and manage our environment for better
breathing and better living. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), outdoor air
pollution is a major environmental health problem affecting everyone in developed and
developing countries and consequently, by reducing air pollution levels, countries can
reduce the burden of disease from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and both chronic
and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma.
Overall asthma management framework therefore requires great attention to the
environmental exposures (indoors and outdoors) and control practices. The indoors
environment exposures which contain both pollutants (e.g, particulate matter, nitrogen
dioxide, secondhand smoke, and ozone) and allergens from furred pets, dust mites,
cockroaches, rodents, and molds have been associated with decreased lung function, greater respiratory symptoms, and more frequent use of rescue medications among
children with asthma. In addition, indoor environment exposures have been linked to
inflammation in asthma—elevated exhaled nitric oxide concentration (a marker of
airway inflammation) associated with an elevated PM2.5 concentration. Outdoor environment exposures include particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen oxide,
sulphur dioxide, pollen allergens, and air pollution. These environment exposures have
been associated with higher mortality in the general population. In addition, the
outdoor environment exposures have been linked to exacerbations, chronic symptoms,
and decline in lung function; this includes greater risk of hospitalizations for childhood
asthma. Specifically, the ozone which is generated by the chemical sunlight on mixtures of
Nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons from fossil fuel combustion arising from vehicular
traffic, power plants and industrial operations increase airway inflammation and hyper- responsiveness. These are associated with reduced lung function; increased symptoms,
increased rescue medication use, and increased risk of asthma exacerbation. Second
hand smoke caused primarily by automobile exhaust, local industry, power plants, and
forest fires is associated with increased asthma symptoms, exacerbations, and
hospitalizations, and with lower lung function, particularly in vulnerable populations,
including young children and the elderly. A reduction of traffic density in a geographic
region is also associated with reduced asthma morbidity, which may be partially
mediated by the lowering of NO2exposure.
Furthermore, sulfur dioxide (SO2) mainly formed by the combustion of high-sulfur coal
or oil has been allowed to continue in Nigeria for so long. Experimental studies suggest
that SO2 can decrease lung function in exercising adults with asthma. A clear example of
this is the continuous and continuing gas flaring in Nigeria. It is worrisome that
currently, there is no well-articulated and followed-through government policy in
Nigeria to reduce the level of pollution in Nigeria, even when Nigeria was rated as the
most polluted country in the world as at 2015.
Whereas people may have a greater ability to modify indoor environmental exposures,
in most cases, they do not have direct control over outdoor pollutant concentrations.
The control of both indoors and outdoors environment exposures therefore become
the key ingredient and responsibility of government and outcome of governance (either
good or bad).
According to WHO, air pollution is responsible for more than 12million deaths per year.
Painfully, deaths due to non-communicable diseases, such as asthma, stroke, heart
disease, cancer and other respiratory illness is about 8.2 million or nearly two-thirds of
the deaths resulting from unhealthy environments. Currently, it is estimated that more
than 15 million Nigerians have asthma with about 5-10% of children in any given
community suffering from asthma and this is expected to increase to more than 100
million in year 2025. Asthma as one of the world’s most common long-term conditions
is currently affecting over 300 million people worldwide and projected to increase by
another 100 million people by the year 2025. As a non-curable disease, management
strategies are geared towards controlling the disease to reduce the associated
morbidity and mortality.
Notwithstanding the availability of different asthma drugs, significant numbers of
patients are still suffering from asthma while a significant number still dies from the
disease. More so, an estimated 75% hospital admissions for asthma and as many as,
90% of the asthma deaths are avoidable. Painfully, in Nigeria, the estimated proportion
of registered respiratory physicians to national population is 1 per 2.3 million
individuals. This actually lends credence to the fact that part of the causes of increased
mortality and morbidity is poor diagnosis traceable to poor governance and
environmental management. In addition to other poor infrastructural issues, 13 States
with an estimated combined population of 57.7million offer no specialist respiratory
services. Nigeria has lost many illustrious people through asthma already and we need
to stem the tide. Asthma is already an epidemic! The global burden of asthma is already
substantial in terms of mortality, morbidity and economic costs. According to the recent
Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, Asthma is estimated as the 14th most important
disorder in terms of global years lived with disability. Asthma, therefore, should be
among the top priorities of Ministries of Health, development partners and CSOs when
assessing health priorities, allocating resources, and evaluating the potential costs and
benefits of public health interventions. Most environmental failures are linked to governance failures. The inability of the
Nigerian government to effectively enforce the anti-tobacco laws and other
environmental laws lend credence to how poor governance leads to poor
environmental outcomes. In addition, our development planning rarely takes into
consideration the environmental goods and services–their benefits and the risks
associated with environmental hazards. This, on the other hand, breaches
environmental limits and who suffers as a result. Furthermore, there is an inherent
weakness in the institutions responsible for natural resources and environment to keep
up with development dynamics and to identify necessary investments in environmental
information and management.
In conclusion, the problem of air pollution in Nigeria brings to fore lack of proper
coordination between the administrative levels, political, legislative and economic
interests and the citizens sensibilities. Painfully, the national and sub-national politics in
Nigeria has not encouraged consolidated environmental governance. The governments
are deeply divided along ethnic, religious and electoral lines.

Chiwuike Uba is the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Amaka Chiwuike-Uba
Foundation (ACUF), and Policy Analyst, PFM and Governance Expert. Mr. Chiwuike
Uba can be reached at [email protected]