Ozone, vegetation and our health

Ozone is a gas that is closely related to oxygen - yes, the gas we breathe in.  Is Ozone good or bad for us?  Well, it is both good and bad.  Ozone is a very bad gas to our health when it exist close to the ground.   However, beyond this region it is very good as it protects us from the harmful effect of the sun.    So, we want ozone in the upper atmosphere but not in the lower atmosphere.

There are a lot of things that remove ozone from the upper atmosphere.  One of them is the amount of trees or vegetation we have on the ground.  This is one of the reason people concerned about the environment ask that we plant trees around us.  How exactly does the amount of trees affect the total ozone in the atmosphere?  This was the focus of the research by Ogunjo and other researchers [1].

To do this, there is the need to assign numbers to trees.  Impossible? Using satellite data, regions with very high amount of trees and vegetation are given the number 1 while places with no trees or vegetation get the number 0.  This method constitute the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI).   From a similar satellite, the amount of ozone in the atmosphere was also gotten.  The authors now conducted an analysis over West Africa.  Their result can be seen in the figure below.

Figure 1:  Linear relationship between NDVI and total ozone column [1]

The authors found out that as we cut and burn trees in West Africa we reduce the amount of ozone available to protect us.  It could be seen from their figure that if the amount of vegetation increases, the total ozone column also increases and vice versa.   They discovered that regions with high amount of vegetation also have high amount of ozone.    The rapid population growth in West Africa (especially Nigeria) is increasing the demand for housing, clothing, feeding, and other necessities.  All these place demand on our vegetation.    The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is NOW!  There is the urgent need to protect our future by increasing our vegetation.  This is not a job for one but for all.

References

[1]  Ogunjo, S., Fuwape, I., Rabiu, B., Oluyamo, S., & Owoola, E. (2019). Assessing the Impact of Vegetation Cover on Total Column Ozone Over West Africa. In Advances in Remote Sensing and Geo Informatics Applications (pp. 231-233). Springer, Cham.

Executive Order 5: Implication for Nigerian Academic Institutions

In recent times, the Nigerian academic landscape has been witnessing increased agitation for better funding.  This was necessitated by obsolete research facilities, increasing number of students amidst inadequate teaching and learning resources and poor funding of institutions.  It is no longer news that the current model of educational funding in Nigeria must be discussed with the participation of all stakeholders.  

President Muhammadu Buhari

On 5th February 5, 2018, President Muhammad Buhari signed into law "Executive Order 5".  This executive order, though not as popular as Executive Order 1 which addresses the ease of doing business in Nigeria, has significant implications for higher institutions in Nigeria.  Although it addresses the planning and execution of projects, promotion of Nigerian content in contracts, science, engineering and technology, it can bolster the quality of education in Nigerian Universities if they can look beyond the free money. 

Minister of Education: Mr. Adamu Adamu

The vision of the executive order to "promote the application of science, technology and innovation in all sectors of the Nigerian economy" positions Nigerian institutions of higher learning for significant gains.   The executive order "gives preference to Nigerian companies and firms in the award of contracts" (Section 1(1)), firms with verifiable plan for indigenous capacity development (Section 1(2)), "adopt local technology" (Section 1(6)), and "preference granted to domestic manufacturers, contractors and suppliers (Section 3(1))".   

In my own opinion, it is high time academics started creating spin-off companies from their researchers and Universities go beyond producing "pure" water and bread to competitive bidding for building and construction contracts, national security projects and national training programmes.   Just as institutions came together to form the Joint University Preliminary Examination Body, they can come together to build large scale industries.   Academics need to look up from their chalkboards and manuscript to see opportunities such as the funding proposed in Section 5(5) of Executive Order 5, incentives for building and infrastructural development material (Section 9(1c)), and tax incentives in Section 10(2).  With the disqualification from contract based on year of incorporation frowned at in Section 6, university-driven industries can compete favourably with established organization in bidding for contracts.

Executive order 5, like other Nigerian laws, have its obvious lacuna.   Section 5(4) encouraged the inclusion of public procurement process in the Secondary School curriculum!  Does our University curriculum cover the public procurement process?  This executive order has been in existence for over nine (9) months, do we know the secretariat of the Council at the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (Section 12(1a))?   Section 12(6) listed members of the Presidential Monitoring and Evaluation Council with representatives of the academic community missing.  Nigerian academic are central to this executive order and deserve a place in the decision (or monitoring and evaluation) committee.