This piece on an elephant killed in Ondo State sometime in March would have long been published but for the many troubles that beset our travel and tourism industry. Though our culture could be said to drive our expected tourism engagement, we should not deny that proper conservation of our flora and fauna resources will propel the nation to some competitive ranking in the community of ecological tourism-dependent nations.

Indeed, the sad folklore as evident in the way and manner that elephant in Ondo was hacked and butchered tells the true story of our people as pretenders to humanity and all that the global village mantra preaches and extols.

It shows Nigerians at the lowest rung of human evolution and development, a nation and destination pretentious to the encouragement of the right of animals to free will, unhindered movement and existence.

As  signatories to the International Convention on Protection of Nature and attendant natural resources-fauna, ocean and other key environmental factors that drive balance between mankind and Mother Earth, Nigeria has deliberately failed in the duty to properly conserve, manage and protect national forest and marine environment and does not deserve to hold any position in the United Nations and its agencies.

Our attitude and caveman spirit is unequalled in clear measurement of relationship and temperament to conservation ethics and the sustainability of its benefits to our people. We are simply locked up in the past, eating and rejoicing in clubbing down and butchering harmless primates and elephants for bush meat. Nigerians display the highest form of human ignorance and disease to the disdain of rights of animals to co-exist with educated and knowledgeable human beings.

On CNN recently, I watched the best human practices to conservation and dedicated care to animals as showcased on Rhino Sudan. The old Sudan, an endangered and possibly last of its like in the world was cared for in-situ and out of the wild in order to protect and study its genetic advantages to a better future world, which must be deliberately saved from primed destructive attitude to mother nature and wildlife.

If Rhino Sudan had been found in Nigeria’s wild, possibly and assuredly, either our wild life mercenaries or our village cavemen would have descended on it, clubbed, knived and shared the meat and traded the horns and hides to the Chinese for pecuniary exchange. While the world of real people with human kindness and love for wild beings mourned for Rhino Sudan, Nigerians did not weep for “Elephant Ondo” but struggled to defend the worst crime and cruelty to a defenseless elephant.

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Governor Rotimi Akeredolu cannot ignore the fact as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria that elephants and other fauna resources in his state do not have right to exist with Ondo citizens. The governor must revisit the Ondo State environmental and forest laws to ensure that the state plays crucial roles in sustaining a peaceful conservation architecture, which would encourage the movement of wildlife and the consequent benefits to the state as eco-tourism destination.

Akeredolu must sanction the ignorant posture of Owa of Idanre, Oba Frederick Aroloye, in whose domain “Elephant Ondo” was hacked to death, the commissioner for tourism and culture, Deji Olurimisi, who is not fit to drive Ondo tourism and who alleged that Governor Akeredolu was not concerned about the broad daylight butchering of the elephant, and also the commissioner for environment, Funsho Esan, who possibly is ignorant about the conservation expectations of his ministry and the current status of Omo Forest Reserve in Ondo State.

The case of the head hunter in Idanre, the location where this offensive incident took place, Mr. Ojo Olaniyan Adaralode, should be treated as an enemy of our conservation expectations. He must be arrested and prosecuted for willful and deliberate act of poaching and killing of elephant “Ondo”. Am absolutely sure that the sane world is waiting to see how this caveman drama in Ondo would end.

Sadly, the unfortunate end to “Elephant Ondo” clearly revealed the failings of our democratic watch to which neither man nor animal could be said to be at ease. Honestly, we do not need the United Nations or any global environmental findings or statistics to tell us that we are the worst gatekeepers in national or global conservation mandates.

From Ondo to Bauchi, Borno to Enugu, Cross River to Plateau, Kano to Kaduna, our forest and wildlife covers are not only depleted, the official and government support base is in decline. The federal and state governments have long stopped funding Nigeria’s conservation efforts.

Indeed, the Nigerian wildlife community is facing the greatest threat ever from states and federal governments that are supposed to fund and protect our virgin conservation thresholds.

You may ask, can any Cameroonian, Kenyan, South African or Namibian kill an elephant and go scot free? You don’t need to Google to know that it is not possible, but in Nigeria, our leaders still buy “bush meat” on the highway and celebrate with friends and family, to the pains of nature.