A Nigerian environmental scientist, Dr Oluwole Akiyode, has spearheaded efforts to deal with environmental challenges in Africa, saying there’s a want to change city coverage in Africa.
The scientist has additionally been hailed for his pioneering work in city environmental safety and sustainable improvement throughout Africa, with landmark research on local weather resilience and water entry in main African cities.
Presently serving because the Head of the Division of Organic and Environmental Sciences at Kampala Worldwide College, Uganda, Akiyode work is pushed by a dedication to sensible, research-based options to the environmental strains of urbanisation.
Talking to Vanguard, he stated: “We can not speak about improvement in Africa with out confronting the environmental realities that include fast city growth. Our cities are rising, however we should guarantee they’re rising sustainably. Lagos is a textbook instance of what occurs when infrastructure would not preserve tempo with inhabitants progress.”
Whereas calling for pressing reforms to city coverage in African megacities, he warned that with out adaptive insurance policies, water shortage in Lagos may turn out to be a humanitarian disaster.
Akiyode holds a Grasp of Environmental Administration from the College of Lagos, Grasp of Arts in Environmental Safety from the United Nations established College of Peace in Costa Rica and a PhD in Geography from the College of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
His educational journey is as spectacular as his physique of labor. Akiyode holds a Grasp of Arts in Environmental Safety from the United Nations-established College for Peace in Costa Rica, and a Ph.D. in Geography from the College of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. His training has laid a robust basis for his interdisciplinary method to environmental analysis.
A key spotlight of his scholarship is his 2017 examine titled City Environmental Safety in a Repeatedly Rising Metropolis in Sub-Saharan Africa within the Local weather Change Period: A Case of Kampala, Uganda. The examine revealed how local weather change, coupled with unregulated city improvement, amplifies environmental dangers in Uganda’s capital. “City environmental safety is a uncared for discourse in lots of African coverage circles,” he famous. “However it’s central to the survival of our cities.”
In an analogous vein, his earlier 2010 analysis on Lagos make clear waste administration failures, air air pollution, and strained water programs in Nigeria’s business capital.
His most up-to-date publication in 2024 continues this essential focus. The narrative evaluation examined the intersection of local weather variability and water safety in Lagos. He warns that unplanned city growth and erratic climate patterns are disrupting water entry for thousands and thousands.
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Past academia, Akiyode has performed a key position in coaching the following technology of African environmental scientists. At KIU, he has supported curriculum to incorporate hands-on coaching in environmental analysis, coverage evaluation and sustainable improvement methods. “Our college students should not solely perceive the science but additionally the socioeconomic dynamics of environmental points,” he defined.
He additionally champions gender inclusion in environmental governance. In research centered on Nigeria’s Niger Delta, Dr. Akiyode emphasised how girls, regardless of being main useful resource customers, are sometimes excluded from decision-making processes. “True sustainability should embody all voices, particularly these most affected by environmental degradation,” he confused.
Akiyode’s affect extends by means of extensively cited works, together with The Implications of Sustainable Improvement Programmes on Environmental Sustainability in Nigeria (2017) and Sustainable Environmental Schooling Is a Panacea for Neighborhood’s Sustainability in Uganda (2018). These publications proceed to tell insurance policies throughout academia, authorities, and improvement companies.
