Wednesday, October 25, 2017. An international event was taking place in Rabat, the capital of Morocco. It was the 7th Islamic Conference of Environment Ministers holding at the headquarters of the Islamic Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO).
Part of the activities at the opening ceremony of the conference was the presentation of the Award of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for Environmental Management in the Islamic World, the Kingdom’s version of the Nobel Prize given for outstanding performance in various spheres of human endeavour.
Thus, when the National Universities Commission (NUC) was notified of a call for application for the Award of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for Environmental Management in the Islamic World for the year 2017, it forwarded same to Nigerian universities for the attention of interested candidates (individuals, public/private institutions and organizations). Gombe State University was a recipient of this notification, and Professor Abdullahi Mahadi naturally became interested. He applied under the auspices of the Mahadi Foundation (his sole initiative/proprietorship), and on behalf of the International Institute of Islamic Research and Development (IIIRD), Gombe State University, his other pet project.
A professor of History, the name Abdullahi Mahadi is synonymous with environmental protection and management in Nigeria. He became more pronounced in this activity when he became the Vice-Chancellor of the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. There was a total transformation of the University’s environment that it became an international envy. Professor Mahadi embarked on massive tree-planting and campus beautification, thereby creating a most conducive learning and research environment. This much he had done in places/institutions he headed earlier: the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University and the Arewa House in Kaduna.
From 2004, when he became the founding Vice Chancellor of the Gombe State University, to date, Professor Abdullahi Mahadi has facilitated the planting of no fewer than one million five hundred (1,500,000) trees across the state. The Gombe State University was the first beneficiary, possibly surpassing what he did in A.B.U Zaria in terms of creating a beautiful and friendly environment.
The bottom-line is that Professor Abdullahi Mahadi, as much as he can, is poised to taming the rising tide of environmental degradation, which has serious negative effects on human development. He believes it is a tide that should be of concern to all. And the project has gotten the warmest embrace as the Mahadi Initiative/Foundation is inundated with requests for tree planting, seedlings and/or environmental beautification all seasons of the year from individuals, communities, public and private institutions, religious organizations, etc.
It was the elaborated submission of the aforementioned for the Award of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for Environmental Management in Islamic World, titled “ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA: THE MAHADI INITIATIVE” that won the Second Prize in the Best Private Sector Practice category. Thus, Professor Abdullahi Mahadi was presented the prize in Rabat, Morocco as part of the opening ceremony for the 7th Islamic Conference of Environment Ministers. This is a pride not only to Nigeria but also to the sub-Saharan Africa.
It should be the sincere hope of every Nigerian that there are more of such initiatives as a way of combating climate change and its attendant multiple negative effects.
Muslihu Aminu Pindiga, Gombe.
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