How bush burning, poverty, and policy failures are scorching Nigeria's future.
The Harmattan came early to Lafia this year. But it wasn't just dry air. It was smoke. It filled school compounds in Jalingo where pupils wore face masks to class in October. It cut short morning jogs in Abuja because the air tasted like campfire. It sent asthmatic patients to hospitals in Port Harcourt before December even began.
For four months every dry season, smoke becomes Nigeria's second atmosphere. From farmlands in Benue to charcoal markets in Rivers, from gas flares in the Delta to generator fumes in Lagos, we set fires and then wonder why the sky turns grey. We burn to plant. We burn to cook. We burn to survive. But every fire has a bill. And Nigeria is paying it with sick children, dead soil, floods that swallow towns, and a future growing thinner by the year. This is the story of that fire. Who lights it. Why they have no choice. And what government, agencies, and all of us must do before there's nothing left to save.
The Fire on the Land
Walk through any village from Benue to Bauchi between November and March and you will see it. Farmers burning to clear land. Hunters burning to flush out game. Charcoal producers burning to feed city kitchens.
NESREA says over 60% of farmland in North-Central is cleared by fire each year. It feels quick. It feels free.
The bill comes later.
First, the soil dies. Fire kills the organic matter that holds water. One burn can strip nutrients that took 20 years to build. That's why yields keep falling even when farmers plant more seeds.
Then the floods come. Without trees and grass to hold it, rain rushes down hills and tears through towns. The gullies swallowing homes in Anambra and Enugu start here, on burned slopes 400km away.
Then the air turns poison. Smoke from bush burning mixes with generator fumes and gas flares. NIMET now ranks 8 Nigerian cities as unhealthy for 4 months every dry season. Asthma clinics in Kano and Port Harcourt are full. Children like Mallam Idris's granddaughter are the first to suffer.
The Fire in the Kitchen
But not every fire is lit on a farm. Some are lit in kitchens.
"High cost of fuel makes people to cut down bushes and use firewood,†a Port Harcourt resident told me last week. She asked not to be named. With petrol above 1,300/litre and a 12.5kg gas cylinder refill at 25,000, firewood became survival. Kerosene is scarce and expensive too.
One bag of charcoal now sells for 9,000 in Rivers markets. So the axe replaces the cooker. Trees fall. Bushes burn. Women walk farther each month to find wood.
It's a cruel loop. Poverty forces people to burn. Burning makes the climate worse. Worse climate makes farming harder. Harder farming makes people poorer.
"We burn because we are broke", the woman said. But Nigeria is getting poorer because we burn.
Back in Lafia, Mallam Idris is trying
A youth group from the state university showed him how to use crop residue as mulch. It's more work, he said, wiping sweat. But my granddaughter coughed less last week.
The land is tired. Nigeria is tired. If we keep burning, we will have nothing left to plant. Nothing left to breathe. Nothing left to pass on.
Stop The Burn. Save The Land. Before the fire reaches us all.
Where is Government?
This is where anger is justified. Nigeria has laws. NESREA's Act bans uncontrolled burning. Most states have anti-bushfire edicts. On paper, we are protected.
In reality, the laws are ghosts.
Where are the extension officers in rural Katsina teaching farmers how to mulch instead of burn? Where are the subsidies for zero-tillage tools? Where is the national reforestation program with real budget and real monitoring?
The Ministry of Environment gives speeches at COP summits in Dubai. Back home, smoke fills villages in Jigawa and nobody shows up with alternatives.
Under the current administration, budgets talk about subsidy removal, naira reforms, inflation. All urgent. But climate is the ground beneath those debates. You can't fix food prices when the land itself is dying. You can't attract investors when Lagos and Port Harcourt choke on smoke for months.
The 2024 and 2025 budgets put less than 1% toward climate adaptation for rural farmers. That's not policy. That's neglect.
What Government and Agencies Must Do Now
Stop The Burn cannot work if firewood and charcoal remain the only affordable option. Government must attack the root: cost of clean energy.
For affordable cooking energy:
1. Targeted gas/kerosene subsidies for low-income homes: Vouchers for 5kg/12.5kg cylinders. If petrol is 1,300/litre, poor families will never choose gas at 25,000.
2. Remove VAT and import duties on LPG cylinders, cookers, stoves: Make equipment cheaper so families can switch from firewood.
3. Revive NNPC/NLNG domestic gas supply scheme: Gas for Nigerians first - more gas for local consumption, not just export.
4. Stabilize kerosene supply and price: NNPCL and marketers must end kerosene scarcity. It's the bridge fuel between firewood and gas for many poor homes.
5. Curb fuel price volatility: Use price stabilization fund and strategic reserves so 1,300 doesn't become 1,800 in 3 months. Predictable prices brings predictable cooking choices.
Role of Agencies and Government:
1. NESREA and State Ministries of Environment: Deploy “Green Extension Officers†to villages with mulching tools, organic fertilizer samples, no-burn training. Educate before you punish.
2. Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service and ADP: Fund research on no-burn land prep. Subsidize equipment. Make no-burn cheaper than burning.
3. Forestry Dept and Community Chiefs: Use community forest guards to monitor. Punish big charcoal cartels and illegal loggers, not struggling farmers. Give farmers alternatives first.
4. Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources: Enforce “no gas flare deadline. Capture flare gas for power/cook-gas. 60 years of flares is policy failure.
5. NIMET and NCDC: Issue real-time air quality alerts and health advisories during Harmattan. Put climate education in primary schools. Use radio dramas in Hausa, Igbo, Pidgin, Tiv. Mallam Idris doesn't need PowerPoint. He needs tools and trust.
The Fire in the Future
UNEP warns that desertification is moving south at 0.6km every year. By 2050, Nigeria could lose 40% of its arable land in the North.
That doesn't just mean hunger. It means migration. It means more clashes between farmers and herders fighting over shrinking land. It means more young people with no choice but to leave.
The smoke you see in December becomes the empty plate you face in August.
Stop The Burn. Save The Land. Before the fire reaches us all.
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