Badagry Slave Route faces environmental degradation

Tree felling as become a norm in Badagry. The breeze from the Atlantic Ocean whizzed past my face as I walked through the historical Slave Port on Gberefu Island in Badagry Town. It was as though the wind developed eight extremities like an Octopus, rustling over my head and lifting every strand of my braided hair from off my scalp into the air. This was how natural this Island was even centuries after the abolishment of Slave Trade in the world. But it is gradually losing its virginity to invasive human activities that could pre-empt an environmental catastrophe. Compared to my visit to this same place some five years ago, Gberefu Island from where Badagry town originated, is under attack from the environmentally unfriendly act of tree felling. This disturbance in the ecosystem balance could lead to coastal erosion and eventually an ocean surge, as has been recently experienced at the Alpha and Kuramo beaches on the Victoria Island axis. The consequence, environmentalists forecast, may be as huge as the loss of its historical significance as the world renowned slave trade port, as well as losing its potential to rake in millions of dollars from tourism. A lack of strong environmental regulatory laws to protect it may be responsible for the indiscriminate acts observed…. continued