{"id":77568,"date":"2025-10-27T07:42:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T07:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=77568"},"modified":"2025-10-27T07:42:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T07:42:31","slug":"ex-head-of-civil-service-seeks-national-park-status-for-abujas-katampe-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/10\/27\/ex-head-of-civil-service-seeks-national-park-status-for-abujas-katampe-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Head of Civil Service Seeks National Park Status for Abuja\u2019s Katampe Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 data-start=\"180\" data-end=\"264\"><strong data-start=\"266\" data-end=\"286\">By Samuel Adeola<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"266\" data-end=\"286\">\n<p data-start=\"288\" data-end=\"548\">Former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Prof. Oladapo Abiodun Afolabi, has urged the Federal Government to declare Katampe Hill and Waterfalls in Abuja a National Park to protect Nigeria\u2019s environmental heritage and promote eco-tourism.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"550\" data-end=\"897\">Afolabi made the call over the weekend in Abuja during the unveiling of the <em data-start=\"626\" data-end=\"730\">\u201cWhere Rivers Are Born \u2013 Save Katampe Hill and Waterfalls, Restoration and Legal Personhood Campaign,\u201d<\/em> organised by the Foundation for the Conservation of Nigerian Rivers (FCNR) in collaboration with the Earth Law Centre (USA\u2013Africa Program) and other partners.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"899\" data-end=\"1285\">Describing Katampe Hill as \u201cthe heart of Nigeria and the birthplace of rivers,\u201d Afolabi said the campaign aimed to redefine the nation\u2019s relationship with nature. Represented by Bayero Kasim, a former director in the Ministry of Environment, he stressed that declaring the site a National Park would safeguard its fragile ecosystem, foster research, and promote sustainable tourism.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1287\" data-end=\"1712\">In his remarks, Irikefe V. Dafe, Executive Director of FCNR and Africa Lead for Earth Law Centre, said the initiative marks a new phase in Nigeria\u2019s environmental advocacy, seeking to restore sacred headwaters and grant legal recognition to rivers as living entities. He added that the campaign aligns Nigeria with countries like Ecuador, New Zealand, India, and Uganda that have adopted similar ecological rights models.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1714\" data-end=\"1951\">Also speaking, Dr. Austin Maho, Vice Chairman of the Katampe Residents Association, pledged the community\u2019s full support for the project, describing it as a timely step to prevent further encroachment and degradation of the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola Former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Prof. Oladapo Abiodun Afolabi, has urged the Federal Government to declare Katampe Hill and Waterfalls in Abuja a National Park to protect Nigeria\u2019s environmental heritage and promote eco-tourism. Afolabi made the call over the weekend in Abuja during the unveiling of the \u201cWhere [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":77569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77570,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77568\/revisions\/77570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}