NASELS Press
Professor Niyi Osundare has rebuked the management of the University of Ibadan for razing down the trees at Heritage Park.
Osundare asserted that the university management ‘murdered’ the trees, while he questioned the decision of the ‘human scholars’ to fell the trees.
The renowned professor made this known in an exclusive interview with NASELS Press at the end of a day programme organized by Niyi Osundare International Poetry Festival (NOIPOFEST) in conjunction with the Department of English held at Room 32 in the Faculty of Arts.
“It is an embarrassment and disheartening development. That is one of the most beautiful parts of campus. I used to stop (at Heritage Park) and walk up and down with the trees surrounding me. Who made this decision? They have reduced the place into a desert. How can human scholars make that kind of decision? They killed the trees, murdered them,” he said.
The criticism of the retired emeritus professor at New Orleans University came in the wake of tree felling at Heritage Park, a popular recreational spot for the university community, on Thursday 21 November.
Niyi Osundare is an ecology activist who published an anthology titled Eyes of The Earth to express his admiration for trees and nature, emphasizing that human beings must plow and not plunder.
