Nigeria's protected sanctuaries, home to rich flora and fauna, are increasingly under threat as state governments convert them into upscale residential estates for the elite. However, protests from Nigerian environmentalists and local communities are growing louder.
As children from Delta State, Nigeria, Ambrose Igboke and Polycarp Chiwetalu grew up captivated by folktales of the lion as the king of the forest and the tortoise symbolising mischief, wisdom, and longevity. Whenever they visited relatives in Enugu, in Nigeria’s southeast, the sprawling zoological garden nestled within the rainforest was the highlight of their family trips. There, they saw lions, monkeys, leopards, ostriches, gorillas, and reptiles in the flesh, while the zookeepers answered their questions.
For Chiwetalu, the most fascinating animal was a baby gorilla named Sunday. After each visit, he yearned to return just to see Sunday again. Over time, however, Sunday and the other animals appeared increasingly emaciated, struggling to move and scanning visitors for scraps of food. Eventually, their families stopped visiting the zoo.
Years later, when Igboke returned to the state as an adult and shared with his relatives his desire to visit the zoo to relive old memories, they informed him that the state government had closed it in 2003. The authorities had sold the site, transforming it into a luxury housing estate.
The same fate would befall the Imo Zoo and its protected forest, located 100 km to the south. More recently, local power brokers have initiated similar developments 500 km northwest, in the Agodi Gardens and Ogunpa Forest Reserve in Oyo State.
The sales have led not only to the closure of several educational and recreational sites for citizens but also to the loss of forests—important carbon sink areas—and thousands of jobs, along with local income generated from entry fees. In one instance, the operation included threats to a zoo manager’s life. However, protests by communities and activists are on the rise.
Prime location
The fate of the Enugu Zoo was partly determined by its prime location. Situated just two kilometres from government buildings and directly behind the old governor’s house, the zoological garden occupied a green expanse of land. By the early 2000s, bourgeois settlements were rapidly expanding in the area. As the zoo became encircled by upscale residential estates, developers began to covet the large stretch of land.
One day in 2003, zoo officials were notified by the government that the animals would be relocated to the university in Nsukka, where they would supposedly be “useful for research purposes.” The zoo managers who had a heart for the zoo protested but to no avail. Within months, the animals were removed. Then, demolition machines arrived, clearing the forest and transforming the land into an upscale estate.
“The land was allocated to top officials and wealthy people”
A former employee, who requested anonymity, revealed in an interview that the state government subsequently began to “allocate the land to some of its top officials and wealthy people”, as “they were the ones who could afford the cost of the land.” Initially referred to as the Zoo Estate, the housing project was later renamed Ekulu East Estate to dissociate it from the former zoo. To attract the ultra-wealthy, advertisements for properties in the estate describe it as "the most expensive estate in Enugu.”
It certainly looks the part, with well-maintained tarred roads and a dedicated police post. At the estate’s entrance, two signboards warn visitors to mind their behaviour, while stern security officers strictly enforce entry protocols, requiring proper identification. A tour of the estate reveals that the only remnants of the former zoo are its street names. The luxury duplexes and hotels now stand on streets such as Peacock Drive, Lion Avenue, Tiger Street, Eagle Street, Flamingo Street, Leopard Street, Crown Bird Street, Zebra Close, Giraffe Street, Fox Street, Dolphin Street, and Penguin Close.
In an old online listing by a realtor, one property was advertised as being located opposite another owned "by a former governor of the state" (1). It was valued at ₦170 million (US$114,000). Another property within the estate was listed at ₦250 million (US$167,000). In 2021, one was listed at ₦2 billion (US$1,3 million), ranking among the most expensive in the entire state.
According to an insider, Peter Mbah, the current governor, who served as commissioner for finance under former governor Chimaroke Nnamani—during whose administration the zoo was closed—now owns property in the area. When asked about this, Dan Nwomeh, the governor’s senior special assistant for media, questioned whether there was “anything wrong with owning property in the estate?” He further explained that “the former zoo was converted into an estate and allocated during the first tenure of the administration, while Mbah served in the second tenure.” Calls and messages inquiring about the reasons for the facility’s closure, the identities of those benefiting from the land allocation, and whether Mbah himself was a beneficiary went unanswered when sent to former governor Nnamani's known phone number and his verified Twitter account.
Following the closure of the Enugu Zoo in 2003, wildlife lovers in the five states that make up the country’s southeast zone (2) now had to travel over a hundred kilometres south to the Imo State Zoological Garden and Wildlife Park. Founded in 1976 and nestled in a 23-hectare reserved and gazetted rainforest, Imo Zoo accommodated various animal species and over 20,000 plant species – a significant number of them endangered. With Enugu gone, it became the major hub for wildlife recreation, education, and research in the zone.
Unkept promises
On June 5, 2019, World Environment Day, the newly elected Imo Governor, Emeka Ihedioha, announced great plans to renovate the facility. He promised that the facility would not only meet international standards but also that his administration would prioritise the preservation of the local ecosystem. Funds were allocated, and a new administrative building was constructed. However, barely a year later, Ihedioha was ousted from office by the Supreme Court, which ruled that he had not been the rightful winner of the 2019 governorship election. After a recalculation of votes, Hope Uzodinma was declared the true victor. Upon assuming office, Uzodinma also pledged to develop the zoo and recover designated forest reserves, while announcing the creation of a special bureau for wildlife and habitat conservation.
But none of it happened. From 2020, the zoo went from bad to worse. In that year, a hyena escaped, causing panic in the community. Though it was recaptured, and the scandal weathered, a year later, in 2021, deep gully erosion from the nearby Otamiri River damaged the road connecting the zoo to the city. That same year, over 250 animals were reported to have starved to death at the facility, and shocking pictures of starving animals went viral on the internet. While the zoo needed about ₦1,2 million (about US$3,000 at the time) monthly to cater to about 500 animals, government subsidies were not arriving as expected, and the ₦1,000 (currently less than a dollar) entrance fee could not sustain the feeding of the animals.
In 2023, Governor Uzodinma reversed his earlier promises to conserve the environment and transform the zoo. On February 21 of that year, state officials visited the zoo and removed all the animals, informing the zookeepers that they would be relocated to the Jos Wildlife Park in Plateau State—approximately 13 hours away by road, with the journey potentially extending to 20 hours or more due to poor road conditions, security checkpoints, and unforeseen delays. According to interviews with zookeepers, some animals died during the transport.
Bulldozers rammed into the forests and levelled the trees
Several months later, in July 2023, state officials returned to the zoo accompanied by heavily armed police officers to demolish the structures. Bulldozers rammed into the forests and levelled the trees.
Defending the ecosystem
Francis Abioye, General Manager and principal conservation officer of Imo Zoo and Wildlife Park attempted to halt the destruction. “I argued with the governor (Uzodinma) about his relocation plans. He insisted, saying the zoo is in the centre of the city where the land is very expensive,” Abioye said in a phone interview. “I still asked him about the trees. The beauty of the zoo was the old, natural virgin forest. For the next 100 years, you can't generate those trees elsewhere. The land was also a sensitive ecosystem, acting as a carbon sink and watershed, shielding the area from gully erosion, which often threatens it.” But his arguments fell on deaf ears, with the governor, Abioye says, eventually attempting to bribe him—unsuccessfully—to gain his cooperation.
The zoo manager continued to try to convince his opponent. “I asked that the government at least provide other land, not too far from the city. The zoo could still generate income for the state, despite its neglect. We were welcoming about 100,000 visitors and generating around ₦11 million annually (US$7,300). The zoo could generate up to ₦400 million (US$267,000) if adequately maintained.” Abioye also expressed concerns about the zoo staff, who would be left jobless. “But the authorities were just not interested.”
The zoo manager’s family became the target of attacks
When the controversy gained public attention and fellow environmentalists rallied to support Abioye and the zoo, the manager and his family became the targets of violent attacks. “My wife was abducted. I was threatened, and there was an attempt on my life. I understood that this was a result of my resistance,” he said. The threats and attacks were reported in national newspapers and were linked by environmental activists and organisations to the zoo relocation. According to some of these reports, the kidnappers had worn police vests.
Abioye and his wife have since gone into exile in the UK. From there, he still underlines the systemic threat to conservation in Nigeria, especially in the zoos, identifying "politicians" as the biggest threat. "Everything comes to the table of the politicians," he says, meaning that they ignore voters as well as the rule of law. "Politicians have become a threat to virtually every fabric of our nation's system."
Calls and messages sent to Imo Commissioner for Information, Declan Emelumba, requesting responses to the bribery allegations, as well as the threats and attacks during the controversy surrounding the zoo closure, went unanswered.
Community rights
Visiting the Imo Zoo on November 7, the only trace of its former identity as a wildlife and nature park is the new administrative building, still adorned with the original zoo signage. A fresh fence now encloses the facility, effectively barring access. There is no visible entry point, not even for the local Nekede community, to whom the ancestral land on which the zoo was built belongs. "There is ongoing construction on the land, and it is closely monitored by guards," explains community member Kingsley Okoye, as we attempt to find an entry point near the Madoka bus stop, next to the Ministry of Agriculture's forestry building. “We cannot enter anymore.” And indeed, despite our efforts, we cannot.
According to the courts, this situation is unlawful, as the government only has lease rights to the Nekede ancestral land (held since 1968, when the zoo was built) for the purpose of maintaining the zoo as a public facility. In 2023, a committee of concerned Nekede citizens called the Umuejechi Central Assembly, went to the federal high court to demand a halt to the destruction. They soon won their case. The court agreed with their position that the lease only covered the use of the land for the public zoo and that the luxury estate project violated that purpose. It restrained the government from taking over the land. When the state appealed, the court of appeals upheld the earlier ruling.
While the government has taken the case to the Supreme Court, where it remains unresolved, the estate project continues, as do the protests. In July 2024, community members once again issued a warning to the state government and land speculators in an open letter. The letter cautioned against a rumoured plan by the state government to sell part of the vast land area to an international hospitality company, urging that the proposal be stopped. It further stated that any potential buyer should avoid “calculated risk”.
The fact that the land has significantly appreciated in value over time, with plots now on sale for ₦100 million (US$67,000), further strengthens their resolve to continue resisting what they describe as its forceful takeover.
A green oasis of peace
In 2023, environmentalists in Ibadan, Oyo, roughly 500 kilometres northwest of Imo, also began protesting similar government plans in their state. In the Oyo case, the government sought to sell the forested part of the state’s Agodi Botanical and Zoological Garden, still described on tourist sites as “a green oasis of peace,” home to turtles, monkeys, and peacocks. Though the 58-hectare gardens, created in 1967—only seven years after Nigeria’s independence—as a conservation forest and recreational space, had become neglected, especially after the nearby Ogunpa River flooded in 1980, killing several locals and most of the animals, the gardens and surrounding forests had survived. That is until the state government proposed building a residential estate there too.
The state commissioner wants to “make the place more secure”
While State Commissioner for Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, Williams Akin-Funmilayo, has promised that the proposed Baywood Estate will not encroach on the gardens, local environmentalists have little faith in his words. Their doubts are fueled by the fact that the commissioner had made harsh statements about the entire forest area being a “death zone” and a “harbour for many criminals, where many innocent lives have been lost.” According to Akin-Funmilayo, this is “why the government is intending to convert the forest to a housing estate, to make the place more secure.”
Local concern about the project has resulted in court cases here, too. Both the local Bodija Estate Residents Association and, in a separate case, local lawyer Adeniyi Muhammed Uthman are suing the state government over the planned conversion, with Uthman saying it is “repugnant to natural justice and a flagrant abuse of power.” Rosalie Ann Modder-Oyefeso, co-founder of the local Save Our Green Spaces Group, which has taken a leading role in the public protests, adds in an interview: “The Agodi Gardens and forest form a large catchment area for the nearby river. They have already cut down over 5,000 trees in the area, and they have not stopped. There is now a tremendous risk of flooding. It’s an environmental emergency. Most of those trees are about 70 to 80 years old.” She dismisses the government’s reasoning that “men of the underworld” would be hiding in the forest. “You can’t cut down the forest because of that. You hire forest rangers.”
Absurdity
While the state governments behind these projects have claimed that they are driven by a need to address Nigeria's housing deficit, which stands at 28 million units for a population of over 220 million in 2023, the protesters dismiss the idea that a few "paradises for the rich" meaningfully contribute to this cause. "Luxury estates for a select few with money cannot be seen as addressing the housing deficit in any way," says Modder-Oyefeso. "The people without homes are at the bottom of the economic ladder. The government deserves an award for absurdity."
National Secretary of the Wildlife Society of Nigeria, Orimaye Jacob Oluwafemi, confirms when asked, that “land grabbing, poor funding, and illegal wildlife trade” are general challenges faced by zoos in the country, stating that “inadequate government support has hastened (the wildlife areas’) potential extinction. Nigeria now risks losing ecotourism prospects, depriving local people and the national economy of important cash.” Professor of wildlife resources management, Edem Eniang, comments that “there is an urgent need to implement the provisions of environmental impact assessments” that are legally required for housing projects in forested areas.
A request for comment sent to the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, responsible for overseeing these assessments, went unanswered.
Notes
(1): The former governor mentioned in the ad is an immediate former governor and not the same person as Governor Nnamani mentioned in the story.
(2) Nigeria is divided into six zones: South-West, South-South, South-East, North-East, North-Central, and North-West. This article covers the destruction of all three zoos within the five states that make up the South-East zone.
This story was produced with support from the Rainforest Journalism Fund in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
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