Fidelis ENWEMEKA

 

Walk through many Nigerian towns and cities and you will see the same sight: plastic sachets scattered on the ground, empty bottles blocking drains, and food wrappers lying along the roadside. These things have become so common that people hardly notice them anymore. Yet each careless act reveals something about how we treat the environment and the shared duty we have to protect it.

 

On Sunday, 6 September 2026, at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Ota, Abeokuta Diocese, Reverend Father Lawrence Ogundipe of the Society of Divine Vocations (SDV), preached a direct and searching homily on this issue. The occasion was the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, a day set aside to remind people of their responsibility toward the earth, God’s gift to all.

Father Ogundipe began by describing a familiar contradiction:

 

“We buy pure (sachet) water, drink it and throw the nylon on the ground. We finish drinking a bottle of water and throw the bottle into the gutter. We are travelling in a beautiful car, we finish eating something, wind down the glass and throw the wrapper onto the road. Sometimes I wonder what happens to our conscience at that moment. Because if you can sit in a clean car and throw rubbish outside, then you have transferred your desire for cleanliness to somebody else’s environment.”

The point is hard to ignore. Many people keep their homes, cars and offices tidy, yet treat public spaces as free dumping grounds. Streets, drains and markets pay the price. The result is an environment that grows dirtier and unhealthier for everyone.

Pope Francis placed strong emphasis on this question. On 24 May 2015 he issued Laudato Si’, his encyclical on the care of our common home. The document called on individuals, institutions and governments to recognize the environmental crisis and to take concrete steps toward sustainable living. Later that year, on 6 August, he established the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, to be observed every 1 September. Because the Season of Creation runs from 1 September to 4 October, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria moved the celebration to the first Sunday of September so that more people could take part.

 

The message is simple: we are meant to be caretakers of God’s creation.

That call is not limited to Catholics.

Clean and healthy surroundings matter to every person. Looking after the environment protects public health, safeguards the future of our children, and preserves the balance of nature. Governments can clear drains, collect refuse and run sanitation campaigns, but those efforts are quickly undermined when citizens continue to dump waste without thought.

Parts of Lagos and Ogun States show the problem clearly. Areas such as Abule - Egba and Sango-Ota still struggle with littered streets, blocked drains and open dumping despite repeated government action. Refuse heaps line the roadsides. Plastic fills the gutters. When the rains come, the blocked drains overflow and flooding follows. The stagnant water then becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other disease carriers. Government effort alone cannot solve this. A clean environment needs the daily cooperation of the people who live in it.

Father Ogundipe challenged the congregation to look beyond blaming the authorities and to examine their own behaviour:

“We often ask, ‘What is the government doing about the environment?’ That is a legitimate question. But today, perhaps we should ask another question: ‘What am I doing?’”

Have we stopped throwing waste into the streets and drains? Do we dispose of our refuse properly? Are we planting trees and protecting green spaces, or clearing them without a second thought? Do our habits add to air pollution or to the noise that disturbs whole neighbourhoods late at night and early in the morning?

Environmental responsibility goes beyond littering. It covers every action that affects the quality of life of others and the health of the land we share.

Change starts small. As Father Ogundipe said:

“We cannot change the whole of Nigeria in one day, but we can change the small part of Nigeria where we live. We can begin with our house, our street, our parish, our school, our workplace and our car.”

National improvement grows from local habits. Clean households help create cleaner streets. Simple steps—using bins, joining sanitation exercises, refusing to dump refuse indiscriminately, planting trees, reducing plastic waste, and teaching children to care for their surroundings—make a real difference over time.

He closed with a clear reminder:

“The earth is God’s gift. It is our common home. Let us not turn God’s beautiful creation into a rubbish dump. And so, as we leave this Mass, let our prayer not simply be, ‘Lord, protect your creation.’ Let our prayer be: ‘Lord, make me a responsible steward of your creation.’”

The earth belongs to all of us and to those who will come after us. Our daily choices decide whether we look after that gift or spoil it. The time for blame has passed. The time for responsibility is now. Each of us can become a faithful steward and help make our communities places where cleanliness, health and respect for the environment are normal, not just the subject of occasional campaigns.