Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

One of the major environmental challenges facing most of the African nations and Nigeria in particular which is a bane to sustainable development is the lack of proper waste management. Despite many attempts to arrest the menace, the problem remains on the upward swing. Due to the rapid growth of urban centers and religious activities in Nigeria, many religious communities have joined the league of scrambling for electronic devices from different parts of the globe. Through the use of interview and sociological approach in data gathering, it was observed that e-waste is now on the increase due to the overriding personal interest against the public good, the porosity of the nation’s borders, weak institutions for the implementation of environmental policies, among others. The work argued that the constant inflow of substandard, abandoned, or used electronic devices have made Nigeria a dumping ground with little or no effective way of handling the final stage of such products with respect to their disposal and thereby resulting in the environmental pollution in many instances, and distortion of the eco-harmony. This has, in turn, portends health challenges to the masses and increased mortality rate. The work recommended that given the weight of followers religious communities in Nigeria command, that can be explored for mass enlightenment and also for the recycling of such waste products for meaningful sustainable development and employment generation for many individuals. The work, therefore, concludes that the vulnerability of the Nigerian society can be addressed through effective environmental management