AN OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR AHMADU UMARU FINTIRI ON ADAMAWA’S CONTROVERSIAL TREE-FELLING LAW

By Padio Phineas

Your Excellency,

This open letter is written following a thorough journalistic investigation and careful examination of all issues surrounding the implementation and real-life consequences of the recently enforced tree-felling law in Adamawa State. As the second in this series, it builds on earlier public concerns and presents findings drawn from field observations, stakeholder accounts, and verifiable market realities.

While the law is officially framed as an environmental protection measure, evidence from across the state suggests that, in its current form, it disproportionately benefits enforcement operatives, imposes severe economic hardship on ordinary citizens, and fails to deliver any meaningful or measurable environmental gains.

There is no argument against environmental sustainability. However, sound public policy must strike a careful balance between ecology, livelihoods, and enforcement integrity. Regrettably, what is unfolding across Adamawa today shows that this balance has been completely lost.

From the Jabbi–Lamba axis through to Yola, there are no fewer than seven security checkpoints primarily targeting suppliers of firewood and charcoal—essential cooking fuels for hundreds of thousands of households. At each point, suppliers are allegedly compelled to part with between N3,000 and N4,000 before being allowed to proceed. This practice amounts not to regulation, but to institutionalised rent-seeking masquerading as law enforcement.

The economic consequences are severe and easily verifiable:
A pickup load of firewood that previously sold for about N30,000 now goes for N70,000.
A bag of charcoal that once cost N3,000 now sells for as much as N7,500.

These increases are not the result of scarcity alone, but of systematic extortion enabled by poor policy design and weak oversight. The harshest impact is felt by the poorest households—those who rely on firewood and charcoal because gas and electricity remain beyond their reach.

Your Excellency, any law that:
enriches enforcement agents,
punishes small traders and end users, and fails to demonstrably protect the environment,
cannot reasonably be described as a successful public policy.

When I had the privilege of serving on the Strategic Feedback Operations team under former Governor Murtala Nyako, we operated a system known as the “Diamond Ring.” Its purpose was straightforward yet effective: to gather real-time feedback on policy implementation, detect abuse early, and assess the real impact of government decisions on the people.

That mechanism enabled timely course correction before damage became irreversible. This open letter is written in that same spirit of constructive, evidence-based feedback.

With approximately 514 days remaining in this administration, this is a defining moment to refocus governance on impact rather than optics. Repealing—or at the very least suspending and comprehensively reviewing—this tree-felling law would send a clear signal that your government listens, learns, and governs with empathy.

Environmental protection must never become a cover for exploitation. Public policy must serve the people, not prey on them.

I respectfully urge your government to suspend or repeal the current tree-felling law; conduct a full audit of enforcement practices and checkpoints; engage relevant stakeholders—environmental experts, traders, rural communities, and consumer groups—to develop a more sustainable, humane, and transparent framework.

History will judge this administration not only by its intentions, but by its willingness to correct policies that inflict harm on the very people they are meant to protect.