MD Abubakar Sadiq Omar leads exercise in Wasa and Takushara, planting more than 20 trees himself as company partners hail a new standard for environmental responsibility in Nigeria’s extractive sector
WASA/TAKUSHARA, FCT-ABUJA — Under a wide morning sky in the twin host communities of Wasa and Takushara, staff of Steron Group knelt beside community members in the red earth of the Federal Capital Territory on Saturday, planting the first of what would become 100 trees in a single day — a gesture, organizers said, meant to outlast the mining operations that brought the company here in the first place.
The exercise, tagged the Befriend a Tree Initiative, was organized by the Steron Community Development Foundation (SCDF) in partnership with the Climate Action Team Initiative and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). Of the 100 seedlings planted, 80 were economic trees — mangoes and oranges intended to yield income and nutrition for host families in the years ahead — while the remaining 20 were mast trees, positioned at strategic points across both communities to anchor the soil and, in time, the landscape.
At the center of the exercise was Abubakar Sadiq Omar, mni, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Steron Group, who set aside his position at the podium to work the ground himself, planting more than 20 trees alongside residents of Wasa and Takushara.
“This is personal for me,” Mr. Omar said, pausing between plantings. As his company draws resources from the earth, he said, environmental sustainability is a responsibility he has vowed to carry — not as policy, but as principle.
The Managing Director’s decision to plant alongside residents rather than simply preside over the event drew repeated notice from partner organizations in attendance, several of whom described it as a rare and welcome departure from how extractive companies typically engage host communities.
Daniel Black, founder of the Growth for Sustainable Agriculture Initiative and immediate past President of the YALI Network, was among those who addressed the gathering. He commended Steron Group and the Steron Community Development Foundation for the initiative, telling attendees he had never witnessed a company in the extractive industry commit so visibly to environmental sustainability.
Ebaide Omiunu, founder of the Ebaidebhek Initiative (TEI) and a partner of SCDF, was similarly impressed, hailing Steron Group as a shining example of corporate responsibility in the present era.
Speaking on behalf of NEITI, the organization’s Gender and Environment Officer, Stephanie, noted that NEITI — itself a partner of SCDF — was watching closely, and pledged that the agency would continue to hold mining companies accountable to transparency in their dealings with host communities.
Every member of Steron Group’s staff turned out for the exercise, working shoulder to shoulder with residents of Wasa and Takushara through the planting. Organizers said the turnout reflected a company-wide commitment to the two communities that extends well beyond the mining concessions that first brought Steron Group there.
The initiative will continue in the coming week, when Halima Imam, Steron Group’s Community Development Manager, begins teaching women in Wasa and Takushara to make briquettes for clean cooking — part of a broader push, the company said, toward a healthier and more habitable environment for both communities.
As the last of the seedlings went into the ground on Saturday, officials from Steron Group and its partners said the Befriend a Tree Initiative was not a single event but a pledge — one measured not in the trees planted on a single day, but in whether they are still standing years from now.
*This report was prepared by the Steron Group Community Development office.