Aliyu Sadiq, the Environmentalist Driving Climate Action Through Games
In this excerpted version by JaneFrances Chibundu of the Cable, we examine the strides of Aliyu Sadiq. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Ecocyckle, founded in 2020. A youth-driven social enterprise, since inception, has deployed new vista in environment education, conservation and protection especially among youth.
Born in Jos, the capital city of Plateau, Sadiq had his elementary education in the cold city after which he moved on to study geography and environmental management at the University of Abuja. What he learnt at the university shaped his decision to become an environmentalist.
His Ecocyckle which began outfield engagement with four volunteers has managed to grow to over 150 youths currently.
Although his ideas were considered “alien” because of how innovative they were, Sadiq said an average Nigerian did not see the need to prioritise his initiatives, which made him fund some of these ideas to keep them afloat.
His approach focuses on the issue of waste management, pollution, climate change mitigation as well as the protection of the ecosystems, proffering solutions that can create jobs and inspire other young people.
“We wanted a system where we will provide solutions that will solve environmental problems in areas of interest—waste pollution and climate change—and also make money to do a lot of community-impact work for free, such that it can impact society and the environment. That was the factor that made us look into the perspective of a social enterprise, despite our interest in development.”
Sadiq believes that one of the greatest ways to build climate action among the youth is through education; hence, the drive to launch the Play Learn and Act Now (PLAN) game in 2023 to make climate education more fun for the younger generation.
The game is played by using a card that has a pictorial solution to the problem presented by an opponent. These problems and solutions are thoughtfully blended in alphabets and numbers to enable young people to seek solutions to the problem onboard.
Sadiq believes that by doing this, he is imbibing in the players the consciousness of the various solutions to the major environmental problem facing mankind while still having fun.
He boasts of having the games in about six African countries and has donated to over 20 schools in Nigeria.
However, his fears are that financial constraints may hinder the popularity of the game, even as he intends to digitalise the game to enable it to reach every part of the world.
These games are currently in about five countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, the UAE, and Liberia, amongst others. “In Nigeria, we have donated over 20 of these games to about 10 schools”, he said.
“The idea was to cut the conventional way of engaging and educating young people on climate change and make it more interactive and innovative. It also teaches how to take action, dispose of waste, mitigate air and water pollutions, plant trees and nurture them to growth.
That is not all, with about 5.96 million tons of plastic waste going to various dumpsites in Nigeria, Sadiq saw the need to repurpose waste and reduce pollution. Hence, he began researching on how to produce sustainable bricks from plastics.
After several trials and errors, he devised ecobricks made out of plastic waste and sand. He would later come up with a less tedious approach to producing the bricks and move ahead to teach students how to do the same more effectively.
Although Sadiq would love to see his ecobricks commercialised to enable him to generate money to impact more communities, he said low demand, heavy taxation, and regulatory bottlenecks hindered him from actualising such a dream.
Desperate to impact more communities, in December 2022, he launched a pet-eco-friendly toilet built with over 6,500 plastic bottles with the help of students, aimed at addressing the issue of open defecation in Plateau State.
Being a problem identified across Nigeria, he and his students came up with this intervention and built eco-friendly toilets from scratch and donated free to some selected school.
The environmentalist saw the need to extend his impact to the Almajiri children, who are not privileged to attend conventional schools.
“There, we taught them how to make household items like stools and furniture with plastic. This idea birthed the OYA recycle initiative, which simply means “Let us recycle now.”
“Through that, we reached out to children in our community, teenagers, particularly those who do not go to school. Most of them attend religious schools like Islamic schools; they call them Almajiri, who only have informal education”, he concluded.
Tinkering with new ideas everyday, Aliyu says he is exploring more ways to contribute to a more sustainable earth.
Developing an Eco-friendly Environment
