Africa may be contributing just 3 percent of the total global emissions- with Nigeria leading contributions in the continent- but it appears the volume of air pollution in the country is an  unprecedented one going by Africa's measly 3% contribution to global emission. 

From generators to car exhaust fumes from manufacturing firms to oil refineries, it all amounts to mammoth air pollution in Nigeria with severe health problems which has continued to be ignored by the Nigerian government.

Photocredit: Punchng.com

Walking through the streets and roads in Nigeria, you hardly find any household, shop or commercial outfit without a generator as  "government electricity" continues to elude the masses. In fact, not owning a generator as a businessman or woman is a fair way to say that you are not yet serious with your business or engagements. From one shop to another, you find generators stationed side and side and left on for more than half of the working hours, if not the whole working hours, each day. With a population of over 170 million people and an estimated 60 million users of generator in the country according to a report on Punch newspaper as of 2012, the amount of air pollution contributed through this medium is better left to imagination as most users have more than two generating sets. 
Popular media reports suggest that about 10,000 Nigerians have been killed by generator fumes between 2008 and 2014 but I think the figure is probably being economical with the truth. Deaths arising from generator fumes have lead the chart of mysterious deaths that grace the pages of Nigerian newspapers and showing concern here has seemed no responsibility of government.

Photocredit: Motociti.com

Again, when I see some cities and countries doing a "car free" day campaign, I perfectly understand why but in Nigeria, we need more than that. Here is a country where most of the cars plying the roads in both urban and rural areas are not road worthy. By not being road worthy I mean the avoidable excessive contribution of deadly smokes from their exhaust pipes to the global emission. 
I leave my house everyday with a handkerchief handy because I always take public transport, which hardly affords the luxury of air-conditioning system, and it's in while in a public transport medium with car windows downed that you experience how bad the air is being polluted by ill-fated vehicles. You watch huge smoke oozing out of the exhaust of many vehicles in unbearable folds capable of choking people to death. And quite disappointingly, you find these vehicles on the road the next day in the same condition. I would cover my nose with my handkerchief while other commuters will mostly resign to the helplessness of being "used to it" and the mentality of "if it couldn't kill our grand parents it can't kill us now". 
In Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, thick and long-lasting smogs are now a popular occurrence something that was quite strange in the same city as of 2005 all owing mainly to air pollution from vehicles as the city is well known for it astonishing traffic.

 
Photocredit: Vanguardngr.com

The government have offered little or more specifically nothing in this sphere preferring to relegate it to the "non-issue" stack of their files. 
In 2012, the government started checking vehicle emission control for new cars especially imported one but going by the level of car pollution in place now, you probably won't be convinced that any such effort is in place. 
I have always thought that adding emission control to the job of the traffic agencies will be a nice idea, the government is trying it out but with the will of a tired fly. 
And I silently wonder who the  government's works and development in other sectors is for the ones alive or the dead.

Photocredit: Telegraph.co.uk

Multinational oil companies and their refineries are obviously among the biggest outdoor emission contributor in Nigeria especially in Niger Delta region of Nigeria which boasts of huge oil deposits. 
Year after year, this region is known to experience a quite worrying amount of acid rains. The health hazards of air pollution are probably entirely manifest in this area as the pollution live with them from day to day. So long as the machines of the oil companies are working, and there pipelines functioning, people in this area suffer commensurate damage to their air quality and of course, their health. It affects their health as much as it cripples their economic situation. 
Now, indoor  air pollution is proving to be as deadly as the outdoor. 
According to Africa Clean Energy  Summit report in July 2015, indoor air pollution causes about 95,000 deaths annually in Nigeria and with increased reliance of most rural women and children on firewood and traditional cook-stoves or charcoal for domestic use, you can only imagine how much that number will be in a few years.

With air pollution being the single most deadly environment hazard evident in its claim of 7 million lives in 2012, any country that ignores its threat does so at her own peril as this will get worse if we fail to act now. I expect the Nigerian government, through its legislature, to enact laws that will help curb air pollution. If the government can see air pollution as a sabotage of its population health, the populace will too. 
But we need commitment from legislators who are passionate about the well-being of our country, legislators who are in tune with current global discussion that prioritizes the safety of the environment more than most things and ultimately, a passionate government with the will to push the bills through the parliament. 
When it is about the environment, the passion must be there and there are no excuses. If the government doesn't have the passion, it could be "borrowed" or learned as this is about the survival of the Nigerian people and air pollution is simply not the best way to die.