When Gas Becomes Gold: Firewood, Deforestation, and the Unused Power Beneath Nigeria’s Soil

 A Nation Returns to the Forest

By Oriontimes News Desk | October 9, 2025

A Nation Returns to the Forest

Across Nigeria today, the sight of smoke curling from freshly cut logs has returned, not from sawmills or bush burning, but from kitchen corners. As the cost of cooking gas continues to rise beyond the reach of many, families are reverting to the age-old method of fetching firewood. In rural communities and even urban outskirts, young boys and women now troop into nearby bushes to gather wood, an image reminiscent of the pre-gas era that many believed was long gone.

What used to be an occasional alternative has now become a daily survival tool. Markets that once sold only gas cylinders and stoves now display bundles of firewood and bags of charcoal. The modern Nigerian kitchen, once defined by convenience and safety, is quietly returning to smoke, soot, and sweat.

When Gas Becomes Luxury

The price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), popularly called cooking gas has hit unprecedented levels. From about ₦4,000 for a 12.5 kg cylinder just a few years ago, the same quantity now sells between ₦18,000 and ₦20,000 in most states. For families surviving on daily income, this cost is crushing. The recent industrial action by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) only worsened supply shortages, compounding an already fragile energy system.

Ironically, this crisis unfolds in a country ranked among the world’s top gas producers. Nigeria’sward proven natural gas reserves stand at over 200 trillion cubic feet, enough to power the entire nation for generations. Yet, because of poor infrastructure, weak distribution networks, and policy failures, the wealth beneath the soil remains largely untapped, while citizens struggle to afford the very product their nation exports.

The Hidden Cost of Firewood Survival

For many households, fetching firewood has become a reluctant compromise, a cheaper but costly survival tactic. Every log cut for cooking represents a piece of the nation’s vanishing forest. Environmental experts warn that the widespread return to wood fuel could accelerate deforestation, worsen soil erosion, and increase desertification, particularly in northern and southwestern Nigeria.

Beyond the environment, there’s the human cost. Women and children exposed to prolonged smoke from open fires face higher risks of respiratory diseases. Yet, they endure it daily, a quiet price for cooking a meal in an economy that makes cleaner energy unaffordable.

A Land of Plenty, a People in Want

Nigeria’s energy paradox remains one of the continent’s greatest contradictions. With abundant gas, sunlight, and water resources, the nation should be a model of energy independence. Instead, citizens alternate between scarcity and improvisation. The return to firewood symbolizes more than an economic crisis; it reflects a national failure to harness available resources for public good.

As climate concerns intensify and forests fall to hunger-driven axes, one truth stands out: unless Nigeria rethinks its energy strategy and enforces affordable access to gas and renewables, the smoke rising from its kitchens may soon cloud the promise of its future.