Last week, Nigeria joined the rest of the world in the global climate protests to underscore the need for government to take urgent actions to address climate change and prevent an environmental catastrophe.
The campaign, which started on Friday, Sept. 20, saw millions of people around the world, especially young people, protesting on the streets as part of the “Friday for Future Campaign.’’
The protests, which will last till September 27, were scheduled ahead of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Action Summit holding on September 23. They are built around the theme: “A Race We Can Win. A Race We Must Win”.
The protests were held in the FCT, Lagos and Port Harcourt, and led by NGOs and CSOs such as the ActionAid Nigeria, Environmental Rights Action, National Civil Society Framework on Paris Agreement and SDGs(NCSFPAS), Climate and Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria (CSDevNet), Prime Initiative For Green Development (PIGD), Pan African Climate Justice Alliance(PACJA).
Specifically, the CSOs and NGOs want the government of Nigeria, who is a signatory to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, to implement policies to tackle climate change and ensure immediate actions that would forestall climate change challenges in the country.
Tito Uzomah, Executive Director, PIGD, spoke with newsmen on why they were on the streets.
“Our house is on fire as the climate crisis is an emergency, but we are not acting like it. Nigerians everywhere are at risk if we let oil, coal and gas companies continue to pour more fuel on fire.
“We need to act right now to stop burning fossil fuels and ensure a rapid energy revolution with equity, environmental clean up and remediation with climate justice at its heart.”
David Michael, Chair, NCSFPAS Thematic Group on Energy, also spoke.
“This week is historic to us as in over 150 countries. People are stepping up to support young climate strikers and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels. The crisis won’t wait, so neither should we.
“As young people, we have woken up much of the world with our strikes for the climate and now millions of adults are joining in a huge wave that will kick start renewed action all over the world.”
On her part, Mrs. Chinyere Opia, Environmental Rights Action, said that Nigeria was a “contradiction”.
“We have our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which include adopting smart agro-ecological practices, guaranteeing land rights and climate smart transport system to cater for the masses.
“But unfortunately, we have not done much to advance these; we still flare gas; we are looking for new oil, talking about nuclear plants. These are not good attitudes by a country serious about tackling climate change.”
The CSOs also called for the involvement of rural communities, especially women, in mitigating climate change by continuous sensitisation, while governments should make gender sensitive and pro-poor policies.
Mrs. Ene Obi, Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, said that women, children and youths were most affected by the effects of climate change.
“Climate impacts such as drought, floods cyclones, crop loss and loss of livelihoods are wrecking havoc to lives, driving up poverty and rolling back the rights of women and children and young people.
“Governments across the globe, particularly in Nigeria, need to begin to act now, so that they can help to lessen the harm that the extreme weather can wreck on communities.’’
She said that the frequent flood disasters in the country was due to inadequate measures taken by all stakeholders, and called on governments at all levels to protect the citizens from impacts of climate change and strengthen the adaptation of policies to respond to climate emergencies.
Mr Pius Oko, the Project Officer, CSDevNet, said that the use of firewood to cook by women, especially in rural communities, was still rampant and had contributed to climate change in the county due to its high emissions.
“There is the need to carry out grassroots sensitisation on the dangers of cutting trees and the use of firewood for cooking purposes.
“The government and CSOs can help in carrying out campaigns aimed at promoting tree planting and promoting clean cook stoves as worthy replacements for charcoal and firewood.’’
He said that governments at all levels could help by providing soft loans and market access to entrepreneurs and women groups, adding that the measure would go a long way in reducing the country’s carbon footprint and increase the air quality in the country.
Dr Uzodinma Adirieje, President, Society for Conservation and Sustainability of Energy and Environment in Nigeria, urged the Federal Government to make gender sensitive and pro-poor policies to mitigate climate change impact.
“We need to increase our efforts to conserve our biodiversity, protect and sustain our ecosystems and mitigate the impact of climate change on rural people, the poor, and on women especially.
“We need to bring up gender sensitive approaches to these impact mitigation and climate change control; we need to generate national approaches anchored on national polices that ensure we are approaching these issues in gender sensitive, pro-poor manner.”
The CSOs also called on the federal government to involve more youths in climate conversations and negotiations.
Mr Seyifunmi Adebote, the Lagos State Coordinator, International Climate Change Development Initiative, explained that involving more youths in climate conversations would encourage and support them to lead sustainable climate solutions void of political and regional sentiments.
Adebote, the leader of the Nigeria’s youth delegates to the Abu Dhabi Climate meeting held from June 30 to July 1, said that government needed to invest in capacity building for rural dwellers with focus on training on mitigation and adaptation, as well as the government-people interaction, to solve the climate-related crisis.
“If Climate Action is a priority for the Federal Government of Nigeria, one clear way to portray this is for President Mohammed Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the Ministry of Environment, Department of Climate Change and related top executives to seek to parley with Nigerian youths.”
He said that Nigeria must amply demonstrate her commitment to climate action.
“If we must get the best of the UN Climate Action Summit, it begins with little steps like this,” he said.
But as the protests continue, stakeholders, which include state and non-state actors in the environment sector, have met in Abuja to validate and streamline information as regards the NDCs in Nigeria and Africa, so as to gauge where Nigeria stands on the issue of climate change and the NDCs.
NDCs spell out the actions countries intend to take to address climate change both in terms of adaptation and mitigation, and Nigeria is addressing her NDCs under five sectors which include oil/gas, agriculture, transport, energy/power and industry.
These stakeholders, while commending Nigeria’s implementation of its NDCs in terms of mitigation and adaptation of climate change, said that more needed to be done for Nigeria to meet up her climate pledges and achieve SDG 13 on combating climate change by 2030.
Mr Richard Okibe, NDCs Stakeholder Group Leader on Agriculture, Forestry and other Land Uses (AFOLU), said that the forestry sector was ahead of all the NDCs sectors because inventory had been conducted in most of the ecological zones.
Okibe emphasised the need for more commitment toward protecting the nation’s ecology for the benefit of the present and future generations.
Like Okibe, other non-state actors are saying that the Nigerian government must go beyond paying lip service and policy formulations to actual implementation of policies that will deepen mitigation and adaptation measures if the nation was to be taken seriously as one committed to addressing climate change.
