Climate change disasters coming to Nigeria — NISER boss

By Sulaimon Adesina

DIRECTOR-General of the Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Prof. Tunji Akande, has predicted that the negative consequences of climate change would be witnessed in Nigeria sooner than the peroid most people expected it to be. In his address at the opening of a two-day national workshop tagged, Challenges of Climate Change in Nigeria, at the Conference Room of NISER in Ibadan on Monday, Akande warned that Nigeria as a nation needed to put more effort to combat climate change consequences although the country has already signed to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Although the facts on ground point to the fact of the country being highly vulnerable to climate change, Akande lamented that most Nigerians like other people in the developing nations contribute the least to factors causing climate change yet suffer most from the problem because they have little or no mechanism in place to tackle the menace nor have enough information on the subject.

”Cimate change is a phenomenon whose effects and impacts would be far reaching to people and nations. Nigeria and its people are expected to be most affected through sea level rise along its coastline, intensified desertification, erosion, flood disasters and general land degradation. One prediction is that Nigeria would lose close to $19 billion as a result of catastrophe, while at least 80 per cent of the inhabitants of the Niger Delta would be displaced”, he said. Decrying the half-hearted efforts of the government in this direction, Akande stated, ”Whereas the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is structurally incapacitated, the situation is worse at the state and local levels. Although the 1999 NEMA Decree directs each state to have a fully equipped emergency management agency, this has not been realised.”

He said further that it was disheartening that the Nigeriasat-1 satellite is more concerned with gathering data on environmental conditions and resources with little emphasis on the application of such data or participatory and sustainable environmental emergency management. While calling for a more proactive approach to prevent the looming catastrophe, NISER, Akande said, was already undertaking research that would help put in place policies that would guarantee relevant information and education to the populace on the essence of climate change.

One of such efforts, he said, was the gathering by NISER, of research experts throughout the country to discuss the implications of clmate change. In his goodwill message at the event, Oyo State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Majekodunmi Aborode called on private institutions to join hands with the government to tackle the problem of climate change in the country. He added that the various legislations of the government in that direction are aimed at protecting the environment.