By Sani Sa’i’du Baba
My dear country men and women, that climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity today is no longer in doubt. I first got to know what climate change means in 2015 when my supervisor, Professor Isyaku Umar Yarube of Human Physiology department, Bayero University Kano, asked me to write a paper on “Effect of Climate Change on Kidney Function”. I later discovered that “climate change” is synonymous to “global warming”.
Initially, I was wondering what climate had to do with the kidney for it to be considered too important, but as I delved deeper into the topic, I realized wonders, including the fact that every Nigerian’s health is entrapped by the effect of climate change. Anyways, this is partly the reason I am writing today.
But before I go into the meat of my epistle, kindly permit me to establish some protocols, or preamble, as the case may be. I always choose to write on issues that I consider critical in moments of great concern and uncertainty such as this, though it always open doors for arguments. But I am hopeful today that my opinion will be unanimously considered.
Last week, Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, and other world leaders converged on the city of Glasgow, Scotland, where they discussed at length issues concerning realities of climate change, and stressed the need to invest hugely on combating the deleterious effect of the rather unwanted phenomenon. This was at the same time government policies back home do not support any move to address climate change, which was already counterproductive on standards of living in Nigeria. For example, the price of 12Kg cooking gas is about N9,000 today, which is more than 100 per cent of what it was last year. Although the Federal Government has declared 2021 to 2030 a decade of gas, with the Central Bank of Nigeria setting up a N250 billion fund to expand the usage of the product across the country, the cost of cooking gas is fast rising beyond the reach of the common man. In fact, households and restaurants that had bid goodbye to firewood and charcoal usage have begun to embrace them again. Almost everywhere you go today, you will discover that trees are being cut down for cooking purposes and sometimes, even for sale. It has usually been done in the forests, but now even in the open places. The implication is that more trees might be felled in the coming months and years if the situation is not addressed. The development may worsen the deforestation challenges in the country, which is the root cause of the clashes between farmers and herders who are migrating from deforested parts of the country to places that still have pasture for their animals. Since December, 2020 the price of cooking gas has been on a steady rise and has so far exceeded 100 per cent even as the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari, attributed the hike in the price of the product to inadequate supply. Whether this is true or not is not really the issue because any serious government would not joke with the lives of its people or compromise a sensitive issue that has to do with their nutrition. This is largely the reason Nigeria has experienced a total downhill on issues of addressing the climate change.
Nigeria has nowadays been experiencing increase in temperature, variable rainfall, rise in sea level and flooding, drought and desertification, land degradation, more frequent and extreme weather conditions, attack on fresh water resources and loss of biodiversity. This is perhaps what has made concerned bodies at home and abroad to make Nigeria a priority. However, why almost little or nothing has been achieved is still not clear to many, but I personally attribute the failure to lack of political will on the side of the government. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world must cut its carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050 in order to prevent global warming of 1.5°C, or likely more, above pre-industrial levels.
In its 2019 seasonal rainfall prediction, the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet) said that the year 2021 will be another hot year. It is important to note that 2018 was hotter than the preceding year, and 2020 happened to be much hotter than what was experienced in 2019, so the trend is clear for all to see. The mean annual variability and trend of rainfall over Nigeria in the last decades depicts several inter-annual fluctuations that have been responsible for dry and wet years or extreme climate events such as droughts and floods in many parts of the country. NiMet has also predicted that as a result of these climatic conditions, incidences of malaria and other diseases will be higher in areas with temperatures ranging between 18-320C and with humidity above 60 percent. That has been proven correct, especially in the Northern part of the country where Malaria account for the highest number of clinical visits and high mortality rate, especially among children. So climate change has serious implications for human health in Nigeria. The prevalence of kidney diseases in Nigeria, especially in the North-East states like Yobe, is overwhelmingly high. And that has been confirmed to be effect of climate change. Direct health impacts stem from extreme weather events in the area such as heat waves. Indirect effects of climate change can arise from malnutrition due to food shortages; the spread of infectious disease and food- and water-borne illnesses like typhoid fever, cholera, increased air pollution; and from higher temperatures also correlated with increased cases of meningitis.
My last week’s column addressed a very critical issue with regards to food insecurity in Nigeria where farmers have already started lamenting low yield due to premature cessation of rainfall. More worrisome is the increasing knowledge that the country will be subject to consistent changes in rainfall and temperatures in the not-so-distant future. Hotter and drier conditions would likely exacerbate floods, droughts and heat waves and hamper agricultural production, particularly rain-fed agriculture, which many Nigerians rely on for their livelihoods. Agriculture accounts for around 20 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Unless we take action, these trends are likely to jeopardize hard-won progress. Already climate-induced conflicts are exacerbating fragile security situations, with flashpoints mainly in the middle belt of the country. Climate change therefore, poses a significant threat to Nigeria’s development ambitions of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and could stunt and even drilled the progress that has already been achieved to go completely to pot.
The world is in a race to limit climate change and find workable, practical, and cost-efficient solutions to this emergency that is redefining global partnerships in a way not seen before. This is a race we, as humanity, can win. But for this to happen, unprecedented leadership, sacrifices, concessions from all nations big and small are needed. Nigeria has ratified the 2915 Paris Agreement. This is commendable considering it is one of the top six greenhouse gas emitters in Africa. The country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) made under the Paris Agreement embodies the country’s efforts to reduce national emissions and to adapt to the effects of climate change. If fully implemented, these efforts will pave way for a low carbon economy and result in significant reduction in emissions followed by economic growth. This represents an important milestone in tackling the challenges of climate change in the years to come.
President Mohammadu Buhari’s plan for tackling climate change as laid out at the United Nation’s General Assembly at Climate Change Summit is timely, ambitious and essential. It would foster a low-carbon, high growth economic development path and build a climate resilient Nigeria. The president’s plans reiterates commitment to concrete actions towards the Paris Agreement goals. The imperativeness of the president’s speech in front of the whole world leaves Nigeria with no other option than to lead the way. But as usual, the deficient political will and corruption that has engulfed the system will make it impossible for Nigeria to achieve what seems to be very easy and possible. As reported in many other serious countries, it is evident that the UNDP is also committed to supporting Nigeria on this course. The UNDP-NDC Support Programme is already fully operational, with the clear target of increased engagement with government and the private sector, and this is where the need of uncompromised political will comes in.
What now should be the way forward for Nigeria? The energy sector is the most important sector for climate change mitigation. I am particularly happy that the president has announced his plans to invest hugely in renewable energy. It is important to control greenhouse gases by moving towards renewable energy development. Despite movement in Nigeria toward the development of policy and legislation in support of renewable energy, there are few existing renewable energy projects to the best of my knowledge. The vast majority of renewable energy consumption that do exist are derived from hydropower. The development of solar energy is new to the country, with growing interest from investors. The bioenergy industry could receive a boost from a persistent increase in the production of sugarcane, maize and cassava. It is necessary to develop innovative financing schemes that will reduce the cost of low carbon technologies for consumers in addition to making it a profitable project for investors.
The government must also do everything possible within its power to halt people from going back to the days of charcoal and firewood for cooking. Of course by making sure that the price of cooking gas is significantly reduced as a matter of urgency.
My dear country men and women, brothers and sisters, my readers, please plant as many trees as possible or at least a tree and help protect the existing ones. Health is wealth and nobody has to pay for oxygen in the future!
