Scientists say flooding in Britain, record US temperatures and Australian wildfires are linked to El Niño, making effects of man-made climate change worse
Fire and rescue services evacuate a woman from her flooded home in Littleborough, Greater Manchester. Photo credit: Demotix/Corbis
From some of the worst floods ever known in Britain, to record-breaking temperatures over the Christmas holiday in the US and forest fires in Australia, the link between the tumultuous weather events experienced around the world in the last few weeks is likely to be down to the natural phenomenon known as El Niño making the effects of man-made climate change worse, say atmospheric scientists.
El Niño occurs every seven to eight years and is caused by unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean. This year’s event is now peaking and is one of the strongest on record, leading to record temperatures, rainfall and weather extremes.
“What we are experiencing is typical of an early winter El Niño effect,” said Adam Scaife, the head of Met Office long-range forecasting.
“We expect 2016 to be the warmest year ever, primarily because of climate change but around 25% because of El Niño,” said Scaife, who added that the phenomenon was not linked directly to climate change but made its effects worse.
Scientists have warned for years that extreme weather would become more common as a result of climate change, but have until recently fought shy of attributing single events to global warming.
But researchers at Oxford University and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) calculated earlier this month that man-made climate change was partly responsible for Storm Desmond’s torrential rain, which devastated parts of Scotland, the Lake District and Northern Ireland. The scientists ran tens of thousands of simulations of the flooding event and found it 40% more likely with climate change.
A wildfire burns out of control on Christmas Day in Victoria state, Australia. Photo credit: Keith Pakenham/AFP/Getty Images
The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) also expects 2015 to be the hottest year on record worldwide, with Europe experiencing its second hottest year. It was marked by heatwaves in India, Pakistan and elsewhere.
The latest floods, droughts and extreme weather are what might be expected of a strong El Niño, according to the WMO. “Severe droughts and devastating flooding are being experienced throughout the tropics, and subtropical zones bear the hallmarks of this El Niño,” said the organisation’s chief, Michel Jarraud.
“Much of eastern Europe has been exceptionally warm, with temperatures higher than in 2014. Only in parts of Ireland were temperatures lower than the 1981 to 2010 long-term average, according to the climate indicator bulletin from WMO’s European regional climate centre.
The widespread El Niño effects are now being felt in Africa, Latin America, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, the WMO said.
In Central America, one of the most severe droughts on record has left 3.5 million people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in need of food aid. The UN says that more than 2 million people have been affected in Peru and Ecuador.
“Over 39 million people in Africa are expected to face food insecurity by January 2016, an increase of more than 70% on January 2015,” said a spokeswoman at the Department for International Development (DFID).
The warm Pacific temperatures have also led to a record number of hurricanes and cyclones. According to the US government’s national oceanic and atmospheric administration, there were 18 named storms in 2015, including 13 hurricanes, nine of which were category three or higher. This is the highest number recorded since reliable measurements started in 1971.
“Extreme weather will increase with global warming and thus climate adaptation measures, like flood defences, need to constantly be updated. What may appear to be sufficient to withstand a 1 in 100-year event can become quickly out of date as the incidence of extreme weather ramps up and becomes more unpredictable,” said Gail Whiteman, the chair of the Pentland centre for sustainability at Lancaster University.
By John Vidal (Environment Editor, The Guardian of London)
The United Kingdom has of recent experienced intense downpours, leading to rivers bursting their banks and leaving hundreds of homes submerged in floodwater. Residents in the UK continue to be evacuated as the nation comes to terms with the horrific widespread flooding.
Floodwater rises as the River Calder bursts its banks in the Calder Valley town of Mytholmroyd on December 26, 2015. Photo credit: www.ibtimes.co.ukThe River Ouse in York floods riverside business premises after heavy rain caused severe flooding in the city on December 27, 2015. Photo credit: www.ibtimes.co.ukMembers of Cleveland Mountain Rescue and soldiers from 2 Battalion The Duke of Lancasters Regiment assist members of the public as they are evacuated. Photo credit: www.ibtimes.co.ukHomes evacuated amid heavy rain. Photo credit: www.bbc.comRoad signs are half submerged after the River Calder burst its banks in the Calder Valley town of Mytholmroyd on December 26, 2015 in Mytholmroyd, England. Photo credit: www.ibtimes.co.ukFloodwater around Cawood, North Yorkshire on 27 December 2015 after the River Ouse burst its banks. Photo credit: www.bbc.com
A Nigerian journalist, Augustina Armstrong-Ogbonna, has been awarded the United Nations Foundation Gold Prize for Development and Humanitarian Reporting.
Augustina Armstrong-Ogbonna and UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon
Armstrong-Ogbonna, a freelance journalist with Radio Nigeria (Radio One), won the Gold medal for her reportage on neglected coastal communities along the Lagos coastline that are bearing the drastic impact of sea rise as well as threats of displacement.
She was awarded the United Nations Foundation Gold Prize for print (including online media) and broadcast media (TV & Radio) for Development and Humanitarian Reporting.
The award/gold medal was presented to her by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, on Monday in New York at the 20th United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Annual Awards for the best print, broadcast (TV & Radio) and online, web-based media coverage of the United Nations, U.N. agencies and field operations.
The prize was awarded for her report on how climate change and rapid urbanisation are affecting coastal communities such as Okun Alfa, Otodo-Gbame in Lagos with extinction and eviction respectively.
According to the UNCA, “Augustina Armstrong-Ogbonna braves dangers to report on Nigeria’s coastal communities ravaged by conflict and degrading environment that affect development and human lives.”
With almost 10 years of experience as a multimedia and environmental journalist, Armstrong-Ogbonna has focused her reportage on neglected communities across Nigeria such as Okun Alfa and Otodo-Gbame in Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Sagbo Kodji Island and Makoko in Lagos State. Sagbo Kodji, for example, has never had power supply despite being located on an island that overlooks high rise of commercial Lagos Island as well as the Apapa sea port.
The report was picked online by a renewable energy company owned by two young Nigerians, whose company approached the community and provided solar power panels and battery to some homes and ventures on the island, thereby lighting up the community for the first time in over a century of its existence.
Reacting to the prize, Armstrong-Ogbonna said: “I am completely humbled by this recognition from the United Nations. It is a major encouragement for me to persist with impacting journalism that affects the common man and development of the environment. I am most obliged for this.”
Until recently, Tina produced and presented a weekly environmental programme on community development called Community Diary on Radio One 103.5 FM in Lagos. She has also produced content for REUTERS, CNN, German Information Center GIC and EnviroNews Nigeria.
Nigeria’s low level of success with the Great Green Wall project has been attributed to a lack of political will.
Coordinator of the Great Green Wall Project, Dr. Elvis Tangom, stated this during an interview at the United Nations Climate Change Summit (COP21) in Paris.
The project entails planting a wall of trees across Africa at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert as a means to prevent desertification.
Dr. Tangom said though Nigeria was the initiator of the project during the administration of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, the project is yet to achieve its aims in the country.
He said: “You should understand that the Great Green Wall was a Nigerian initiative but Nigeria went down because she was not active. But, until recently, Nigeria became active again. Many countries were not active including Nigeria.
“The past administration allocated 15% of the federal budget to the Ministry of Environment for the project. That was fairly recently and that was last year.
“If you go to Senegal, Chad and Niger, they have advanced very much under the project. Senegal has reclaimed about four million hectares of land; Niger in the Zinder region with Nigeria has planted 50 million trees and reclaimed about one million hectares of land. Nigeria started this initiative but the national government was not actively engaged until recently. There are projects here and there by Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and other agencies.”
Dr. Tangom expressed optimism that the new administration would come on board and Nigeria will be able to achieve the aims of the project. “I am very positive that, within the next two to five years, the story will no longer be the same.”
Not just about trees
The Great Green Wall initiative is believed to be a Pan-African proposal to “green” the continent from west to east in order to battle desertification. It also aims at tackling poverty and the degradation of soils in the Sahel-Saharan region, focusing on a strip of land of 15 km (9 mi) wide and 7,100 km (4,400 mi) long from Dakar in Senegal to Djibouti in Eritrea.
According to the project coordinator, “the popular belief that the Great Green Wall is about trees only is a limited perception to the project.” Dr. Tangom said the project is also about improving the livelihood of the people living in degraded lands.
He adds: “The use of Great Green Wall is metaphoric. It is far from being about trees. It is a development poll. It is about creating development poll. It is about keeping people in their land. It is about making people love their land, to stay in their land to create wealth. To be able to have a good life and get rich in their land.
“In Nigeria, we have income generating schemes and startups giving to women. We have boreholes; we have firefighting, forestry and agro-forestry, afforestation programmes. The Great Green Wall project is a mosaic of many activities. What we call sustainable land and water activities.
“The biggest achievement of the project is that countries develop a harmonised regional strategy for the implementation. Countries developed and adopted their planned line of action for the implementation of the Great Green Wall Project. Those countries have now decentralised these strategies and include it in their local economic development plan. That is where sustainability comes from and a sense of ownership.”
Migration and insurgency
The coordinator states: “Many of the young people leaving Africa in search of greener pastures and dying in the Mediterranean Sea are from the dry lands of Africa. They are from Nigeria, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan Mali, Senegal and Burkina-Faso.
“If those young people were sure they were going to be able to stay in their land, and their lands can provide them with employment, they will have value for themselves. Look at Lake-Chad from 25,000 sq. km to 2.5 sq. km. What about the young people who were fishermen? If you are a young man and you are watching television and you see the way other young people are living. What will you do? You either fight or flee. When you fight, you join Boko Haram or become a trafficker. Or you travel by road then sea through the Mediterranean Sea and die. By the way, you are dead, and you can’t provide for your family. And in Africa that is a very important issue.”
Additional funds and countries
Dr. Tangom said the $4 billion pledged recently through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for the Great Green Wall Project at COP21 would be utilised for projects on the ground.
“We have the structures, national and regional programmes already and it will be channeled to those projects,” he disclosed, adding that 15 countries in the Southern Africa region have been included in the Great Green Wall Project.
“These new countries will work on projects that fight land degradation in Southern Africa. They will work on improving the quality of the dry lands in their region. It is a Pan-Africa project aimed at reducing land degradation.”
A Director in Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Environment who spoke on condition of anonymity said seven states affected by land degradation such as gully erosion have been added to Newmap Nigeria, a project funded by the World Bank aimed at curbing the spread of erosion in affected states.
She added that the selected states will choose areas affected by erosion based on priority and such areas are among the next phase of reclamation under the land improvement component of the project.
Observers believe that the failure of the Nigerian government to comprehensively implement the Great Green Wall Project will worsen food insecurity, rural migration and conflicts among farmers and herdsmen.
A National Biodiversity Trust Fund may be created to aid the protection and conservation of biological diversity in the country.
Dr Matthew Dore
This idea was mooted recently in Port Harcourt, River State, at a stakeholders’/consultants forum by a team of experts, who gathered under the auspices of the Niger Delta Biodiversity Project (NDBP).
Dr Mathew Dore, the NDBP national coordinator, said that such a fund would facilitate research into the nation’s rich biodiversity resort.
“We are losing a greater percentage of natural resources which had been the bedrock of livelihood for the rural poor, but there is no plan in place for its conservation or protection. A pocket of project here and there is not sustainable enough. Hence, we need a trust fund that can make funds available to researchers and even communities that are ready to practice conservation.”
He said that oil spills in the Niger Delta in the last four to five decades have damaged the rich mangrove swamp forest, freshwater and low land forest.
“Most of the available biodiversity species in the Niger Delta need some level of protection in their natural habitats to be able to re-establish viable population,” he added.
According to him, the proposed trust fund would have, as its target, communities, especially those where biodiversities were disappearing.
Charles Okoro, former Shell Petroleum’s environmental impact assessment manager, said that the country needed a coordinated approach to address emergencies, especially those affecting biodiversity.
He said: “All over the world, countries have been able to have a dedicated phone number for emergency. All you need to do is to activate it as soon as there is an emergency, but that is seen here like an impossible task.”
The NDBP is an integral part of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) strategic programme for West Africa with the goal of contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of globally significant biodiversity in the Niger Delta.
A family fleeing the 2011 drought and famine in Somalia collects firewood outside Dadaab refugee camp
The index assesses 177 economies on how well they can adapt to climate change, including their readiness and vulnerability. The report measures vulnerability based on exposure, sensitivity and ability to react to climate change and has a number of sub-indicators measuring the vulnerability of food, water, health, ecosystems, human habitats and infrastructure.
The following table shows those nations most vulnerable, based on the 2014 Index.
So what is it that makes these countries so vulnerable?
Somalia: Both food and water supplies are likely to be hit, with changing weather patterns causing drought and famine.
Eritrea: Food supply problems, already common, are likely to be made worse.
Sudan: Existing problems with access to clean and safe drinking will be made worse, with the related risk to human health.
Burundi: Reliance on rice, wheat and maize means changing weather patterns are a threat to food supply.
Papua New Guinea: Rising sea levels threatening food, water and infrastructure.
Mauritania: Combination of drought and rising sea levels threatening aspects of food and water supply, as well as damaging infrastructure.
Yemen: Worsening of existing water supply problems, and increasing levels of poverty.
Chad: Both drought and flooding are likely to cause problems for farmers in the country.
The Solomon Islands: Rising sea levels are already threatening the Islands’ entire existence.
The Gambia: The agriculture sector could be hit hard by changing weather patterns.
By Joe Myers (Digital Content Producer at Formative Content)
The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has won the 2015 Local Content Operator of the Year Award by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), in recognition of its achievements in embedding Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria. SPDC was commended for many initiatives that have promoted Nigerian content including the domestication of original equipment manufacturing services; contractor funding schemes; and the collaboration with PETAN on similar programmes and projects.
General Manager, Business and Government Relations, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Mr. Simbi Wabote (right), receiving the 2015 PETAN Local Content Operator award from the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, Mr. Denzil Kentebe
“The award is a strong endorsement for the many successful interventions we have made in the Nigerian content space and an impetus for us to continue to grow indigenous capacity for the industry,” said SPDC’s General Manager, Business and Government Relations, Simbi Wabote, while receiving the award from the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Denzil Kentebe.
PETAN, an association of Nigerian indigenous technical oilfield service companies in the upstream and downstream sectors, also honoured the former Managing Director SPDC and Country Chair Shell Companies in Nigeria (SCiN), Mutiu Sunmonu, with the PETAN Chairman’s award in recognition of his support for in-country capacity development. SPDC and Mr. Sunmonu were among corporate bodies and individuals who were honoured at the 10th PETAN Annual Oil Industry Awards Dinner held in Lagos recently.
PETAN Chairman, Emeka Ene, commended the awardees for their efforts, and described 2015 as “a year of celebrating the industry and those who helped to move it forward.” He said that Nigeria should continue to actively encourage the development of indigenous manpower and service providers in order to engender lasting growth in the oil and gas industry.
SPDC and other Shell companies in Nigeria continue to make a major contribution to developing the country’s human capital and contracting capacity. Some 90% of SCiN contracts were awarded to Nigerian companies in 2014. Their Nigerian content development policies are hinged on indigenous asset ownership and development of human capacity and supplier services. For example, since 2010, SPDC has awarded five-year contracts for the building of 14 vessels to Nigerian companies to encourage Nigerian firms to play more active roles in the maritime sector. Ownership of key assets such as rigs, helicopters and marine vessels is another area of key focus.
It is recalled that PETAN had in 2013 honoured Shell Companies in Nigeria with the Local Content Operator of the Year award.
Following the tour of climate change impacted sites in Lagos on Tuesday (December 15, 2015), Environment Minister, Mrs Amina Mohammed, has continued her nationwide inspection of environmentally degraded points of note. The second leg of the tour took her to the Niger Delta region as well as desertification-threatened North.
As usual, EnviroNews is closely monitoring her steps and presents images from the trips.
The Minister on a speed boat inspecting land and water bodies polluted by petroleum products in the Niger DeltaInspecting degraded land in the Niger DeltaOn lands encroached by the desert in the NorthInspecting the Sharada industrial pollution site in KanoYobe State Deputy Governor Abubakar Aliyu receiving Mrs Amina Mohammed in DamaturuAn historic visit to Baga, Borno StateIn the company of excited delegates, soldiers
The Benue State Government is poised to partner the Centre for Food Technology and Research (CEFTER), Benue State University, Makurdi and other stakeholders in the Centre’s programmes on food safety and hygiene with the aim to sustaining the practice in the “Food Basket” state.
The CEFTER Hostel
This commitment was made on Thursday, 17th December, 2015 by the Deputy Governor of Benue State, Benson Abounu. while declaring open the second phase of a short course titled: Basic Food Hygiene and Safety for Food Vendors at the College of Health Sciences auditorium, Benue State University, Makurdi.
According to him, the government will partner with CEFTER and others in order to ensure that food safety and hygiene is sustained in the state, considering its importance in the people’s livelihood.
To this end, he maintained that the government in the state has recognised the salient benefits of food security and hygiene which necessitated its effort in that regard by working round the clock in preventing the wastage of the state’s raw food.
“We have decided to add value to our agricultural products through wastage prevention and soon, we will bring on board, primary industries that would process raw food produce, especially the perishables to forestall wastage,” he stated.
Stressing further, Abounu enthused that he would be happy that the initiative of training the populace in the area of food safety and hygiene would be replicated in the local government areas of the state. “Indeed, it is in our rural communities that this training would be more needed,” he added.
Speaking earlier, Wife of the Governor of Benue State, Dr (Mrs) Eunice Ortom, said the importance of food to human existence cannot be overemphasised, more so, food properly prepared.
“However, it is a thing of worry that all over the world, people are seriously infected every day by diseases that are caused by eating unhygienic and unsafe food,” she added.
Dr Ortom, who was represented by Wife of the Deputy Governor, Justice Mary Abounu, stated that due emphasis ought to be given to good hygienic practices to prevent and control food-borne diseases, adding that it is essential for all to understand what good food hygiene is and to ensure that the food eaten is free from contaminants such as micro-organisms and chemicals.
“Food Hygiene and Safety is a global priority for food security. In Benue state, the Food Basket of the Nation, the case is not any different. Inadequate education and persistent poor attitude towards food handling practices is a bane on our safety and community. Hence, the need for training of food handlers in the aspect of hygiene and safety becomes not just important but an unavoidable necessity. A lot of effort has been put in by international agencies, notably, WHO, UNICEF, USAID towards better and improved food sanitation and hygiene methods in Benue State,” she said.
She maintained that the determination to revitalise the agricultural sector to ensure food security, agribusiness and entrepreneurship for job creation for the state’s teaming population and by extension, to boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for socio-economic development becomes feasible only when food is properly and safely processed for storage and consumption.
“This workshop is therefore a necessary precursor to the agriculture-driven Industrialisation Policy of the Ortom administration,” she noted.
The Wife of the Governor, who said she believes that the impact of the training will be enormous because of the target trainees, noted that it is a direct impact; training food handlers, mostly women, who harvest, store, market, buy and prepare food for the nation adding that it means that in no distant future education of people at all to a levels would ensure clean and safe food for consumption and/or commercial purposes.
“Therefore, having juxtaposed the entire curriculum through all the phases, I can assure participants that they will gain immensely from this training. In fact, as I stated in Phase 1, I recommend this training for at least one member of every household; it is as important as immunisation and I promise that I will not relent in ensuring that the coverage across the State is on a larger scale,” said Dr Ortom.
“As a first step towards achieving this, I have coordinated the training of at least three food handlers per local government in the first phase. The second phase of this project which is commencing today is targeted towards more food handlers as a goal towards training more food handlers from the local governments. This will engender the ideals of entrepreneurship development in Food Technology and Research as they relate to Agribusiness,” she stated.
In his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor, Benue State University, Prof. Msugh Kembe, who noted that the impact of CEFTER on the Benue community is enormous, commended the centre for its approaching the problem of poor food handling from the grassroots and being poised to network with all stakeholders in her quest to tackle post food losses.
According to the VC, a university’s impact is not in the number of graduates it churns out but the impact its courses have on developing the society, adding that is why they approved CEFTER programme as it is impacting positively on the state.
He noted that one of the distinct benefits of the CEFTER programme is the scholarship opportunity availed 70 Benue indigenes through the centre valued at over N83 billion starting at Masters and PhD degrees.
Prof. Kembe expressed gratitude to the Office of the Wife of the Governor Benue State for coordinating the funding for the Second Phase of the training on Basic Food Hygiene and Safety for Food Vendors.
“I commend and thank the Governor’s Wife for her unwavering support and for seeing to it that the Benue man, woman and child eat safe and hygienic food,” he enthused.
In his remarks, Director CEFTER, Prof. Daniel Adedzwa, stated that the programme thrives on partnership and strong support by the government which has placed the centre ahead of others said they are immensely appreciative of the government’s support.
He also commended one of their partners, Vettas Leo Services Ltd, for having done a good job on the programmes curricula, stating that they will improve on it also.
According to Prof. Adedzwa, as the Wife of the Governor has already indicated interest in replicating the programme in the rural areas and introducing it to other states, they believe that extending it to the rural areas is the right thing to do.
The CEFTER Director noted that he was motivated that one of the brains behind CEFTER’s existence, Prof. Msugh Kembe, was at the helms of affairs at the Benue State University as Vice Chancellor so he has no doubt that the programme will grow from strength to strength.
In his presentation on “CEFTER: Basic Food Hygiene Course – Progress So Far”, Project Manager/Deputy Director CEFTER, Dr Barnabas Ikyo, who emphasised that CEFTER is a Centre of Excellence for Control of Post-Harvest Losses, noted that the short course was a success in the first phase and the second phase would even have more impact.
According to him, poor hygiene and sanitation particularly in handling of food leads to many diseases which necessitates adherence to health education and training for food handlers, sanitation and hygiene, behavioural change, enforcement of public health regulations among others.
Dr Ikyo noted that closing the infections windows of food borne diseases would go a long way in giving way to healthier eating and living, which is what the short course on Basic Food Hygiene has been addressing.
He enumerated some next steps to be taken by the centre as: Looking forward of the food safety and Hygiene to involve training of 2300 participants from Benue State and facilitated by Wife of the Governor, Benue State; MoU with 12 partners. Partnership agreement for two and ensure partnership agreements are signed completely; In conjunction with NSPRI, CEFTER are organization a lecture series on the effect of climate change on post harvest losses; Organizing training of trainers for Control of PHL Agricultural Development Projects from all 36 and FCT.
Dr Ikyo also highlighted five elements of the project to include:
Enhance capacity to deliver regional high quality training to address the development challenge.
Enhance capacity to deliver applied research to address the regional development challenge.
Build and use industry/sector partnerships to enhance impact of the Centre on development and increase relevance of the Centre’s education and research.
Build and strengthen regional and international academic partnerships to raise quality of education in other institutions in the region.
Enhance governance and management to improve monitoring and evaluation, administration, fiduciary management, transparency, ability to generate resources, and project implementation.
However, he regretted that the project has certain risks which include: Risk of sustainability after the World Bank funding phase of 5 years; Emerging CoEs in Africa are heavily donor dependent in financing their operations; And because of the unpredictability of donor funding and donor fatigue in supporting African countries, it has been suggested in some quarters that African countries must develop new modalities of funding their development projects to ensure long term sustainability.
To this end, he noted that an action plan for project sustainability has been included in the Centre’s implementation plan and they shall work hard to ensure that the project is sustained after the World Bank funding.
In his remarks, Deputy Managing Director, Vettas Leo Services Ltd, Vershima Tivzenda, who stated that the last five months of their operation with CEFTER and the Benue State University have been excellent commended all stakeholders working on the CEFTER project.
He charged all stakeholders not to falter in their resolve to partner with the centre to reposition the livelihood of the Benue man especially in areas of food safety, hygiene and post harvest loss to push the commitment to a logical conclusion.
Speaking earlier, the Head of Department Clinical, Benue State University, Dr Godwin Achinge, noted that although hand washing is basic, it is not common in the society whereas, it contributes to ensuring food safety and hygiene.
“CEFTER has started on a good footing by encouraging food safety and hygiene through the training on its basics,” he stated.
The key issues in the Niger Delta region are bordering on poverty, environmental pollution and degradation, militancy, resource allocation, inadequate infrastructure among others. Although previous governments have made attempts at addressing some of these issues, for instance the infrastructure problem with the East-West Road, the Amnesty Programme initiated to deal with militancy and a few more others, overall results are not overwhelming enough given the fact that the region occupies a major position in the political economy of the country. Perhaps, this is the reason why issues relating to the environment and resource allocation are still burning.
Uguru Usani, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs
However, globally it is known that the peace and economic prosperity of any nation are perpetually hinged on responsible and visionary leadership. Apparently, the Niger Delta region would have shared the same fate in terms of this norm, but at present, enduring successes have not been recorded. That said, enough attention has not been given to policy implementation, meanwhile, several policy documents of the Federal Government have had a place for the Niger Delta region since independent, ranging from vision 20:2020, to the Niger Delta Master Plan and the Ledum Metee Committee Report. Evidently, these policy documents have not been given the desired attention.
With the election of the Buhari administration and appointment of a new Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Uguru Usani, expectation in the region is that, he must move away from the failure of the past and urgently focus attention on bringing real changes to address the Niger Delta question. At the level of policy implementation for instance, the Minister should assiduously work at resolving 4 issues that have remained a sore thumb. These are:
Comprehensive implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report recommendations on Ogoniland.
Extending key recommendations of the UNEP report relating to environmental pollution and degradation to other areas in the Niger Delta region.
Comprehensive unveiling of the Niger Delta Master plan
Passing into law of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Given the change mantra of the current government, the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs under the new Minister, Usani, should work with other agencies of government at the federal and state levels in the Niger Delta region, to create sustainable empowerment programmes that will improve rural livelihoods as well as embark on aggressive environmental awareness campaigns. This will reduce the prevalence of high level of poverty and also enhance environmental awareness and conservation among rural dwellers in the region. He can achieve this by first ensuring as a matter of urgency the immediate implementation of the Ledum Metee Committee Report as well as the UNEP Report and unveiling of the Niger Delta Master Plan. The yet to be unveiled document which is a comprehensive regional blueprint for the sustainable development of the area, with objectives that embrace economic growth, infrastructure development, communities’ peculiar needs, and environmental preservation for the development of the oil rich region.
The Minister should thereafter move on to ensure the establishment of three new institutions as recommended in the UNEP report, to support a detailed environmental restoration exercise. These institutions should include the Ogoni Environmental Restoration Authourity, Integrated Contaminated Soil Management Center of Excellence in Environmental Restoration.
He should join forces to push for the passing into law, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which has remained intractable. Another area the minister should focus on with sincerity, purpose and passion is the proper handling of the Bakasi People Restoration. Time is ticking if the minister really wants to bring meaningful changes to the development of the region; the first step is the immediate resolution of these issues.
By Olaoshebikan Clement (Executive Director, Development and Leadership Institute (DLI),
