Food and Agriculture Oganisation (FAO) warned on Tuesday that Ebola outbreak in West Africa was threatening food security and placing harvests at risk.
Bukar Tijani, FAO Africa Representative said in Rome that the outbreak had greatly reduced the output of agricultural sectors in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three countries hardest hit by the epidemic.
He noted that the travel restrictions and the establishment of quarantine zones had also restricted trade and transport of goods and services.
Tijani said this had led to panic buying, food shortages and significant price hikes.
“Access to food has become an urgent concern for many people in the three affected countries and their neighbors’’, he said.
Tijani also predicted a major production shortfall in this year’s cereal harvesting season, which is beginning this month.
He warned that labor shortages on farms due to Ebola would have severe implications for food and cash crop production, jeopardising the food security of large numbers of people in the coming weeks and months.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme said in Geneva that it had launched an emergency operation to feed 1.3 million people in quarantine zones and health centers in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. (dpa)
The Chairman, Nigeria Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC), Dr Sam Amadi, has reiterated the commission’s commitment to ensure safe, stable and affordable electricity supply in the country.
Amadi made this known at a public hearing on the Draft Nigerian Electricity Supply and Installation Standards (NESIS) regulations in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the NESIS regulation was developed by NERC to fulfil its mandate of ensuring effective technical regulation for reliability and safety in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry.
The chairman said the NESIS regulation was up-to-date with basic standards and best practices and covered all aspects of engineering practices as it concerns generation, transmission, distribution and utilisation of electricity in Nigeria.
Amadi assured Nigerians that the commission was equal to the task of developing effective and efficient electricity which requires the commitment and hard work of NERC.
“It should be understood that an effective electricity market that will provide safe, adequate, reliable and affordable electricity to Nigerians is hard work; it requires commitment, competence, doggedness and focus.
“However, the commission is working hard to ensure that the newly privatised power sector rises up to the challenge,” he said.
Amadi warned that anyone who violated the regulation would be punished.
“NESIS regulations are about certain rules; all the utilities have key reporting that tells you interruptions and durations, when they file reports to us.
“It shows that the power is interrupted longer than necessary. We have a division called the engineering and safety division headed by a commissioner that sees to it that regulations are met.
“But what matters is the quality of your regulation, whether you are incentivising the utilities, whether you have created a framework that tells you that something is not being done,” he said.
He commended the Technical Working Group (TWG) on their thorough effort to draw from various codes and standards available in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) and several international standards.
He urged participants and the general public to make necessary suggestions, contributions and comments as they would be highly considered.
Meanwhile, NERC Commissioner, Engineering, Standards and Safety Division, Mrs Mary Awoloku, said that the task of drafting NESIS regulation was assigned to the TWG.
Awoloku said the TWG was mandated to produce a live document sufficient to give all levels of professionals’ guidance to practice in the supply and installation of electrical power and equipment.
She applauded members of the TWG for the work done toward the development of the final draft of the NESIS regulations. (NAN)
No fewer than 30 inmates of Agodi prison in Ibadan have benefitted from the vocational training programmes organised by the Oyo State Command of the Nigeria Prison Service.
The spokesman of the command, Mr Olanrewaju Anjorin, said this on Tuesday in Ibadan while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said the inmates, who were trained in such vocations as computer engineering and repair of cell phones, graduated on Thursday.
Anjorin said the command often provided working tools to graduates of its vocational centre to enable them to be self-reliant on release from jail, adding that its Aftercare Unit usually monitors the ex-convicts.
He, however, solicited the support of the state and local governments in the provision of working tools, saying the command alone could not bear the burden.
Anjorin also urged Nigerians to refrain from perceiving prisons as centres for punishment instead of institutions for rehabilitating, reforming and reintegrating inmates.
He further advised the judiciary to expedite action on those awaiting trial in order to reduce congestion in prisons. (NAN)
In response to the long-standing desire of the Nigerian diaspora to support economic development in the country, a high level Executive-Legislative team is currently holding a series of interactive sessions with Nigerians in Europe and the United States. The sessions are organized by the Debt Management Office, led by its Director-General, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo.
The delegation is headed by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and includes key members of relevant committees in the National Assembly. The members of the National Assembly are: Senator Ahmed Makarfi Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator E. Uzamere, Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Ita Enang, Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Honourable Adeyinka Ajayi, Chairman, House Committee on Aid, Loans and Debt Management, Honourable Famurewa Ajibola Israel, House Committee on Diaspora, Honourable Abdulrahman Terab, House Committee on Finance and Honourable Emmanuel David Ombugadu, House Committee on Appropriation.
It will be recalled that Nigerians in the Diaspora have been seeking ways and means to contribute more to the country’s development. This interest is backed by substantial capacity: the value of remittances from Nigerians abroad in 2013 was $20.77 billion; for the first half of 2014 it is $10.40 billion. This includes contributions through remittances to their families, friends and communities, medical missions and provision of scholarships.
Indeed, the experience of countries such as Israel and India shows that the Diaspora are a force to be reckoned with in the growth and development of any country, through the funding of critical development projects, among other means. The current effort is directed at providing the Nigerian Diaspora similar opportunities.
The Meetings which started yesterday in London, will continue in New York, Washington DC and Houston between September 2-4, 2014. The London meeting hosted by the Nigerian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, H.E. Dr. Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, was attended by over 140 invited Nigerian professionals. The meeting provided an avenue for the CME and the other members of the team to update Nigerians in the Diaspora on the developments in the Nigerian economy, the major achievements of the Transformation Agenda under the Administration of His Excellency, President Goodluck E. Jonathan and the opportunities available in Nigeria for Diaspora Nigerians.
Nigerians were also reassured of the developments in Nigeria with respect to the Ebola Virus Disease and the Government’s management of the situation. Participants expressed concern about the security situation and urged the government to do more particularly with respect to the return of the Chibok girls. Participants also showed a lot of interest in contributing to development with investments in infrastructure, SMEs and in the housing sector.
It is expected that through these Sessions, Nigerians in Diaspora will be better informed about developments in the country and be encouraged to contribute in various ways to the development of the economy and nation-building in general.
Over the past decade, countries across Africa have shown increasing interest in comprehensive development plans that set ambitious social and economic development objectives. These plans move beyond the narrow objective of poverty reduction to encompass the wider objectives of accelerating growth, creating employment, and providing safe water, sanitation, health care and education within a framework of sustainable development. Moving forward, development planning and practice also needs to reflect the reality of the changing climate, and to ensure that investments consider future climate conditions.
A riverside community in Nigeria, where government is seeking to access the Adaptation Fund
Many African countries have a long-term vision to guide their steps towards ambitious development goals. In many cases, countries are making concerted attempts to mainstream climate adaptation into development planning. Although efforts to date have tended to be isolated, initiatives in disaster risk management, adjustments in technologies and infrastructure, ecosystem-based approaches, basic public health measures and livelihood diversification are reducing vulnerability to climate impacts.
More specifically, a number of African governments have developed National Climate Change Response Strategies or, in least developed countries, National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs). As yet, implementation and integration of these and other strategies and programmes with economic and development planning is limited but growing. The development of NAPAs and early experience with National Climate Change Response Strategies, show that adaptation planning is evolving and becoming more integrated, multi-level and multi-sector. Ethiopia’s Programme of Adaptation to Climate Change, for example, covers sectoral, regional, national and local community issues. Mali integrates adaptation into many sectors. Nigeria’s NAPA was produced a few years ago through a private-public sector collaboration.
Nigeria, as a member of the Adaptation Fund Board, is working towards accessing the fund and in line with the requirements is the designation of a National Implementation Entity (NIE). Consequently, the authorities have nominated the Bank of Industry (BOI) as an applicant candidate as the NIE, and the application is presently before the accreditation panel of the Adaptation Fund.
National climate-resilient development strategies include Rwanda’s National Strategy on Climate Change and Low-Carbon Development. Niger, Zambia and Mozambique are involved in the African Development Bank Pilot Program for Climate Resilience. Zambia’s Sixth National Development Plan 2011–2015 and Niger’s new Economic and Social Investment Plan are examples of integration of climate resilience measures in national development plans.
Inter-sectoral climate risk management approaches are emerging in integrated water resources management, integrated coastal zone management, disaster risk reduction and land-use planning. Biodiversity planning to guide land use in South Africa incorporates design principles for climate change.
In some African countries, broader policy frameworks, such as Nigeria’s and Namibia’s National Policy on Climate Change, Zambia’s National Climate Change Response Strategy and Policy, and South Africa’s National Climate Change Response Policy White Paper reflect a commitment to climate adaptation. Gabon has proposed a National Coastal Adaptation Law. Lesotho’s coordinated policy framework involves all ministries and stakeholders. Nigeria’s National Policy on Climate Change represents a roadmap for all other sectors to key in; from which, for example, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture developed the Agriculture Resilience Framework. Ten countries were developing new climate-change laws or formal policies in 2012.
Managing for climate-related risks may involve experimenting with larger scale, new or more transformational adaptation measures than those already tried, and additional planning and investment. Adaptation measures that also deliver development benefits, now and in the future, offer significant opportunities. Moreover, people and societies may come to perceive or rank risks and potential benefits differently, thus decision-making processes should also allow for debates around diverse values and goals.
The IPCC reports a growing understanding of potential limits to adaptation in Africa. Climate change, combined with other stressors, may overwhelm the ability of people to cope and adapt, especially if there is a failure to address the root causes of poverty and vulnerability. Evidence is growing of the need to design new development trajectories that will reduce vulnerability, spread risk and build capacity to adapt.
The world is missing a chance to eradicate hunger and poverty for billions of people living in regions with variable and scarce rainfall. Without improved management of rainwater, the future development goals currently being discussed are unrealistic, say leading scientists.
Some of the world’s leading water, environment and resilience scientists and experts on Sunday in Stockholm, Sweden published a call to the UN, saying that rain, and the way it is managed, is what will determine whether hunger and poverty can be eradicated in the world. The call was made at the onset of World Water Week in the Swedish capital – the leading annual meeting place for water and development issues.
The scientists, including Professor Malin Falkenmark of Stockholm International Water Institute/Stockholm Resilience Centre and Professor Johan Rockström of Stockholm Resilience Centre, are “deeply concerned that sustainable management of rainfall in water scarce regions of the world is missing in the goals and targets proposed by the UN Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Poverty (Goal 1), Hunger (Goal 2) and Freshwater (Goal 6).
More than two billion people live in some of the driest and poorest areas of the world, also home to the fastest growing populations. These regions depend on highly variable, unreliable and unpredictable rainfall. When it rains, it pours, making agriculture extremely challenging. However, over time these areas do receive enough rain, and with better methods of using the rainwater, food production could be drastically improved.
Attempting to eradicate global poverty and hunger without addressing the productivity of rain “is a serious and unacceptable omission”, and the Sustainable Development Goals as currently proposed “cannot be achieved without a strong focus on sustainable and resilient management of rainfall for resilient food production” the scientists say.
The signatories call upon the United Nations to add a target on rainwater management to any Hunger Goal in the Sustainable Development Goals, which are to be agreed on in 2015.
The signatories of the declaration are: Malin Falkenmark, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI); Stockholm Resilience Centre; Johan Rockström, Stockholm Resilience Centre; Torgny Holmgren, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI); Mohamed Ait Kadi, Global Water Partnership (GWP); Tony Allan, King’s College, Stockholm Water Prize Laureate 2008; Naty Barak, Netafim, Stockholm Industry Water Award winner 2013; Jeremy Bird, International Water Management Institute (IWMI); Fred Boltz, Rockefeller Foundation; Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute; David Grey, University of Oxford; Jerson Kelman, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Roberto Lenton, University of Nebraska; Julia Marton-Lefévre, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); and, Lisa Sennerby Forsse, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
In Africa, the primary concern is adapting to the negative impacts of climate change. This means taking both short and long-term approaches to managing climate risks. In the short term, integrating climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction will help withstand shocks to human security and economic development from which recovery can be costly.
Irrigation in Eritrea. Photo: Courtesy www.treehugger.com
African governments, businesses and communities can do much to anticipate and reduce risk, rather than reacting after impacts have occurred. Support for effective disaster relief and recovery needs to continue, along with proactive efforts to reduce risk, such as integrating comprehensive risk assessments and risk reduction measures into national economic and development policy.
In the longer term, governments, businesses and communities need not only to prepare for the kinds of climate impacts experienced up to now but also for different and more intense climate impacts and extreme events. Measures may include providing adequate housing, infrastructure or services, or mainstreaming climate change into urban planning processes.
There are good reasons to start now in the process of adapting to these longer-term risks. The IPCC cautions against overemphasising short-term outcomes or insufficiently anticipating consequences. Given that climate change cuts across sectoral boundaries, poorly conceived development programmes or sector-specific adaptation strategies could lower resilience in other sectors or ecosystems. Some development pathways, like rapid urbanisation of coastal zones, can increase the vulnerability of certain groups to future climate change – known as ‘maladaptation’. This is a particular challenge for Africa where economies are growing rapidly and societies are undergoing significant demographic shifts.
More ‘transformational’ changes may be needed in situations where there are high levels of vulnerability and low capacity to adapt, as is often the case in Africa. Such adaptations entail major economic, social, technological and political decisions and actions, rather than incremental changes to existing structures and processes. They involve, for example, changing agricultural practices, integrating climate change into education, providing useful climate services, diversifying livelihoods or introducing social and technical innovations. Recent success stories from smallholder systems in Africa illustrate the potential for transforming degraded agricultural landscapes into more productive and sustainable systems by integrating trees into annual cropping systems. However, it should be noted that transformational adaptation can result in either positive or negative outcomes, as the greater level of investment and or shift in fundamental values and expectations required for transformational change may create greater resistance.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to adaptation. The IPCC stresses that no single adaptation strategy will meet the needs of all communities and contexts in Africa. Moreover, the characteristics of a community or society’s capacity to adapt to climate change will differ from place to place, and depend largely on specific contexts. A range of actions that address underlying vulnerabilities, implement specific adaptation measures and instigate transformations may be necessary to reduce climate risks.
There are challenges to adaptation. First, African countries lack climate data and information, which creates difficulties in assessing the overall risks and vulnerabilities triggered by climatic and non-climatic factors. Data and information are vital for countries to develop robust climate-resilient strategies and policies, and national and sectoral development plans. In some cases, adaptation may require additional resources in terms of funding, skills and capacity beyond ‘business as usual’ development.
Second, development planning tends to take place at a national scale and so may not take account of the impacts of climate change and variability in particular localities. National policies can inadvertently disregard or undermine cultural, traditional and context-specific practices that support local adaptation to climate change.
Third, interventions need to cross sectors. The cross-sectoral approach requires institutional integration and collaboration. The practice of working across sectors in Africa, and indeed in many parts of the world, does not come naturally, as it challenges entrenched institutional and sectoral behaviours. Overall, African countries’ adaptive capacity and institutional framework to manage complex social and ecological change, especially at local government level, needs strengthening.
Climate change has become a new reality and a worldwide phenomenon but a second look at the topic suggests that Nigeria may be immune from it.
In effect, climate change will mean a change in such weather condition for a particular location over time.
Idowu
Impact as used may be negative or positive or a combination. A literal definition of climate states that a significant time variation in weather patterns occurring over periods ranging from decades to millions of years and area such as Nigeria over a period of time.
What therefore is climate change; can Nigeria be affected; what impact has it on Nigeria? How can we mitigate the negative impact and ensure that climate change/global warming does not have disastrous consequence on Nigeria?
Giving answers to these questions are at best guesstimate as no one can be definitive about them, but we still need to start thinking about them today to find answers to tomorrow’s challenges.
What then is climate change? This can be looked at as the continuing change of the earth’s climate, which, in time past, was seen to be caused by natural causes.
However, the term ‘climate change’ today is generally used when referring to the change in our climate which has been observed since the early part of the 20th century.
The changes which are seen over recent years and those which are predicted over the next century are thought to be mainly due to human behavior rather than due to natural changes in the atmosphere.
What causes this change cannot be treated in isolation without looking at greenhouse effect which is caused by the release of destructive gases by human action which in turn brings about the warming of the earth surface by increase in the earth’s temperature.
The increase in temperature in turn causes the melting of ice which contributes to the rise in sea level among other disastrous consequences.
Arising from this, is the question: “Climate Change in Nigeria: Any Impact?” In this regard an example may suffice.
According to the report complied in 2010, investigations revealed that over 200 people were killed by meningitis in Nigeria and Niger Republic in one week. There were outbreaks in 76 areas. There were 25,000 suspected cases and 1, 500 deaths in the first quarter of 2009. Although meningitis is a disease caused by an infection of the meanings, which is the thin lining that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord, experts have found a correlation between the weather and this disease. It is generally known that the disease attacks more people during the dry season because of dust, wind and cold nights. There were indications in the past one month that many people were treated for acute pneumonia in some hospitals as a result of the erratic and unpredictable weather which has also confused farmers about planting seasons raising fear about food production and security.
Apart from the reign of diseases as a result of harsh weather conditions in Northern Nigeria agriculture has been affected as a result of erratic weather patterns. The dryness has led to dry waterbeds and movement of people and their pasture to the southern regions thus causing tension and conflicts between the original inhabitants and the new comers. Experts at the United Nations and other global bodies have found over the years that the world’s climate has changed.
The drought of the 1970s that swept most of the Sahel region of Africa left the region, including Nigeria, with general water resources issues. The consequence of that are the low agricultural output, limited water supply and inadequate water reserve for power generation which the region is associated with.
Again the increasing flooding in the coastal and non-coastal regions of the country is indicative of the expected effect of climate change.
There are two extremes of the expected challenges of the climate change in Nigeria, viz, increase in rainy and dry seasons with each lasting approximately six months on the average, that is, April to October and October to March, respectively.
Nigeria daily temperature average differs according to location and period of the year. Average temperature ranges from 25oC in the southern coast to 40oC in the north.
A rise in temperature of between 1.4oC to 5.8oC by 2100 according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will have serious negative effect on the socio-economic wellbeing of the country in the following ways:
Increase in amount of rains and number of rainy day-flooding in the coastal areas, higher risk of 100years flooding occurring at shorter intervals;
Deforestation as a result of relocating of people from the flood affected areas of the coast;
Change in land use in the coast may have drastic effect on agricultural output and hence livelihood;
Desertification will increase and more droughts which encourage locusts and white flies, which in turn will affect food and water supply;
Wildlife will also be affected with possible effect on the entire food chain;
Landslides especially in erosion prone areas;
High temperature in the north will cause increase health issues such as meningitis, cataracts, malaria and yellow fever, etc;
High cost of construction especially in the coastal areas.
I will stop by saying if we don’t put all this in mind, then what will our future be?
According to Nigerian environmental activist, Nnimmo Bassey: “Climate change in Nigeria is a ticking time bomb and it exists little or even nothing to mitigate its effects.”
By Olumide Idowu (Climate Wednesday/UNISDR Youth Champion Africa Youth Engagement Officer/Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition
The Transformation Agenda Solidarity Forum (TASOF), a socio-political group, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan, to respond to calls by Nigerians and contest re-election in 2015.
Briefing newsmen on Friday in Abuja, Alhaji Muhammadu Ari-Gwaska, the Chairman of the forum, appealed to Jonathan to declare his interest without further delay.
“We appreciate what he is doing and what he is determined to do.
“We join millions of Nigerians to urge him to respond to calls by genuine Nigerians to declare his interest in the election of 2015.
“We would like to remind Nigerians again and again that President Goodluck Jonathan, by constitutional provision (1999) is qualified to contest election for a second term,’’ Ari-Gwaska said.
He described the leadership style of the president as “wonderful’’ and called on Nigerians to rally round him, saying that he meant well for the country.
The chairman said that the claim by some politicians that Jonathan had agreed to do one term or was already doing his second term in office was “a misleading information”.
“We made it clear to those people, who claim to have had discussion with the president and that he told them he was only prepared for one term, that that was a private discussion which is not lawful or binding on Nigerians.
“The take-over of the government by President Goodluck Jonathan after the death of the late president was a constitutional issue.
“The provision of the constitution is such that when the president dies, automatically his Vice will take over for the rest of the tenure,’’ he said.
According to Ari-Gwaska, Jonathan got his first mandate from Nigerians in the election held on April 16, 2011, during which he emerged victorious.
He also said that the insinuation that some politicians in the North did not want the president to contest the 2015 presidential election was a “political gimmick’’.
Ari-Gwaska said that the president got 60 per cent of the total vote cast in the 2011 presidential election from the Northern region.
“Those of us, who were alive at the time of Sir Ahmadu Bello, are witnesses to the fact that the then Eastern minorities, now South-South zone co-operated with the late Premier of Northern Nigeria.
“The campaigns for elections in 1959 were carried out in cooperation with this people, they are very loyal, respectful and cooperative; they assisted the North to bring unity to this country.
“Northerners, a lot of them are aware of this and they feel that our support for Jonathan is a return for the loyalty and cooperation by his grandfathers, some years back.
“We will continue to remind northerners, who are ignorant of this fact that it is not out of the way to support this leader to bring about peace and harmony,’’ he said.
Ari-Gwaska also urged Nigerians to eschew primordial sentiments and support the president in the fight against terrorists who were threatening the unity of the country.
“The surest way we can defeat terrorism is to support our government and its security forces at all times,’’ he said.
Ari-Gwaska commended the president for his steadfastness and the achievements he had so far recorded in all sectors in spite of orchestrated distractions and vilification. (NAN)
