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UN to tackle Nigeria desertification

Michael Simire
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UN to tackle Nigeria desertification
The GEF Assembly
The GEF Assembly

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will assist Nigeria to tackle her environmental degradation challenges especially those related to aridification.

The agreement was reached recently in Cancun, Mexico at a bilateral meeting involving a Nigerian delegation led by Environment Minister Laurentia Mallam and a United Nations (UN) team headed by UNCCD Executive Secretary, Monique Barbut, during the Fifth Assembly of the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Barbut described Nigeria “as the biggest and legitimate voice in Africa,” promising that she would flag-off the intervention with a visit President Goodluck Jonathan before the year’s end.

Environment Minister, Laurentia Mallam (right), with the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Rabi Jimeta, during the 5th GEF Assembly in Cancun, Mexico. Behind them is Assistant Director and GEF Desk Officer, Halima Kolo Mohammed
Environment Minister, Laurentia Mallam (right), with the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Rabi Jimeta, during the 5th GEF Assembly in Cancun, Mexico. Behind them is Assistant Director and GEF Desk Officer, Halima Kolo Mohammed

The meeting also attracted dignitaries such as Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Rabi Jimeta; Director PRS/GEF Operational Focal Point; D. M. Dauda; Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Ibrahim Thiaw; and Director General, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Li Yong.

Barbut underlined the need for countries to look more at the issues of drought being the highest human killer than any other crises in the world as, according to her, issues of land degradation and security pose more threat to livelihood of people especially Africans, which makes them poor.

She urged African countries to consider more seriously issues of land degradation which will along the line tackle problems related to climate change, biodiversity and pollution, while promoting Sustainable Land Management (SLM).

“African countries should come up with some concrete projects on land degradation management through synergy to tackle the issue of environmental degradation. African countries should do more in proper management of land than to consider its reclamation which is more expensive and in turn has negative effect on food security,” she stated.

Yong assured the role of UNIDO in promoting green growth in industries, noting that the body recently adopted a new mandate to make sustainability central to industrial development. He said future developments would be based on low-carbon technologies, even as he outlined a range of strategies UNIDO is adopting to support sustainable industrial development to include: getting public sector policies right; boosting knowledge networks to promote innovation and trade; and looking for synergies between international organisations’ green growth approaches to facilitate investment flows. He suggested that GEF-Nigeria and UNIDO work together in these areas under GEF-6.

Thiaw, on his part, advocated the need for Nigeria to work with UNEP on food security under the GEF-6, adding that Nigeria should seek for soft loans to form part of her co-financing mechanism.

While three projects were approved for Nigeria under the GEF-6 (Sixth Cycle), the Council endorsed the Work Programme comprising 37 new and two resubmitted project concepts, one non-expedited enabling activity, and one programmatic approach.

Nigeria, believed to be the only country (apart from Mexico) to fully participate in the Fifth GEF Assembly’s exhibition among the 183 member states, urged the GEF to assist countries in recovering degraded land and educating small-scale farmers to enhance food production and improve farmers’ livelihoods.

While Ethiopia stated that infrastructure plays a key role in building a nexus between energy, food and water issues. Saint Lucia proposed discussing trade and investment policies that promote investments in carbon-intensive infrastructure over renewable energy.

Furthermore, Senegal highlighted a national plan involving projects on agriculture and energy and wondered how the GEF could help countries pursue goals within such plans. Zambia, for the Southern Africa constituency, called on the GEF to support sustainable forest management, biodiversity, land degradation, climate change and chemicals management efforts in Southern Africa.

At the Nigerian GEF exhibition stand: Project Coordinator, Conservation and Management of the Biodiversity GEF-UNDP Project in the Niger Delta, Matthew Dore (left), with Project Coordinator, Promoting Energy Efficiency in Public and Residential Buildings GEF-UNDP Project, Etiosa Uyigue, in Cancun, Mexico
At the Nigerian GEF exhibition stand: Project Coordinator, Conservation and Management of the Biodiversity GEF-UNDP Project in the Niger Delta, Matthew Dore (left), with Project Coordinator, Promoting Energy Efficiency in Public and Residential Buildings GEF-UNDP Project, Etiosa Uyigue, in Cancun, Mexico

At the exhibition, Nigeria showcased her success stories and achievements over the past years in the implementation of GEF funded projects. While sharing knowledge on the peculiarity of the country and how GEF support has made a difference at all levels, officials demonstrated the linkages between the different ranges of project sizes and the existing strong partnerships with partners that have contributed to the successes experienced.

The Nigerian delegation also included delegates drawn from the Ministries of Environment and Finance, GEF Project Coordinators, Project Consultants and representatives of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

Lagos during rainstorm in pictures

admin
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Lagos during rainstorm in pictures

 

A motorist needs help to "swim" through a flooded Obafem Awolowo Way, Ikeja, Lagos.
A motorist needs help to “swim” through a flooded Obafem Awolowo Way, Ikeja, Lagos.
No train in sight rev up a wet and gloomy rail line community at Agege, Lagos
No train in sight to rev up a wet and gloomy rail line community at Agege, Lagos
Homes left in ruins after a rainstorm.
Homes left in ruins after a rainstorm.
Its not the flood water, but rather washed up planks, appear to create a barrier along this street at Agege, Lagos.
Its not the flood water, but rather washed up planks, appear to create a barrier along this street at Agege, Lagos.
Motorists and cyclists wade through a flooded Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Motorists and cyclists wade through a flooded Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Knee-deep flood at Agege, Lagos
Knee-deep flood at Agege, Lagos
It's raining elephants and hippos at Ogba, Lagos.
It’s raining elephants and hippos at Ogba, Lagos.
Where's the church?
Where’s the church?

 

Residents seem to have deserted this home at Ajegunle, Ikorodu, Lagos.
Residents seem to have deserted this home at Ajegunle, Ikorodu, Lagos.

Ojo, Sanchez demand urgent climate action

Michael Simire
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Ojo, Sanchez demand urgent climate action

Dr Godwin Ojo of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and Shenna Sanchez of the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) at the intersessional ministerial meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) speak on behalf of global environmental groups, trade unions and youth groups, who had staged a walkout from the Warsaw Climate Conference to show indignation at alleged non-committal attitude of governments for, according to them, failure to take decisive and swift action against “the biggest threat to both people and the planet, and the continued domination and sabotage of the international climate talks by powerful corporate interests.”

 

 

Ojo
Ojo

Collectively we represent millions if not hundreds of millions of global citizens.

Civil society organisations (CSOs), indigenous groups and citizens’ networks, among others, call for an energy transformation towards peoples’ and community energy – a transformation that delivers renewable and clean energy for those with energy, the billions without access to energy as well as generating millions of new green jobs.

We are people who participated in the walkout of the Warsaw Climate Conference and those who supported and united with its call for more serious climate action. We have come together to reiterate to all ‘leaders’ participating in the UN climate negotiations that they are dangerously off-track in addressing the climate emergency. We call upon them to listen to the demands and solutions of people.

The walkout was an act of protest and indignation over governments’ continued failure to take decisive and swift action against the biggest threat to both people and the planet, and an act of condemnation of continued domination and sabotage of the international climate talks by powerful corporate interests.

In the face of massive destruction, displacement and loss of lives caused by current levels of global warming and the certainty of much worse impacts in the near future, governments continue to choose to act in the interests of a wealthy few, and collude with big business to defend unsustainable consumption and production models ahead of the urgent need for a sustainable, ecological, and just world.

We are more determined than ever to fight for the survival of our families, our communities and our peoples across the world – a survival that rests on nothing less than the fundamental transformation of a system that has generated massive impoverishment, injustices and a climate crisis that threatens all life on earth.  People are waging this fight in various arenas in every corner of the globe, over every dimension of their lives – food, energy, health and security, jobs and livelihoods.

People are mobilising everywhere and taking to the streets in bigger numbers and increasing intensity to stand up to vested interests and fight for their future and those of the next generations.  People-driven solutions, compatible with planetary limits, are being created and asserted at local, national and global levels – aimed at meeting the needs of people rather than the relentless pursuit of profits for big business and wealthy elites.

We  are back,  far more strengthened in giving voice to those who are already acting with the urgency needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change –  the huge majority of civil society around the world that you, ministers, represent and cannot ignore any longer.

In the coming weeks and months, towards and during the Social COP in Venezuela, the People’s Summit and the COP20 in Peru, and the COP 21 in France, we will be fighting harder than ever for governments to:

  • Commit to a global goal of limiting warming that recognises the latest IPCC’s warnings on the threats of tipping points, and to the right to food and food sovereignty, recalling that science suggests that 1.5C of warming would be too much for many vulnerable peoples and countries;
  • Deliver a swift global transformation away from the use of dirty fossil fuel and destructive energy systems driving the crisis, towards a carbon-free and renewable energy economy that, primarily among others, is decentralised, community controlled, affordable, accessible to all people for their basic needs and well-being;
  • Urgently scale up targets for emissions cuts in the pre-2020 period, and set emission targets comparable to the scale of the emergency for 2020-2025;
  • Ensure equitable and fair sharing of efforts among all countries based on their historical responsibility, their capacities, and the urgency of the crisis;
  • Enable people to deal with climate impacts by protecting the rights of peoples and communities, building resilience, addressing loss and damage, and ensuring a just transition to climate resilient, low carbon, equitable and democratic economy and society;
  • Define and commit to concrete targets for the transfer of finance and technology to make global transformation possible; and,
  • Reject the damaging influence of corporate interests on climate policy and prevent their promotion of false solutions as the global response to the climate crisis.

The global climate movement is building its strength and power in every country of the world. We call on those who claim to represent us to either act in our interests or step aside.

Solar power for rural areas: The Jigawa experience

Michael Simire
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Solar power for rural areas: The Jigawa experience

SolarThere is a revolution going on in Jigawa State. In what appears like the original blueprint for the Federal Government’s recently launched operation “Light-Up Rural Nigeria”, Governor Sule Lamido, right from the time he assumed office seven years ago, embarked on an aggressive programme of incubating a rural solar ecosystem. In pastoral communities which normally would never dream of seeing electricity in their midst because they are nowhere near the national grid, there suddenly comes power – street lights, electric powered boreholes, illuminations for homes, shops and Mosques – all supplied by the ever smiling sun over their habitat. So, overnight, Jigawa becomes home to clusters of off-grids, stand-alones and mini grids of renewable energy. Surely, were the much vaunted Peer Review Mechanism among states in Nigeria working as it should, by now, Lamido’s example would have catalysed a nationwide off-grid revolution.

Granted, the Federal Government last January announced a move towards rural off-grids; but that is painfully late. For a country that is so irradiated with solar ambience that even the foremost renewable energy-deploying Germany wished it had some fraction of our sunlight, it is an unforgivable sin to allow our poor rural community dwellers continue living in darkness, and choking from kerosene lanterns and sundry carbon-spewing light sources.

Jigawa’s rural electrification via solar power is relatively cheap and fast to replicate. It also has the dual function of lighting up the villages and creating jobs at the same time. The mode of selection of sites for the off-grid solar project is based on democratic rotation of projects around the state’s three Senatorial districts. Twenty seven villages have been covered already, while three shall be powered this year. In each selected community, more than 60 households are beneficiaries, and then the general village benefits from the centralised streetlights, Mosque lighting and solar boreholes.

Then, in the spirit of the state government’s policy thrust of rural empowerment, the government constructs right in the centre of the beneficiary village, a solar enterprise lock-up shops which are rented out to local entrepreneurs who use them as business centres while paying a monthly token to the government for maintenance of the infrastructure. There are barbers, tailors, chemists (which effectively serves as village dispensary) and battery charging station operators, and other rural artisans taking up the shops.

Therefore, right inside the hidden enclaves of Jigawa villages, one will be taken aback to stumble across a sudden paradise where there is solar lighting for home systems, solar street lighting, solar lighting for public facilities, battery charging stations, solar enterprise lock-up shops, solar motorised water boreholes, solar vaccine refrigerators, and solar lighting back-up systems. This has a great resemblance to the solar centre paradigm which is used in other renewable energy-savvy developing countries, like Kenya, for energy efficiency and social enterprise purposes.

According to a renewable energy expert who explained the concept adopted by the Jigawa State Government, “This project will strive to spawn a grass roots solar industry that can sustain its momentum with new jobs and businesses that focus on system installation and maintenance. The solar-powered micro-enterprise buildings are the project centrepieces in each village. Each centre provides electricity to six very small businesses that would otherwise not have access to electricity. The shared PV (photovoltaic) system, much less expensive than individual systems for each shop, allows tailors to move up from manual sewing machines to electric; barbers, from manual clippers to electric, and similar improvements in productivity for other types of businesses.”

During the Federal Government’s Light-Up Rural Nigeria launch earlier in the year in Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan said that the project had been initiated under the second phase of his government’s power sector reform programme planned for the post-privatisation period. He said the initiative was conceived primarily to promote the use of renewable energy, thereby assisting the vision of providing reliable electricity supply to all Nigerians. He also said the project would go a long way in providing clean, cheap and reliable renewable energy that would address some of the challenges of climate change in the country.

I have a word for the government as it gets set to start its nationwide rural solar electrification project. Renewal energy programme is not sustainable without appropriate government policies and legal frameworks which can bring in the private sector to drive the process. In other parts of the world, renewable energy policies have translated to renewable energy laws. In Nigeria we are still stuck with policies. Plenty of high sounding master plans and blue prints, but no action. This is a great discouragement to foreign investors who want to come to Nigeria and invest in our richly endowed natural environment.

Without the appropriate laws – for instance, Feed in Tariff (known generally as FiT) and net metering rules – the planned nationwide renewable energy power projects shall end up as another cesspool of corruption and graft. What is more, after this government leaves office, and if the next government is not interested in it, which is more likely than not, this remarkable initiative shall become an abandoned project, and then the wheels of our renewable energy development will grind back to the starting point at ground zero.

In Jigawa State today, this is the big albatross facing the whole populace. They are all keeping their fingers crossed that the next governor would be as visionary, benevolent and environment-friendly as Lamido, who does not wait for international donors and development partners to fund the rural off-grid projects. His 100 per cent fund-allocation to the rural solar project effectively presents a sustainability question.  The project executors are now in the drawing board room cudgelling their brains to come up with probable post-2015 strategies for the laudable projects. One of the potential strategies is Public Private Partnership, which ironically still begs the question – without appropriate renewable energy laws, PPPs are nonstarters at best.

Experts all over the world aver that without proper government support, renewable energy projects cannot stand. In Nigeria, a scientific study has arrived at the same conclusion. In 2012, an investigation to know if off-grid electrification using solar photovoltaic panels is economically viable, conducted by Akpan Uduak Sylvester and Ishak Salisu Rabiu, was released. The “Electricity Access in Nigeria” investigation has the following to say.

“In line with the government’s target of ensuring 80 per cent electricity coverage in Nigeria by 2015, this study examined the viability of using solar photovoltaic panels in a decentralised off-grid electrification project for a typical rural community in Northern Nigeria. The choice of Northern Nigeria is based on its solar energy potential, and low population density. The study compared the total cost of providing electricity using solar PV panels for 25 years to a rural community of 50 households, and an electricity load of 82.7kilo watts with that of paying electricity tariffs assuming grid connection was possible.

“The results show that such project will not be economically viable at the prevailing commercial interest rate. However, the viability of the project significantly increases if there is adequate government support through the provision of low interest loans or financial grants (as production subsidy). Such subsidy will not result in economic waste since the target is clearly defined. Apart from government, financial incentives, removal of barriers to private investment e.g. legal and regulatory barriers and proper risk management will make the project more viable. The following recommendations are hereby made: Government should create support mechanisms to support private sector investment in off-grid electrification programmes to meet the 80 per cent electricity coverage by 2015; a clear legal and regulatory framework should be established to incorporate the private sector in the rural electrification plan.”

 

By Greg Odogwu

Why Biosafety Bill should not sail through, by Bassey

Michael Simire
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Why Biosafety Bill should not sail through, by Bassey

Opposition has emerged from within the National Conference over the prospects of the Biosafety Bill, which is presently awaiting Presidential endorsement to become law.

The Science, Technology and Development Committee of the confab in its report presented to the floor had on Page 34 urged President Goodluck Jonathan to speedily act on the proposal.

Bassey
Bassey

But a member of the Environment Committee, Nnimmo Bassey, says the Science, Technology and Development Committee’s call should not be accepted. According to him, the bill, as drafted, is pro-industry and does not adequately protect the people and biodiversity.

Bassey, Director at Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), states: “The Biosafety Bill has no provisions for strict liability and redress. The fundamental flaws of HB.184 are that it
does not mention the issue of liability and redress; does not contain meaningful provisions ensuring effective public participation; does not take into account the precautionary principle; and, contains inconsistent language to an extent not acceptable.”

He points out that, before endorsement, the Biosafety Bill should include strict liability and have sanctions for pollution by genetically engineered products. He adds that polluters should be liable to a fine of not less than N100 million for corporate bodies and their directors committed to no less than five years imprisonment or both.

“With regard to redress, the polluter should be subject to the same penalties as above, but in addition should be held responsible for the restoration of polluted or contaminated environments and should make adequate compensation for the victims,” he stresses, adding that protection of biodiversity is cardinal, but modern biotechnology erodes biodiversity.

“Nigeria is party to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and one of its key pillars is the Precautionary Principle. This principle as the name implies calls for caution when there is doubt. Nigeria should not go the way of allowing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

“We do not need a National Biodiversity Conservation Authority as proposed by the committee. There are sufficient departments in the Ministry of Environment to handle the expected duties. The proper ministry to handle Biosafety issues is the Federal Ministry of Environment and should not be moved to the Ministry of Science. Biosafety issues are mostly about environmental issues.”

Bassey’s other comments on Science, Technology and Development include: “On page 16 at item (f) the Committee described products of our educational system as academically unsound and morally bankrupt. Although this is not a recommendation, the characterisation is objectionable.

“On page 18, item 1.5j – exposure to science and technology should be extended to primary schools and not just adult education classes.

“On Page 32, item 3.19(ii) – the Committee asks for “adequate funding” for nuclear technology. With the Fukushima nuclear accident and considering the poor state of our power generation structures, Nigeria should invest more in renewable power generation rather than investing in a technology that countries like Germany are moving away from.”

ERA to Shell: Stop sloganeering and clean up Ogoniland

Michael Simire
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ERA to Shell: Stop sloganeering and clean up Ogoniland

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has expressed reservations about remarks credited to the new chief executive officer of Shell, Ben Van Beurden, to the effect that the company is set to implement the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) assessment of Ogoniland.

Beurden
Beurden

Van Beurden, who is currently on a visit to Nigeria, disclosed that he would toe a different approach to responding to community demands compared with his predecesors on the heels of criticisms the company received at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in The Hague late last month for failing to clean up spills in Ogoniland three years after the UNEP recommendation were made.

But, in a statement issued in Lagos, ERA/FoEN said that Shell’s pledge to clean up the Ogoni environment is part of the company’s charade to buy time while actually doing nothing.

ERA/ FoEN Executive Director, Godwin Ojo, said: “The sweet remarks of Shell’s CEO is nothing new. It is the usual rhetoric of systematic delay, feigning compliance while doing nothing to undo the environmental terrorism and ecocide it has wrought in Ogoniland”

Ojo
Ojo

“Unless there is hard evidence, Shell cannot be trusted by mere promises. We doubt that Shell will now put on a new garb hence challenge the company to show more transparency and accountability by disclosing the funds it claimed it has set aside for the implementation of the UNEP recommendations.

Fifty years of baskets of unfulfilled promises makes us circumspect. We suspect that this is another basket full of lies given that the UNEP report was released three years ago and virtually no commitment has been made during this period. All that Shell has done is kicking and screaming against the report.”

Ojo pointed out that the unholy romance between some top government officials and Shell officials was responsible for the lack lustre approach of the government to compelling the company to embarking on cleanups and remediation of the environment, even as he added that, ” the government setting up of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) was and still remains a ploy to not implement the report”

ERA/FoEN demands an end to this grand deception which has pushed the Ogoni people to the fringes of existence. Shell must promptly comply with the UNEP recommendations. Mere talk is unacceptable,” Ojo insisted.

WED 2014: Youth groups plant trees, engage children

Michael Simire
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WED 2014: Youth groups plant trees, engage children

Connected Development (CODE), in collaboration with the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC), last week engaged in tree planting and sensitisation in local nursery and primary school and held round table discussions on climate change mitigation to commemorate the 2014 World Environment Day (WED) in Abuja, Nigeria.

Round Table Group Picture 1The event, tagged “Tree Planting exercise, sensitisation and round table discussions on Climate Change in Nigeria,” rallied around taking actions and engaging pupils of Abuja Children’s Home Nursery & Primary School on the importance of tree planting, its social and economic benefit to combat global warming and to the global mitigation efforts with local actions.

Hamzat Lawal, the Chief Executive of CODE, educated pupils and teachers of the school on how current life style contributes to global warming, leading to change in weather pattern, heavy rain fall, and improper disposal of waste which contributes to flooding and affects students to access timely education in affected communities.

“Today’s tree planting exercise is also to show our support to the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as a way of raising our collective voices and not the sea level,” Hamzat said.

Maria Yepwi, Head Mistress of the school, commend the organisers while stressing the need for more tress to be planted and commitment to ensuring that the planted trees are properly nurtured and for the organisers to visit other public schools.

School Tree Palnting 3John Sanni, a pupil of the school, said he never knew his actions could contribute to climate change and promised to tell his friends in other schools to plant trees for the planet.

The Nigerian Youth Round Table Discussion on Climate Change was geared towards taking stock on climate change advocacy/actions by young people. “Youth should be mainstream into the process, because the impact of climate change will be more on the younger generations, it is important to make sure that climate change information gets to the grassroots to enable the young people know what it’s all about and, through those interactions, more young people will get involved in climate change mitigation,” stated Lawal.

Participants underlined for the need for young people to synergise and work together to ensure that their advocacy efforts are taken to the next level with concrete actions. They also stressed need to hold governments accountable for its actions, while calling on the Federal Government to sign the Climate Change Bill which, according to them, will enable a dedicated institution that will handle climate change issues with a strong legal framework.

The CODE is a non-government organisation whose mission is to improve access to information and empower local communities in Africa. It seeks to strengthen local communities by creating platforms for dialogue, enabling informed debate, and building capacities of marginalised communities towards bringing about social and economic progress within communities, while promoting transparency and accountability.

The AYICC is an umbrella initiative of all youth organisations in Africa working on climate change issues. Currently, it has a membership of over 200 youth organisations with over 25,000 individuals and chapters in 42 Africa countries. AYICC’s vision is to create an African continent with an empowered and united youth movement, proactively involved in the decision making process and the adoption of sustainable options towards a better climate and social equity.

Epidemic looms as Atlantic Ocean inundates Lagos community

Michael Simire
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Epidemic looms as Atlantic Ocean inundates Lagos community

For the umpteenth time on Saturday, May 31, 2014, residents of Okun Alfa Community by the Alpha Beach along the Lagos coastline on the Lekki Peninsula, Eti-Osa Local Council, were inundated by flood waters from the Atlantic Ocean. The water intruded into their homes and businesses, rendering some homeless and stranded.

A flooded street at the Okun Alfa community
A flooded street at the Okun Alfa community

Flooding has always been a challenge faced by Lagos State but it seems to have become more intense in recent years. Many attribute its intensity to rising sea level caused by melting ice sheets in the polar regions, but another school of thought believes the situation in Lagos is worsened by the Eko Atlantic City Project, which has faced local and international criticisms.
The recent flooding at Okun Alfa was quite significant as the thigh-level water consumed  about 95 percent of houses on Baale Street. Human waste sipped out and mixed with the flood water, even as animals scampered for safety.
Residents who could afford to move packed out hurriedly, while the poor ones looked  on helplessly with anger and frustration written all over their faces.
I am a regular visitor to the community whenever such incident happened but, this time around, they seemed tired of granting interviews and sharing their pains as they believed nothing would come out of it. Many children slept on platforms elevated above the flood and I shuddered to think of the health implication if anyone of them accidentally fell into the heavily polluted water.
The community used to host the once popular Alpha Beach that attracted fun seekers and tourists at weekends, public holidays and festive periods. But this tourist destination has lost its attraction, no thanks to increasing sea level rise and a devastating shoreline erosion.
Community leader, Alhaji Yusuf Atelewora, said the neighborhood has witnessed increased shoreline erosion in the last four years and that all promises made by both federal and state governments were yet to be fulfilled.
“Many government officials have been to Okun Alfa, but all we hear are promises of this and that but our condition is not any better. Do you know even President Goodluck Jonathan came here? We were happy when he visited. But years after nothing tangible has been done. From my own side, I can tell you that since sand filling increased around the Bar Beach area (an apparent reference to the Eko Atlantic City land reclamation scheme), erosion has also increased on our shoreline. I pray one day we don’t wake up inside the sea,” he lamented.
Consequent upon the Due to the erosion, electrical poles are no longer standing and the only health centre in the community is in ruins. The community is in complete darkness even as underground water is contaminated.
According the Dr. Chubuike Wokocha from the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State, many coastal towns and communities may no longer be in existence in 10 years’ time due to increasing sea level rise as a result of climate change.
Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, Tunji Bello, said efforts to reduce shoreline erosion in Okun Alfa is capital intensive and the state would require support from the Federal Government. He added that the state government has been working to ensure that the impact on communities like Okun Alfa is reduced and plans were on to re-align the drainage of the community backwards toward the Lagos Lagoon.
The Fifth Assessment Report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change IPPC report state the following: “Due to sea-level rise projected throughout the 21st century and beyond, coastal systems and low-lying areas will increasingly experience adverse impacts such as submergence, coastal flooding, and coastal erosion (very high confidence). The population and assets projected to be exposed to coastal risks as well as human pressures on coastal ecosystems will increase significantly in the coming decades due to population growth, economic development, and urbanisation (high confidence).
“The relative costs of coastal adaptation vary strongly among and within regions and countries for the 21st century. Some low-lying developing countries and small island states are expected to face very high impacts that, in some cases, could have associated damage and adaptation costs of several percentage points of GDP.”
With such a damming report from the IPPC, Okun Alfa community needs government’s prompt intervention as an epidemic looms due to the pathetic sanitary conditions there. A thought for those poor, helpless children.

 

By Tina Armstrong-Ogbonna

How Mallam can save the Nigerian environment

Michael Simire
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How Mallam can save the Nigerian environment

Ministerial aide, Ben Goomg, in this treatise sets an agenda for the Environment Minister

 

Mallam
Mallam

As Environment Minister, Mrs. Laurentia Mallam, intensifies her familiarisation tour of formations under her ministry, expectations are high that the new minister will take concrete steps to address the daunting challenges facing the ministry and the Nigerian environment.

Critical issues requiring urgent ministerial attention range from corruption in the system, lack of office accommodation, poorly-motivated workforce and dilapidated office furniture whose life span have long expired and are now an eye sore all over the ministry.

The most fundamental challenges in the sector have to do with the huge debts of over N10 billion hanging on the neck of the ministry; the oil spillage in the Niger Delta and particularly in Bonga which has affected shoreline communities in Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa among others; the massive erosion threating the entire South Eas;t and the lead poison in Zamfara yet to be comprehensively tackled.

Other problems have to do with draught and desertification threating the extreme end of Northern Nigeria, poor implementation of the Great Green Wall project, and challenges facing the National Parks. Of equal importance is the issue of flooding in parts of the country occasioned by the consequences of climate change as well as issues of pollution control and waste management, environmental health.  Gas flaring must be stopped at all cost, with no shift in date.

At the centre of all of these is poor funding of the sector and low internally generated revenue. It is worthy of note that Mrs. Mallam herself has already acknowledged the fact of poor funding when she lamented that the ministry has just N7 billion for its entire budgetary allocation for the year 2014.

The time for Mallam to start the fight for the 2015 budget for key projects in the sector is now. While processing for more funds in next year’s budget, Mallam must also press hard to get the Federal Government to meet her obligation for the counterpart funding of the Great Green Wall and other projects. Luckily, the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Namandi Sambo, who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Great Green Wall, is from the same state with the minister and is likely to support this noble effort. The connection is complete and Mallam has no excuse to fail except she chooses to be complacent. Mallam cannot afford to be complacent; she can utilise the window on supplementary budget to get more funds.

While pressing full throttle for funding, the minister should also learn from the mistakes of her predecessors who lost most of the plants they planted under the Great Green Wall project to drought and desertification.  These plants died out because there was no maintenance agreement or arrangements which government would have secured with the various contractors handling the planting for at least two years to ensure that the trees are nurtured sufficiently to maturity level before being handed over to the ministry.

It is also important for the minister to embark on adequate sensitisation programme for host communities who should also be availed enough tree seedlings to plant.  The host communities should be made to own the Great Green Wall Project. Taking ownership is the best way to guarantee rapid planting, and maintenance of the expected forests that will spring out of the project. Other less endowed countries such as Mauritania and Mali have succeeded in this project. Why can’t the giant, Nigeria?

Another area of grave concern which no Minister of Environment has ever confronted head-long is the issue of gas flaring. The starting point for Mallam is to visit the Niger Delta area and specifically oil installations and production facilities to see for herself the mount of gas being flared into the atmosphere. This will enable her appreciate fully the environmental consequences of these activities. Can Mallam press the necessary buttons to stop gas flaring to save the Nigerian environment or will she simply fall in line the same way her predecessors did to allow gas flaring to continue? Time and Mallam will tell.

The next challenge for Mallam is the consistent and monumental oil spillage that has ravaged host communities of the Niger Delta. The most recent is that of the Bonga Oil Spillage. Yes, the minister started well by attempting to bring warring stakeholders – Shell and host communities of the shoreline – to the table to seek amicable resolution of the problem. The minister has to pursue this to a logical conclusion.

Of equal importance is for the minister and oil companies operating in the Niger Delta to carry out sustained sanitisation campaign within the affected communities with a view to discourage people of host communities to avoid acts capable of causing oil spillage. If pipeline vandalisation is curbed, oil spillage can be minimised by 90 percent. The people must be made to know the environmental consequences of oil spillage on their lives, crops and health. Where oil spillage is occasioned by deliberate sabotage, culprits must be apprehended and brought to book, rather than being compensated. Where operating companies are responsible, prompt and adequate compensation must be paid to affected persons and communities.

Another area of worry is the issue of the embarrassing (N10.2 billion) debt profile hanging on the neck of the ministry. It is a known fact that some contractors have already obtained court judgments leading to attachment of the properties especially vehicles belonging to the ministry. Our advice in this regard is that the minister should engage the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to verify some of these contracts. Those found to be genuine should be paid promptly, while those found to be fraudulent should speedily be made to face prosecution.

Other environmental challenges that seem to generate massive headache for the country include erosion, flooding, pollution and the rapidly changing global climate. Mallam should engage all possible efforts in carrying out a comprehensive National Environmental Sensitisation progrmme to create the necessary environmental consciousness in the citizenry. Issues such as waste disposal, bush burning, vehicular emissions, radiation from refrigerators and related harmful ozone substances, industrial waste disposal, kerosene lanterns, deforestation and afforestation should all be part of the components of the National Environmental Campaign. The people must raise their voices and not the sea levels.

On the last line, environmental issues are better understood if one practically sees some of its devastating effects by oneself. The minister will do well by visiting sites such as the area affected by lead poison in Zanfara, the Bonga Oil Spillage areas of the Niger Delta, especially the shoreline communities and see for herself the exploitation activities of the oil companies and the gas flaring that goes on daily. Now that the raining season is here, Mallam should constantly visit the frontline states of the Great Green Wall and join the communities in at least symbolically planting trees. It will be to the credit of the minister to say that, out of the estimated 1,500km to be covered by the project, she alone has planted a 1000km during her tenure.

Arise Mallam, and give Nigerians a clean, conducive and healthy environment

Jarju to Obama: You can do more to curb climate scourge

Michael Simire
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Jarju to Obama: You can do more to curb climate scourge
Jarju
Jarju

 

Obama
Obama

 

Pa Ousman Jarju, Minister of Environment of Gambia, and former chair and special envoy on climate change for the 48 Least Developed Countries, writes an open letter to US President Barack Obama

Pa Ousman Jarju
Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Water Resources, Parks and Wildlife
GIEPA House
Kairaba Avenue
The Gambia

Dear President Obama:

As former chair of Least Developed Countries group in the United Nations climate change negotiations, and former Special Envoy for the group, I am speaking on behalf of LDCs who are already suffering from the devastating impacts of climate change.
The latest IPCC report indicates that the evidence of human-caused climate-change impacts is unequivocal, and that increased warming likewise increases the likelihood of severe, pervasive, and irreversible impacts.
The research shows that these increases in temperature will be linked to increases in the level and the extent of poverty around the world, making more difficult our recovery from climate-related disasters. Both will set back decades of human development efforts and create new security risks for the world.
Mr. President, the long-term consequences on our countries will be devastating.  The LDCs are already experiencing debilitating impacts on our agriculture, water supply, and floodplains.
Since 1980, more than one half of the deaths from climate-related disasters have occurred in our nations. However, the overall contribution to climate change by all the LDCs, constituting 12 per cent of the world’s population, is less than 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
These asymmetrical impacts call for LDC priorities to be at the centre of current decisions and actions. As the poorest and most vulnerable to climate change, we are seeing the impacts first hand.
Mr. President, we welcome your initiative on climate change gases in coal-fired power plants announced this week: this action was overdue, and it is an important step in bringing the U.S. closer to the actions of the rest of the world, including those of developed and many developing countries.
The scale of the problem requires such bold and sustained action. Mr. President, we request that you accept UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s invitation to the special Climate Summit in New York on 23rd September and engage proactively in the process. Your presence and bold pledges for further actions will not only demonstrate that the U.S. is taking climate change seriously, but it would set an example for other leaders around the world.
One of the reasons behind the failure to achieve success in Copenhagen in 2009 was that presidents and prime ministers only engaged at the last minute.
This time, success by climate change negotiators in Lima in 2014 and Paris in 2015 will ultimately depend on presidents and prime ministers engaging early, by coming with high level political commitments to New York in September and directing their negotiators to work out the details.
2014 is the year of ambition on climate change: the twentieth Conference of the Parties in Lima is the penultimate COP before the adoption of 2015 Agreement. Mr. President your legacy to the US and the rest of the world will be marked by the level of commitment you show in the next months.

Sincerely,

Pa Ousman Jarju
Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Water Resources, Parks and Wildlife
The Gambia

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