By Esohe Braimah

Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change impact despite its low contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions-so says the African Development Bank (AfDB). Unlike other continents, Africa isn’t well equipped or prepared to protect itself from the approaching disaster that is looming.

Climate Change is Goal 13 of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that came to force in January 2016 following its adoption in September 2015. Members are expected to achieve these goals by 2030.

The mission statement for Goal 13 is to take urgent action in combating climate change and its impact. Countries that have signed to the SDGs are to mobilise efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.

The UN describes Climate Change as a long-term shift in temperatures and weather patterns. Human actions are considered the major cause of climate change. Scientists and NGOs have not relented in creating awareness and drawing attention to the fact that there has been an abrupt change in biodiversity loss, rising sea levels, melting ice sheets and higher temperatures amongst others.

Most of these complaints have fallen on deaf ears. The world is slowly crawling into exceeding the global warming of 2°C deleterious temperature. They have warned about the risks to our climate of a rise in global temperatures of 2C over pre-industrial levels could make life unbearable for millions of people.

The intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) sixth assessment report chapter nine on climate change in Africa made several points on the impacts Africa will face in the nearest future. From the look of things, it seems that most of these impacts are manifesting already.

The IPCC report showed that limiting global warming to the safe zone of 1.5°C will substantially reduce damage to Africa’s human health, economies, agriculture, and ecosystems. The report also confirmed that exposure to climate change makes the continents very vulnerable. This is because a good percentage of its workforce is employed in the agricultural sector and the impacts of climate change always affect agriculture.

In addition, the report also stated that Africa is predicted to experience a loss of crops, livestock and fisheries which will then in turn lead to famine and widespread hunger. It also stated that climate change is the major cause of reduced economic growth across African countries.

The impacts of Climate Change also negatively affect the health sector in Africa. It is predicted millions of Africans will get climate-related diseases due to exposure to non-optimal temperatures and extreme weather conditions. The mobility and mortality rate is also feared to see an increased percentage.

Impacts of Climate Change in Nigeria

Over the years Nigeria has experienced the negative impacts of climate change. From the increase in temperature in the 80s to the massive flooding in 2012 and 2022, the nation has been able to identify six key hazards. They are

1. Flood
2. Drought
3. Epidemic
4. Landslide
5. Extreme temperature
6. Storm

Flood is one of the major impacts of climate change in Nigeria. In recent weeks Nigeria has experienced its most damaging flood incident which currently affects 31 out of the 36 states, 21 states out of the 31 are severely impacted.

The recent flooding has not only resulted in the loss of lives and properties, but its negative effect is also creeping into the agricultural, health, infrastructural and economic sectors. A report released by the local news showed that about one million Nigerians have been displaced and more than 300 lives have been lost due to the flooding.

The national emergency management agency termed this recent flooding the worst in decades and has warned that the situation could deteriorate further. It is also expected to see an increase in waterborne diseases in those areas due to the crisis.

One of the major causes of excessive flooding is a result of a general rise in sea levels. The rise in sea levels is another impact of climate change. Sea levels have been on the rise in the coastal part of Nigeria which is resulting in the loss of villages and farmlands.

The riverside areas of Nigeria are getting the major blow from this negative impact. Scientists estimated that a one-meter rise in sea levels could cause about 75% of the land in Niger Delta to be lost.

It is to be noted that the recent flooding in Nigeria correlates with the opening of the Lagado Dam in Cameroon, the overflowing of two of the country’s dams and excessive rainfall.

Nigeria has also been experiencing severe drought in parts of the country which is leading to the loss of crops and livestock. The major causes of drought in Nigeria are all man-made causes. It is caused by deforestation, overgrazing, poor cropping method and bush burning.

According to a report released by the federal ministry of environment in 2018, droughts occurred in Nigeria from the early 90s to the late 90s. The international monetary fund also confirmed that Nigeria and several other African countries experience 33% of the world’s drought due to their rain-fed agriculture.

The global disaster alert and coordination system (GDACS) has alerted drought for Nigeria in 2022. According to the summary, the drought lasted for one month and the drought indicators suggested anomalies typical of mild to severe events.

One of the worst drought incidents was recorded in the Lake Chad basin incident. Lake Chad basin is one of the largest freshwater sources and it has link with four African countries including Nigeria. It is recorded that the lake has shrunk by 90 per cent in the last 60 years and this is due to climate change.

Epidemic being one of the major key hazards of climate change impact in Nigeria is no surprise. Nigeria has been left in a vulnerable position which leaves it open to disease outbreaks. Over the last few years, Nigeria has recorded a huge influx of disease outbreaks in several parts of the country.

Diseases ranging from Yellow Fever, Malaria, Typhoid, Covid-19, Lassa fever, Ebola and Monkeypox. The weak ecosystem has left the body’s immune system fragile and unable to properly protect itself from diseases and sickness.

Landslide is a major climatic condition that occurs due to a lack of sheer strength in the composition of the soil. It is the mass movement of rock, debris or earth down a slope. Landslides have both natural and man-made causes.

The man-made cause is due to mining, construction, quarrying and excavations.

This climatic condition is very common in the southeastern part of the country and is a menace to people leaving in those parts. It has resulted in the loss of lives, and deaths and has left several other people injured.

Reasons why Nigeria isn’t properly protected against the impacts of climate change

Several problems pose reasons why Nigeria isn’t properly protected against the impacts of climate change and they are not without blame.

1. Climate-related researches in the country face severe data constraints.
2. The country lacks adequate funding in carrying out detailed and comprehensive research.
3. The lack of proper weather forecasting stations in the country.
4. Poor allocation of budgetary funds to the ministry of environment.
5. Very few climate-related publications to spread the news far and wide on the issues the country faces with climate change.

Preventions and Mitigations of climate change in Nigeria.

There are so many bold steps the Nigerian government and its citizens can take in other to impede this looming peril.

1. Put a price on carbon; Adaptation of carbon tax will limit the emission of greenhouse gases into the ecosystem.
2. Reduce the use of fossil fuels; switching to more sustainable means of energy will benefit the nation.
3. Implement climate smart structures; the government of the nation should put infrastructures in place to prevent causes like excessive flooding and land sliding.
4. The government should allocate more funding in the budget to fuel research and proper forecasting in the coming future.
5. The farmers should implement a more sustainable way of practicing agriculture.
6. The government should create a one-stop shop where people can read up and learn about climate issues without being misled.

In conclusion, it is never too late to start putting measures in place to mitigate the impacts of climate change in Nigeria, and also prevent deleterious situations.

Esohe is an undergraduate at the Department of Finance, University of Lagos.

By Haniel Ukpaukure

Many years of faltering in Nigeria’s electoral process became such a matter for concern well-meaning citizens began to see the need to contribute in whatever way they could to enlist the country in the club of those where the success of a common and routine exercise like general election is taken for granted.

The National Peace Committee (NPC), headed by former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), is one of such efforts.

The committee, which has other prominent Nigerians like the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, Bishop Hassan Matthew Kukah, John Cardinal Onayekan and, lately, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola, among others, as members, was conceptualized and set up in 2014 when the drumbeats of war as the country approached the 2015 general election sounded so loud there were doomsday predictions about Nigeria breaking up after the elections. The aim was to support peaceful, free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria.

In an experiment that was considered quite novel, NPC got the presidential candidates in that year’s election to sign a peace accord to abide by the outcome of the exercise. The experiment worked, especially with the unprecedented action of the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, to concede defeat to Muhammadu Buhari, even before announcement of the result of the election was completed. The exercise was repeated in 2019 and, as it was four years earlier, it produced the desired result.

More than any other election in Nigeria’s chequered political history, the 2023 exercise is seen as one that would define the country’s future. It is going to be an election like no other. For two of the presidential candidates – Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) – winning the election appears to be a matter of life and death. It is the last chance for one, after many attempts; the one and only chance for the other. The first-of-its-kind monetization of the process that produced them as candidates for the forthcoming election attests to this assertion.

Quite unlike the two previous elections when peace accords were signed a few weeks to the election, the exercise, this time around, was carried out more than five months to the election, on Thursday, September, 2022 – one day after the official commencement of electioneering. This was so because NPC recognized, as other concerned Nigerians did, the hate speeches, verbal attacks and media war that seemed to prepare grounds for the commencement of campaigns.

And unlike in previous elections, this accord is about stemming hate speeches that could threaten the election. The accord for the acceptance of the outcome of the election is scheduled for February, before the election.

It is ironic that only one month into the electioneering, with four months to go before the election, the rate of hate speeches and attacks on individuals appear to be higher than it was before the peace accord was signed by people who pledged to run issue-based campaigns.

We have, so far, not heard speeches and statements that outline the strategies for solving the myriad of challenges the country is confronted with, beyond merely listing the challenges which every Nigerian knows. Does it mean these people do not understand what constitutes issue-based campaign?

It must be pointed out that spokespersons of the campaign organizations of the candidates, especially the three frontrunners – Atiku, Tinubu and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) – are at the vanguard of the hate speech that currently characterizes the campaigns. And since they speak for the candidates, it is taken that the people who signed the Peace Accord (Kazim Shettima, Tinubu’s running mate, signed for the candidate) are the ones responsible for the hate speeches and attacks. Is this what we are going to see, going into the election? It makes you wonder what the accord was all about.

Festus Keyamo, Tinubu’s spokesman and Dele Momodu, his counterpart in the Atiku camp, have taken the attacks to a ridiculous and utterly shameful level by going for each other’s throat. People who should be busy selling their principals through well designed, crafted and delivered communication on the road map for getting the country out of its current sorry state are busy attacking each other. And their principals do not see the need to call them to order. It’s as if the presidency would go to the candidate with the ability to throw the largest quantity of mud at the other.

The candidates must understand that their utterances and behaviour constitute the impetus that drives their supporters to do whatever they like on the streets, especially at campaign rallies of other candidates. If they don’t moderate their utterances and focus on issues that would present them as capable of giving Nigerians a new country in 2023, how would the people trust them to accept the outcome of the election, even if they sign an accord to that effect? The impression should not be created that the peace accord has lost its meaning, significance and importance, since its debut in 2015.

Nigeria will exist beyond 2027. That is to say that after 2023, there will be another election. From the way the attacks are going on, one would think the scramble is to rule the country before it becomes extinct. Or is it the fear of dying and not fulfilling a life ambition?

We should worry only about the level of insecurity that clearly threatens the election – kidnappings, terrorism, banditry and the regular forms of criminality – which could potentially mar the election. Our fears shouldn’t include election violence instigated by candidates through their utterances.

The 2023 election is the event that presents the most opportune moment to change the course of Nigeria’s history. Politicians should not be the ones to thwart the effort of Nigerians to make that happen.

Ukpaukure, a media consultant and writer, lives in Lagos.

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