President Umaru Musa Yar'adua has never taken climate change issues very serious despite the fact that Nigeria is adversely affected by the menace, chairman of the House of Representatives' committee on Climate Change,Rep Eziuche Ubani (PDP Abia state), has said.

He spoke at a three-day capacity building workshop for House of Representatives' committee on Climate Change and the Media in Kaduna, weekend.

Rep Ubani also condemned most state governors for their inability to sensitise their citizens on the inherent dangers of climate change and the consequences it poses to the national development.

He said: "The country doesn't have a national policy on climate change. And the reason why there's none is that there's no will in the executive at all. The President has mentioned climate change only once.It's on record. And then he promised international community that he is going to do something about it by creating a commission or institution to ensure climate change governance; after that nothing has happened."

The MP said the committee has three times written to the Kaduna state governor, Mohammed Namadi Sambo, on the need to have the workshop in the state in order to sensitize the citizens but he did not respond, saying the governor prefers issues that don't benefit the populace.

He also said even the Federal Ministry of Environment saddled with the responsibility to tackle environmental degradation does not have the capacity to do so.

Hear him: "I don't want to talk about the Ministry of Environment because most of the capacity issues we talk about don't exist there. The climate change unit there exists only in name; there is no capacity. And the people who head it don't know anything about climate change. I want to go on record for saying this."

Rep Ubani said the National Assembly will soon present a strong bill that will mandate the president and state governors to act urgently on the issue to protect the environment from further degradation, pointing out that unless policy makers realise the dangers of climate change, Nigeria will continue to lag behind in tackling it.

He also emphasised the need for massive sensitization campaign from the media on the issue, stating that since about fifty per cent of environmental degradation is manmade, people need to be enlightened.