Paul Ohia
29 November 2009
opinion
Lagos — This week, world leaders will gather in the German city of Copenhagen to argue over issues related to climate change and anticipation is that a global treaty would be the outcome.
In Nigeria, the issues of climate change and global warming appear so remote that one hardly comes across any discussions about it whether intellectual or routine but we may well brace up for non-governmental organisations drumming the issue into our ears all for the sake of the large money set aside for it.
The last time I read an intellectual side of this issue was when my former senior and prefect in the secondary who also happens to be my senior in the newsroom warned of its impact. In my memory, I cannot wipe out the habit of referring mentally to the chairman House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change, Hon. Eziuche Ubani as Prefect Eziuche. Even as a senior in the newsroom here, I was always seeing him as such because of the seriousness with which he carried out his duties in those days thereby becoming the most popular prefect at Grammar School Nbawsi and he also turned out to become the most popular editor in THISDAY newsroom at a particular point in time because he carried on with much zeal and professionalism.
I can recall that in those days at Grammar School, his popularity was in the area of putting a stop to late coming and we evaded him by hiding behind bushes and green shrubs.
Recently, I paid a visit to the same school and discovered that most of those green vegetations that shielded us from his prying eyes have disappeared. This must be caused by nothing but global warming because rainfalls have reduced in the area.
Farm crops behind those school blocks (Class 3 or Ala Ntu ) where he often hides in wait for late comers can only be sustained if fertilizers are applied to them unlike the days when ordinary manure could do.
The place is in the geographic eastern Nigeria and once can only imagine what the picture would be like in the north where the temperature is hotter.
Ubani seems to be of a sturdy make in every area he finds himself but the area of climate change would be a bigger test. This week, I do not know if he is going to Copenhagen but whether he goes or not a big burden of championing this cause lies on his shoulder and due to a passing interest in this area people may not realise for now how big this burden is.
My attempt at doing some research into the issue of climate change raised my body temperature because one already has bigger economic challenges and that is what Nigerians are bordered about so environmental issues are secondary. Ironically, they are big and stare us in the face.
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, a chemistry teacher, should have been in a better position to warn against effects of climate change on Nigeria because his UK homologue, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who is also a chemistry graduate, was one of the first leaders to call in 1989 for a global treaty on climate change based on her own personal findings. According to her, we are seeing a vast increase in the amount of carbon dioxide reaching the atmosphere and the result is that change in future is likely to be more fundamental and more widespread than anything we have known hitherto.
It is believed that the developed nations contribute to man-made factors that trigger climate change and the burden lies on them to fight against every aspect of green house effect.
The simple logic is that they got industrialized in the process sending carbon emissions into the atmosphere. At Copenhagen, they would seek to reduce emission and force developing countries to do the same. In this vein, they are pledging large amounts to fight this phenomenon.
That means to industrialize, developing countries like Nigeria would seek to use alternative sources of energy and it now falls on authorities concerned like the minister of environment, Mr. John Odey and the Mr. Ubani to attract funding for this purpose to the country. Benefits are not to be seen in the narrower spectrum of the funding but on a wider image of the environmentally friendly technology that could be adopted to keep Nigeria on cause without hindering development. Issues of deforestation should also be of importance to these authorities.
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Copenhagen is the capital city of Denmark, and not in Germany as you have stated. It is rather appalling that a newspaper is unable to get its basic facts right.