Climate change is not our problem

There is no better time to tell ourselves some home truths about the effects of climate change on the Nigerian environment. Ours is a nation plagued by bureaucratic opacity and political rascality. This means that our public officers and partisan stalwarts are plagued by a daunting proclivity for cutting corners. In a bid to feather their own nest, every trick in the book is applied to dupe the people and plunder the commonwealth. Hence, every developmental lacuna becomes a hotspot to plug in a syphon for milking the nation. We must not allow them to use climate change as another tag name for fraudulent schemes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic when we were on lockdown, some government officials claimed they were feeding primary school pupils who were at home in their parents’ home – just to embezzle the school feeding programme budget. Some others stockpiled relief items meant for the masses in personal warehouses. While the people groaned in pain, unscrupulous leaders smiled to the bank, to the extent that after the pandemic, some designated intervention accounts were discovered to have billions of naira lying untouched. Apparently, somebody somewhere was waiting for the coast to clear before stashing them accordingly.

A decade ago, during the country’s centenary celebration, some top government functionaries positioned their private companies for contracts, just to squander the Centenary City development fund. Up till now, no one has been convicted for the fraud. In the same way, nobody has been called to give account of how the Abuja city Closed Circuit Television project became a dismal white elephant, after so much money was borrowed to bring the Federal Capital Territory up to par with other international melting pots, especially in the area of security.

The most recent of these developmental lacuna frauds is the Nigeria Air mirage. The former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, saw the perfect gap in the sector. A self-acclaimed giant of Africa needed a fitting gigantic national carrier to adorn its colours. Then began the journey to the establishment of Nigeria Air, whose logo was designed overseas and we picked up the bill, paid in hard currency. But the logo, no matter how beautiful, could never stand for the real thing. So Nigerians waited with bated breath to break that jinx once and for all. We would once again be able to raise our shoulders in the comity of nations. Yet, our hopes were dashed a few hours after Sirika unveiled the much-awaited national carrier. The cheering crowd was shocked to learn that the Nigerian aircraft was indeed borrowed from Ethiopia. The worst of it is that the minister stole billions of naira to pull off this subterfuge.
My fear is that, just like other development gaps exploited by ruthless public officials, climate change presents the perfect plot to stage nationwide acts of fiscal brigandage in the name of eco-interventions.

The first thing they would do is to confuse the ordinary citizen with environmental jargon to convince them that their everyday problem is caused by climate change. All basic infrastructural challenges will be pushed to climate change; whereas these are problems they have refused to tackle as the custodians of the commonwealth. Lack of access to water sanitation and hygiene, bad roads, poor electricity supply, name them, all shall be explained away as the effects of climate change.

They will set up panels to validate their new policies tailored for the so-called climate crisis. They will fill the media with content to justify their decision. They will now face the northern hemisphere where the developed world – to soothe their conscience – has packaged handouts for such desperate third-world politicians.
The rich nations have contributed more to global warming and climate change, so they are always on hand to push the conversation forward. But, for us in the developing world, this should not form the big picture. Our reality is that we are already backward as far as infrastructural and human development is concerned. This should inspire our leaders to be more pragmatic and focused on problem-solving.

 Like many sub-Saharan African countries, several reports have shown that Nigeria has a huge infrastructure gap. For instance, our total infrastructure stock is estimated at only 35 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product as opposed to the 70 percent average for emerging economies. The infrastructure gaps in Nigeria manifest in lack of good roads and railway networks; poor power generation, transmission, and distribution systems; poor water, health, housing, and education facilities, among others. Their poor supply or non-availability has limited the country’s development. So, we must think of this situation before every policy decision is taken. Again, when we plan on joining others to fight climate change, this reality must be at the core of the baseline fundamentals.

Weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions while climate is the weather of a specific region averaged over a long period. Climate change refers to long-term changes in these conditions. Before our politicians and bureaucrats run to town with the idea that climate change is pummeling our communities, they must first of all ascertain the level of good governance they have brought to bear in their different political constituencies. What demographics define the evolution of the societies they steward, and how have they been adapting to their natural environments over the years?

For instance, if you built a dam for them, you must ensure that the dams are maintained and monitored annually preparatory to the rainy seasons at which time their fidelity is tested to the optimal. If you are not able to carry out this basic task, even a minimal increase in rainfall shall have a direct impact on the dam. You must not blame it on climate change. It is simply a problem of infrastructural decay.

Just this week, the Federal Executive Council set up a committee to re-assess the Alau Dam and other dams across the country. They would not have done this if there had been no flood in Maiduguri. A serious government should have carried out this periodic routine assessment as part of its infrastructural maintenance protocol. After all, what is the job of the twelve River Basin Development Authorities we have in Nigeria? But, over here, we wait for ‘climate change’ to wake us up to our responsibilities.

In a special report filed by Premium Times, a Nigerian online newspaper, after the 2022 nationwide flood that took the lives of more than 500 Nigerians and washed away hundreds of acres of farmlands; it was confirmed by experts and victims, that the flooding would not have been as devastating as it was, had the government desilted the nation’s rivers and waterways. According to the report, “Contrary to claims that the flood across states in the country is majorly caused by climate change, the Executive Secretary of the Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency, Muhammed Suleiman, noted that had the Nigerian government desilted and dredged existing waterways in the country, the flood impacts would have been minimal.”

In my view, the impacts of climate change in Nigeria are not as devastating as they are made out to be because they are never experienced in isolation. Their intensity is so egregiously felt because we lack a functioning system, where basic infrastructure is left to decay and rudimentary environmental governance procedures are ignored or misapplied. As a matter of fact, we need proper scientific studies to ascertain these evolving dynamics. Also, the media must hold the government to account. We must not allow climate crisis-acting and greenwashing; they are excuses for leaving the masses with the short end of the stick.