By Abbas Nazil
Former lawmaker and sponsor of Nigeria’s Climate Change Act 2021, Sam Onuigbo, has called for stronger collective action to address climate change, warning that environmental neglect now threatens Nigeria’s economy, security and national development.
Speaking at a two-day media training conference on climate governance and gender mainstreaming in Abuja on Wednesday, Onuigbo said climate change has moved beyond scientific discussions and has become a daily reality affecting communities across Nigeria through flooding, desertification, food insecurity, rising temperatures and displacement.
He stressed that climate governance should no longer be treated as a secondary environmental issue, noting that ecological challenges now directly affect agriculture, infrastructure, migration, public health and national stability.
Onuigbo highlighted the shrinking Lake Chad Basin as one of the clearest examples of climate-induced environmental degradation in West Africa, saying the loss of livelihoods around the lake has contributed to migration, farmer-herder conflicts and insecurity across several Nigerian communities.
The former chairman of the House Committee on Climate Change also traced global climate governance efforts to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, which he said laid the foundation for coordinated international climate action.
Reflecting on Nigeria’s legislative journey, Onuigbo recalled that earlier climate bills in the Sixth and Seventh National Assemblies failed to secure enforceable legal backing before he sponsored the Climate Change Bill during the Eighth Assembly.
Although the bill initially failed to receive presidential assent, he said it was reintroduced in the Ninth Assembly and eventually signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari on November 17, 2021.
According to him, the Climate Change Act established a framework for low greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable economic development and coordinated climate governance through the National Council on Climate Change chaired by the president.
Onuigbo also commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for implementing climate-related reforms, including the removal of fuel subsidy, renewable energy expansion, green finance initiatives, carbon market policies and the establishment of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy.
He urged journalists, lawmakers, civil society organisations, private investors, researchers, women and youths to intensify climate advocacy and accountability efforts, insisting that Nigeria’s future development depends largely on immediate and sustained climate action.