Presidential candidates chart ways on climate change, environmental disasters

Nigeria’s presidential candidates in their different submissions have mapped out measures to combat climate change and environmental disasters in the country.

The candidates gathered in a presidential townhall organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) and We The People (WTP), and several other supporters on Tuesday in Abuja to deliberate on climate change causes and impacts on Nigerians.

African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, called on other candidates to place environmental concerns as their priority.

He frowned at the efforts of the present administration for poor management of 2022 floods that ravaged some states in the country.

In his demands, he said his interest for the environment upon becoming Nigeria’s president is to phase out political parties that are creating environmental problems in Nigeria.

He said, “We want to phase out political parties that are creating environmental problems particularly, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the overflow parties.

“Nigeria recorded worst flooding incidence in 2022. Part of the flood has to do with the responsibility of our leaders to avert the incidence but they failed to create a dam.

“There’s a dam in Cameroon named the Lagdo dam. When Cameroon was creating theirs in the 80s, they called Nigeria to dam their own side but our leaders did not do theirs.”

He also decried the presence of chemicals in foods available in Nigeria, adding that international oil companies have destroyed the environment.

He added, “One day, you’ll be drinking your crude. Oil resources are the biggest source of crime because it kills both the people and environment.”

Kachikwu Dumebi of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) called for the introduction of climate education in Nigeria.

He cited examples in the Western world where climate education is available and promoted in all facets of their economy.

Earlier speaking, Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) in his welcome address, said the town hall meeting has been convened to provide a platform for presidential candidates in the upcoming election in Nigeria to discuss their plans and strategies for addressing critical environmental and climate challenges facing the country.

He said, “Without a safe environment the enjoyment of human rights is highly improbable.

“The present Nigerian Constitution at Section 20 provides for environmental protection as one of the Fundamental Objectives and directive principles of state policy.

“It states that states shall protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air, forest and wild life of Nigeria.

“The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights expressly states at Article 24 that All peoples shall have the right to a general satisfactory environment favourable to their development.

“The Charter has been domesticated by Nigeria, thus, provides a basis for the justifiability of our right to a safe environment.

“The reality is that the focus of political leaders on the environment has been largely tokenish.

“The indicator that they care at all about the environment is often only when they move to destroy underserved and largely autonomous communities termed slums.

“It is this mindset that led to the destruction of Maroko (which was inhabited by over 300,000 people) in July 1990 and is now threatening Makoko communities in Lagos. And sometimes a cosmetic sanitation exercise in which trash gets pulled out of drains and piled by the roadside until they get washed back into the drains.

“Although there is a designated ecological fund, its use has been characterized as mostly being for political ends.

“We believe that serious focus on tackling the environmental problems in Nigeria could be a unifying factor in a nation faced with many divisive factors.”