The Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) has faulted the response of the Federal Government to the devastating effects of climate change in the country despite early warnings.
President of NAS, Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe, yesterday at press briefing ahead of the eighth Annual Meeting of African Science Academies (AMASA-8) with the theme, “Climate Change in Africa: Using Science to Reduce Climate Risks,” said the Federal Government had not responded properly to the flood disaster that had ravaged the country in recent times.
Ibidapo-Obe said: “The funny thing about the Lokoja flood disaster is that it was predicted that it was going to happen but what were the mitigating effects? The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) despite their predictions and warning in March under-estimated the Lokoja flood. There are reasons to be on top of this kind of disaster. What happened in Lokoja just tells us how important climate change mitigation can be.”
The NAS President further stated: “You need to be systematic in approaching the issues.
Our government has not done much on mitigating the impact of climate change. The government has not taken the most important step, that is, doing a risk assessment. If a proper risk assessment was done the Lokoja flood disaster would have been mitigated even before the road from Lokoja to Abuja that has been cut off was built. We are not doing enough and we have been very tardy in taking decisions.
“Go to Texas, they are prepared for hurricane and every resident is aware of it. When you damage the environment you put wahala (trouble) on yourself, when you destroy the trees because we need the trees to live. We caused the problems. Look at the Atlantic City project in Lagos, it will destroy the ecosystem. We are taunting the environment and we are actually inviting the environment to war. Are we prepared for this war? If we keep on harassing nature, nature is going to react. We need to understand that we need to conserve nature.”
The body also voiced concern that President Goodluck Jonathan was yet to sign the bill for the creation of the Climate Change Commission into law two years after it was passed by the National Assembly. It commended the president for adopting the Climate Change Policy.
