Samuel Onuigbo
Hon. Samuel Ifeanyi Onuigbo is chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change. He spoke to LEO SOBECHI on issues concerning flooding, the Climate Change Bill and steps to resolve gray areas hindering president’s assent.
As chairman, Climate Parliament and President, GLOBE Nigeria, you play a key role in addressing environmental issues from the legislative perspective. How did you feel about issues of flooding in the country?
Well, flooding has become a recurrent thing in the country over the past decade. If you recall, in 2012, we had massive flooding across the country. It was reported that 363 people died and about 2.1 million persons were displaced in that flood, according to estimates by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Damages and losses from that flood that affected 39 states of the federation were estimated at N2.6 trillion. In 2014, heavy rains in Oyo State led to massive flood and 15 persons lost their lives within one week. These are huge losses to the nation, in terms of lives and resources. So, again, the recent flooding in Lagos is not a new thing. However, what is alarming is our failure to take appropriate measures to forestall it.
One thing is clear; the increase in flooding is a result of climate change. Experts have been warning about this for years, and at the moment, we can no longer pretend that we are not feeling the devastating impacts of climate change all around us. Like I normally say, we have gone beyond the point of thinking that climate change is firing warning shots, to a point where we are living with the full impacts of it.
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From flooding, coastal and gully erosions, heat waves and the attendant health implications, to drought and desertification in the North, which has led to security challenges such as the farmers-herders clashes due to forced migration, the impacts of climate change are now massively felt by us.
You must note that the floods are not yet over for the year. The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, has already warned that communities in 28 states of the country will witness flooding this year. So, we must brace up ourselves for this.
But, most importantly, we must begin to make plans to mitigate the impacts of climate change, which have led to this recurrent issue of flooding.
Apart from knee-jerk responses, do you think Nigeria is doing enough to grapple with the challenges of climate change?
There are few countries in the world that one can say are doing close to enough to grapple with the challenges of climate change. Climate change is dynamic, and there are evolving mechanisms for addressing it.
Nigeria has first shown commitment when on September 22, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari, signed the Paris Agreement on climate change. The president followed this up by signing the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol on October 2, 2020.
Again, remember that during the UN (United Nations) Climate Summit in New York, on September 24, 2019, President Buhari announced Nigeria’s massive reforestation plan that will see the country plant 25 million trees that will help in carbon sequestration. All of these are in addition to the government’s commitment to renewable energy, support for the Great Green Wall Initiative, and many more. All of these are efforts by the country to grapple with the challenges of climate change.
Our major challenge, however, is that we do not have a legal framework that supports these efforts, and ensures that these efforts are not done in silos.
Every country serious on tackling climate change must have a framework that provides legal support and guides it. Recently, the European Union’s new legislation on climate change aims for a 55 per cent reduction in Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emission by 2030, with a target of net zero emission by 2050.
Nigeria needs such binding laws and in the Climate Change Bill, we have proposed 2050 – 2070 for the attainment of a net-zero GHG emission in Nigeria. Laws like this help provide coordination and back efforts against climate change.
We recall that efforts at ensuring that Nigeria gets a climate change law have met several setbacks. Is there any hope that it will get better attention this time around?
I agree that the efforts to ensure that Nigeria gets a climate change law have met several setbacks. In fact, we have been trying to get one since the 6th Assembly. I believe, this time around, it will be signed into law.
As you must know, the Bill has been passed by the House and gone through the first reading at the Senate. By the time we come back from recess, it will receive concurrence from the Senate and transmitted to President Buhari for assent. This time around, I am optimistic we will get assent from the president.
So, the Climate Change Bill is to a large extent, an effort by the legislature at giving president’s commitment to climate change legal backing. We’re aware of the areas of disagreement that led to the president denying assent to the Bill during the 8th Assembly. We adopted a collaborative and coordinated approach, championed by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, alongside the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, with support from the Ministry of Environment, and other non-governmental stakeholders, to review this Bill, looked at areas of contention, while making it more robust and futuristic.
How true is it that African countries are living in denial about climate change?
I think people say this, because even though Africa is one of the continents most vulnerable to climate change impacts, only Kenya has a climate change law.
Uganda and Nigeria are most likely to join Kenya. It is not entirely true that Africa is in denial about climate change. The issue is, the average African focuses more on hunger, health, and poverty without paying attention to how climate change might have played a role.
Yet, African Governments have shown a lot of commitment towards fighting climate change. In fact, the conception and launch of the Great Green Wall Initiative by the African Union is a massive statement of commitment towards climate change mitigation.
SOURCE: https://guardian.ng/property/lack-of-legal-framework-limiting-climate-change-efforts-says-onuigbo/
