Following Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s response to one of the questions asked at the Arewa Interactive Committee on Monday, regarding what he would do about climate change which has triggered reactions across the country, Dr. Adekunle Ojo, SAN in an interview with Legal Nigeria, shares his opinion below:
“I have read some contemptuously distrustful comments about the response of BAT to the question on “climate change” at the Arewa joint committee interactive session in Kaduna on the 17th of October 2022. Politics aside BAT was on point. We cannot afford to play politics with an issue as important as climate change. How anyone sees BAT because of politics does not matter on this issue. Perhaps BAT may appear a bit casual on the point because of want of time but he seems to understand what is at stake perfectly.
Nigeria, ditto Africa, contributes the least to the greenhouse gas emissions which threatens the world’s climate at the moment and the predictions are that Nigeria and other African countries will suffer more from climate changes caused by China, Canada and co. Industrial worlds birthed the change in climate because of the pressure they placed on the nature but it is countries like Nigeria that will bear the brunt because the country surfers from poverty- our poor farmers depend on rainfall for our Agriculture whereas most advanced countries especially China and Canada who contributes so much to the emissions no longer depend on rainfall to grow their foods.
Patterns of temperature, rainfall etc is being altered by climatic changes thereby causing food insecurity, natural disasters here and there, economic damages and other corollary oddities. Unfortunately, Nigeria (Africa) will be worst affected because of poverty, weak infrastructure, lack of social welfare, lack of technological resources. So what is wrong in BAT asking the rich nations of the World to aid Nigeria financially to enable us combat the effects of climate change. It is morally incomprehensible for anyone to demand of a poor village farmer not to cut woods for his domestic cooking- you cannot stop church rat from eating bread kept in the church for holy communion. Yes you cannot!!! PYO was in the US recently to ask for Debt For Climate (DFC) Swap deal. For me what he asked for was debt forgiveness, of a sort, in consideration for climate change and I think his request is ideal and timely. It will relieve Nigeria of her debt burdens and enable her grow a reassuring resilience that will address climatic problems.
African countries are the most probable to be affected by climate change just because we are poor but the rich countries have the tools to combat climate change. We need climate resilient strategies to reduce poverty, reduce impact of emissions and increase productivity through technology. BAT’s idea and that of PYO, on this point, are wonderful ideas and ingenious. Instead of bemoaning the succinct answer by BAT, such should be commended for its being loaded with incommutable African wisdom and a genuine request on those who caused our country climatic woe to fix it- call it REPARATION. In fact, I trust that the academically inclined Nigerians might research a Thesis out of the brief response of BAT.”
