Nigeria last week showed serious intent towards a memorable participation at this year’s climate change summit in Paris as major stakeholders met in Abuja to review the outcome of the previous conference held last December in Lima, Peru and chart a new course for the future. Participants brainstormed for three days at a Post Lima Workshop and Meeting of the ...

The Government of Nigeria regards the challenge of climate change as inimical to its national sustainable development that must be squarely addressed. Thus, various national efforts have been put in place at all levels of governance to promote climate resilient environmental sustainability in the context of national development. However, Nigeria is yet to have a focused approach to developing and ...

At least 28 children under the age of five have been killed by drinking stream water contaminated with lead in Nigeria’s Niger State, Health Minister Fidelis Nwankwo has said. Officials have however blamed the contamination on illegal mining. Villagers “were mining for gold, and (the water was made toxic) by its impurities,” said Mohammed Usman, a government health official in ...

On the 13th October 2014, the Federal University of Technology in Minna, Niger State graduated its first set of students under the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) Management programme. The institution operates the Master of Technology in Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (CC&ALU) course. Director of the FUT Minna Masters Programme ...

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) has welcomed the release of Canada’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), committing the North American nation to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. A key element in meeting this target will be new rules to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by addressing leaking and ...

State Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ethiopia, Ato Sileshi Getahum, has urged Malawian delegates and those from other African countries to come up with good recommendations to enrich the continent’s position on climate change ahead of the next Conference of the Parties (COP) in the next few months. Getahum made this submission recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during ...

Lagos-based estate valuer and legal practitioner, Solomon Olusola Fatoki, in this presentation a couple of weeks ago at a meeting of Archivers’ Table of Ikeja Club, examines the role of housing in national development, calling for a stable and enduring policy to address inherent challenges Next to food, clothing and security, housing is the next basic need to human beings ...

A panel of 35 experts convened by the Abidjan Convention Secretariat in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, gathered recently to examine how port and maritime activities affect biodiversity and ecosystems in the Convention region. The three-day workshop on the strategic assessment of environmental issues, policies and ports’ programmes in West, Central and Southern Africa was organised by the Abidjan Convention Secretariat with ...

One of the most dominant themes in Nigeria’s socio-political debate has been the issue of rising corruption amidst a proliferation of anti-corruption programmes. Since its independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria has grappled with the challenge of taming corruption. Many regimes have been toppled from power after being accused of tolerating corruption, or even engaging in it. Yet the scale ...

National Coordinator of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams, has said the next phase of the struggle in Nigeria will be the implementation of the report of the National Conference held last year. Adams, who is also the Convener of the Oodua Progressive Union (OPU), an association of the Yoruba and people who believe in the Yoruba cause ...