The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has blamed the recourse of the Lagos State Government to environmentally-unfriendly projects along the entire Lagos coastline, especially the Lekki-Ajah axis, for massive the floods that submerged houses in several parts of the state during last week’s heavy downpour.
Flooded highway in Lekki, Lagos
The floods ravaged parts of Victoria Island, Lekki, Ikoyi, Ajah, Oniru and adjoining areas, where a large number of houses were inundated and residents trapped in their homes in the face of rising flood water.
Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Babatunde Adejare, who visited some of the areas blamed the incident on indiscriminate waste dump and urged residents to desist from the act.
But, in a statement issued in Lagos on Monday, July 10, 2017 and made available to EnviroNews, ERA/FoEN said the state government interpretation of the watery nightmare was diversionary as the commissioner avoided the real cause of the floods.
The ERA/FoEN deputy executive director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said: “We have said it time and again that environmental sustainability goes beyond showmanship and sweet pronouncements. The rains have exposed how dangerous experiments like the Eko Atlantic City project and unmitigated sand dredging along the Lekki and Ajah corridor for the ultimate pleasure of the wealthy can make life miserable for the generality.”
Oluwafemi explained that what was at stake with dredging and land grab activities that has thus far displaced a host of communities including Otodo Gbame and Makoko, is a classic case of development versus human rights, even as he alerted that the reckless reclamation exercise in Lagos was now threatening to throw the entire southwest coastline extending down to the Niger Delta into chaos.
“The explanation of the state government conveyed by Environment Commissioner was very watery as it deliberately avoided the subject matter but instead blamed the flooding on near insignificant pieces of rubbish floating around narrow drains. For us, this is an indictment on the government because it is the same government and its agents that grant all sorts of permits for sand dredging and other projects that put pressure on the Atlantic and residents of Lagos in harms way,” Oluwafemi added.
He revealed that this level of flood is deeper than the usual rhetoric of previous years because not only were homes flooded, people were likewise terrorised by dangerous reptiles that came with the Atlantic waters that met with the rain waters and had nowhere to go.
“We are using this sad occasion to reiterate our demands that the Lagos State Government put a brake on massive excavations and soil reclamation exercises that have displaced locals while creating an earthly paradise for the wealthy. We also ask this government to make public the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the controversy-streaked Eko Atlantic City project and others that defy logic at a time that climate change is inducing sea level rise globally. Anything short of a retreat from these dangerous activities will spell doom for all of us. God forbid,” Oluwafemi insisted.
Africa now has in place a number of Resource Networks to strategically address pertinent issues relating to the responsible development and use of agricultural biotechnology within countries, across sub-regions and around the continent.
Participants at the African Biosafety Network of Expertise meeting in Accra, Ghana
These Resource Networks are also to help strengthen and position the African group for tactical negotiations at the international level. This is to ensure that Africa’s concerns and views regarding biotechnology are well captured in globally legally binding instruments formulated at international conferences.
Biotechnology is the process through which scientists change the genes of plants and animals by introducing into them desirable genes from other related species. Experts says the application of biotechnology in agriculture is aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity as well as improving the nutritional quality of foods by addressing issues of land degradation, pests and drought among other things. The produce or products of this process are known as genetically modified organisms, GMOs or GM foods.
The Socio-Economic Resource Network for Africa was launched on Thursday, June 29, 2017 following an inception and planning meeting organised by the African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE) in Accra, Ghana. The core members who attended the meeting were from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Cameroon.
ABNE was established in October 2009 by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency), in partnership with Michigan State University with financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ABNE was purposely formed to offer its skills to African countries, in the effective use of science and biotechnology to pursue agricultural development.
ABNE has been assisting African countries to establish functional biosafety systems to regulate the development and use of agricultural biotechnology. The recent launch of the Socio-Economic Resource Network for Africa brings to five the number of such networks formed so far. The others launched earlier are: the Association of National Biosafety Agencies in Africa (ANBAA), the Environmental Safety Resource Network, Food Safety Resource Network, and Resource Network for Lawyers.
According to the Head of ABNE, Dr. Jeremy Ouedraogo, the Communicators Resource Network will be launched soon in Uganda to make a total of six of such specialised networks of Africans to help the continent to utilise biotechnology to improve Africa’s agricultural productivity.
He said the formation of the Resource Networks is in line with NEPAD’s major goal of mobilising African expertise to address current challenges facing the continent such as the escalating poverty levels and underdevelopment as well as to develop a new vision that would guarantee Africa’s renewal.
It is to ensure the attainment of this goal that the NEPAD Agency was established to facilitate and coordinate the implementation of regional and continental priority programmes and projects, and to push for partnerships, resource mobilisation and research and knowledge management.
Subsequently, one of the priority activities identified for policy reforms and increased investments is agriculture and food security, a sector underpinned by the increasing food needs of a growing population, aging workforce, lack of interest of Africa’s youth in agriculture, decreasing land for agriculture as a result of increasing competitive land uses, decreasing productivity and climate change impacts among other things.
Dr. Ouedraogo explained that the networks were formed by identifying and bringing together individual experts within countries, to make their expertise available to all African countries. He said this was necessary because ABNE realised that countries do not have the same level of required expertise in developing and regulating agricultural biotechnology.
He said: “This development is important for the building of an African consensus to enable the continent to speak with one voice at international negotiations. For us the best approach is to use the comparative advantage that countries have.”
Michigan State University’s WorldTap Programme Director, Dr. Karim Maredia, who was at the event, expressed similar sentiments, saying: “Our goal is to expand the expertise base in African intellectual resources for National Biosafety Systems. This is an African initiative and it belongs to NEPAD.
“We want to highlight talents from Africa to serve as intellectual resources and expertise all over the world for the benefit of Africa. The ultimate goal is for safe biotechnology crops to reach the African small holder farmers to enhance food security and livelihoods.”
Dr. Maredia admitted that a lot of work needs to be done “as we’re developing and promoting new technology, and we want to ensure that the issues of small holder farmers are addressed.”
He was confident that the formation of the Resource Networks would ensure that issues including socio-economic considerations are incorporated in biotechnology decision making.
Jon Guenthner, Prof. Emeritus at the University of Idaho, who also cultivate biotechnology potatoes, attended the meeting. He explained that “adoption of the new technology presents a win-win situation in which a farmer gets high prices for the produce and a consumer gets lower prices,” adding, “and this is not a contradiction.”
He stressed the need for small holder farmers to access the technology saying, “With this new technology there can be a progression through which they can grow into large commercial farmers and the key is access to the technology.”
Earlier, a Senior Programme Officer of ABNE, Samuel Timpo, briefed the meeting on socio-economic considerations in biosafety decision making and highlighted Africa’s agenda in utilising biotechnology to address challenges in agriculture.
He said the main challenges include an aging farming population of 55 years and above; high agricultural potential but low productivity; Africa being a net importer of food spending about $40 billion every year on food imports; and majority of Africa’s population being young with agriculture as a potential employer, but the youth not interested.
Timpo considered as a political decision, Africa Union’s stance to use science and technology as vital tools in enhancing agricultural productivity on farms and along the agri-food value chain for competitiveness and market access. He also considered as a continental decision the identification by the African Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology (AMCOST) of biotechnology as a developmental tool that must be harnessed safely.
He mentioned some factors that influence the adoption of biotechnology by farmers as including relevance to needs and interests, affordability, accessibility, profitability and safe for users, consumers and the environment.
He presented some pointers as food for thought: countries that move forward in adopting biotechnology weigh benefits with risks in decision making; and every economic activity has four types of risks namely innovation, technology, product and market risks.
Dr. Isabella Dabire of the International Agricultural and Environment Research (INERA) based in Burkina Faso stressed the need to build the capacity of extension officers to deliver the right messages to farmers. She said it is equally important for scientists to engage directly with end users of the technology to deliver appropriate messages to them.
The formation of African-based Resource Networks to champion the development and application of science and technology in areas including agriculture is seen as a welcome development. NEPAD Agency and the bodies formed under it have set the pace for the moblisation of existing human resources.
What is left is boldness and innovativeness on the part of these Resource Networks and other bodies of expertise that will eventually be formed, to work hand in hand with leadership sincerely committed to addressing human development needs and eradicating poverty.
Leaders of the G20 group of nations at the weekend stated that the Paris Agreement on Climate Action is “irreversible”, even as they agreed a climate and energy action plan which appears to set out concrete steps to accelerate the world’s transitions to low carbon and greater resilience to climate change.
Total climate commitment: G20 leaders at the Hamburg summit
In the leaders’ declaration that emerged at the end of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, the heads of state and government said they recognise a “strong economy and a healthy planet are mutually reinforcing” and underscored the many opportunities for innovation, sustainable growth, competitiveness, and job creation that can be brought about through increased investment into sustainable energy sources and clean energy technologies and infrastructure.
Whilst “taking note” of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the leaders wrote in a statement that they are collectively committed to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through, among others, increased innovation on sustainable and clean energies and energy efficiency, and work towards low greenhouse-gas emission energy systems.
The heads of state and government, who reiterated their support for the Paris Agreement, also underlined the importance of fulfilling the commitment by developed countries under Paris in providing “means of implementation” – so notably climate finance – to developing countries in order to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change.
In the G20 Hamburg Climate and Energy Action Plan for Growth issued at the end of the meeting (with the United States reserving its position on this particular document), leaders emphasised the “urgency and priority of accelerating the implementation of pre-2020 commitments and actions.”
This is in line with the central tenet of the Paris Climate Change Agreement to raise ambition so that the central goal of the agreement can be met, namely to the limit the global average temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius.
“Mobilising climate finance from private sources will be key to addressing significant investment needs for both adaptation and mitigation. Public finance will continue to play a significant role,” they wrote.
Other means to achieve the goals of Paris outlined in the plan are to increase joint efforts to promote energy efficiency, scale up renewable energy, phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies and to align financial flows with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Finally, G20 leaders expressed their support for the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action and encouraged the further engagement of cities, regions, companies, investors and a multitude of non-state actors to support governments in implementing the Paris Agreement. And they encouraged these actors to register their actions through the NAZCA platform of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Government of Liberia recently received $805,000 as part of a $2.2 million Green Climate Fund (GCF) grant to support its national climate adaptation planning process. The release of funds to the West African country represents GCF’s first transfer of adaptation resources to a least developed country (LDC).
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia
Liberia will use the GCF funds to kick-start a cross-government approach to integrate climate change adaptation throughout key ministries, agencies and authorities, and to develop corresponding strategies. The focus area of the grant was identified by the government following a national stocktaking exercise that found limited inclusion of climate adaptation considerations in coastal planning and key sectors like agriculture, energy, forestry and health that would be adversely affected by climate change.
The government also plans to use grant resources to boost the institutional capacities of two front-line offices – the Environment Planning Authority and the National Climate Change Secretariat – that have been mandated to drive Liberia’s climate adaptation efforts, as well as to ensure all adaptation activities are gender-responsive.
GCF’s support for adaptation planning reflects its role in assisting developing countries, including the poorest, to identify their medium- and long-term needs to adapt to the impacts of climate change. A country-driven process, adaptation planning aims to enable policies, strategies, programmes and investment that reduces a country’s vulnerability to climate change.
In addition to Liberia, GCF resources for adaptation planning have been approved for Nepal and Pakistan. Seventeen other countries have submitted proposals for adaptation planning support through the Fund’s Readiness Programme, all of which are currently being reviewed in coordination with the countries’ respective National Designated Authority (NDA).
GCF’s adaptation planning support programme provides up to $3 million per developing country for the formulation of national adaptation plans (NAPs) or other adaptation planning processes. GCF aims for a floor of 50 percent of Readiness Programme funding to particularly vulnerable countries, including LDCs, Small Island developing States and African States.
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have committed to support adaptation planning activities in developing countries, which was first articulated in the 2010 Cancun Agreement and further strengthened in the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
About 25 Nigerian athletes will this week depart for Bahamas to represent the country in the Commonwealth Youth Games.
Leader of Nigeria’s delegation and Head of Grassroots Development in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ademola Are, told newsmen on Sunday, July 9, 2017 that, with the level of preparation put in, a lot is expected from the nation’s contingent.
Head of Grassroots Development in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ademola Are
“As children, we have charged them on, to know why they are traveling and the need for them to go to the Bahamas and succeed.
“To whom much is given, much is expected, as much is expected from them to make Nigeria proud,” Are charged.
He also told newsmen that all traveling arrangements for the athletes have been well taken care of.
“All athletes have been cleared of visa issues, as we are able to meet all requirements.
“We actually have two options, to go through the US or UK; either of the two, no athlete would be dropped.
“Some would leave on the 12th of July, while some on the 14th because we cannot actually get a group booking on a particular airline we are traveling on, “Are concluded.
Nigeria is participating in seven sports, namely: Athletics, Swimming, Judo, Beach Volleyball, Tennis, and Boxing.
The Commonwealth Youth Games will take place from the 18th to 23rd of July, 2017.
The French ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Denys Gauer has reinstated the support of the French government to the partnership between Campus France, Abuja and the Federal University Ndfu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State.
The French ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Denys Gauer has reinstated the support of the French government to the partnership between Campus France, Abuja and the Federal University Ndfu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State.
French ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Denys Gauer (left), with Vice Chancellor of Federal University the Ndfu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba
The envoy made this known recently when he visited the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba, in furtherance of the post-graduate studies partnership between the university and the French government.
The partnership which is geared towards ensuring that young academics of the university pursue their Masters and PhD programmes in notable French public and private universities is the first of its kind between the government of France and any Nigerian university.
Speaking during the event, the ambassador who was represented by the Head of Cooperation and Cultural Affairs and Director of Institut Francais, Abuja, Mr. Arnaud Dornon, appreciated the Vice Chancellor for taking the bold step of ensuring that FUNAI becomes the first university in Nigeria to partner with the French government in the area of post-graduate studies.
The French attaché explained that the selected students would be exposed to better knowledge and know-how through the provision of unrestricted access to disciplinary laboratories and resource centres of different French universities that are relevant to their courses.
He added that most of the courses would be delivered in English language, stressing that the intending students were still expected to learn how to communicate in French language in other to be able to socialise properly with the people.
He further noted that unlike what is obtainable in America and other European nations, the tuition is free in French public universities while the private ones are affordable, emphasising that both foreign and French students are treated the same way.
Earlier the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Nwajiuba thanked the ambassador for his unalloyed support which made the partnership to see the light of day, noting that as a young university at a critical stage of defining its culture, the collaboration was apt and strategic.
He added that the university has already mapped out a land for the building of a French village, noting that French language has been made one of the compulsory General studies courses for students.
The Vice Chancellor further stressed that the partnership would ease financial burden on the students, even as it will also give them international exposure.
The first batch of FUNAI academics numbering about 20 that have been offered admission into French Universities to pursue either Masters or PhD programmes through the partnership will be leaving for France in September 2017.
Governments in the country have been urged to promote their tourism sector in order to accelerate youth employment, increase revenue from agriculture, and enrich rural farmers, among other benefits.
A professor of Economics, Ndubuisi Nwokoma, gave the recommendation in Lagos while presenting the Africa’s Economic Development Report for 2017, by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD.
After nearly one week of continuous rainfall in Lagos, and going by predictions that the rains may continue for another two weeks, there has been panic among Lagos residents that a widespread flood disaster May be imminent in the state.
The signs are already obvious in places like Victoria Island and Lekki, among others.
Correspondent Innocent Onoh went to town and filed in this report.
A flood, which followed many hours of downpour, displaced numerous homes and caused deaths in Suleja, Niger State on Sunday, July 9, 2017 witnesses said.
Flooded parts of Suleja. Photo credit: Sahara Reporters
Witnesses said eight members of a household were suspected to have died in the flood, which affected Suleja and Tafa Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
The head of the household was said to have survived, but his two wives and six children were not that lucky.
The New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that many families were affected, with household effects floating in the water.
Many people struggled to bale water out of their houses.
Mohammed Mohammed, the District Police Officer in-charge of Division ‘A’ Police station in Suleja, could not confirm the casualty figure, but said his men had visited the flood scenes.
Mohammed said: “The flood affected many people who built their houses along the river bank; many houses have been destroyed with unconfirmed number of deaths recorded.
“Police are providing security around the scene so that hoodlums will not cart away victims’ property especially those lying outside.”
Mohammed promised to furnish more details on the incident.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was not also able to give details.
Meanwhile, Malam Abdulkareem Samanja, the Village Head of Hayin Nasarawa-Iku in the nearby Tafa Local Government Area, decried the loss of property.
Samanja said he was still awaiting report from ward heads on the incident.
At Suleja General Hospital, Musliu Mohammed, a 17-year-old boy recovered from the flood and brought into the hospital by sympathisers, was placed on admission.
The Republic of Malawi on Thursday, June 29, 2017 deposited its instrument of ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Peter Mutharika, President of Malawi
The East African nation thus becomes the 153rd country to endorse the global treaty, after Egypt and Togo, which ratified the climate accord respectively on Thursday, June 29 and Wednesday, June 28 2017.
According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Malawi’s ratification of the pact will enter into force in a month’s time on Saturday, July 29, 2017.
The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention (UNFCCC) and – for the first time – brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort.
The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework will be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives. The Agreement also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework.
