Nigerian forward Peter Odemwingie is set to show his wealth of experience in Indonesia this week.
Peter Odemwingie
The veteran player, who represented the Super Eagles at the 2010 and 2014 World Cup finals, has been without a club after leaving English championship side, Rotherham, earlier this year.
The 36-year-old credited the influence of Michael Essien, who plays for the rival club Persib Bandung, for making the move to Southeast Asia.
“I had no idea what it’s like here, but I had a brief chat with Michael Essien and he gave me positive feedbacks.
“To be regarded as a marquee signing is huge – I’ve played in different European countries but this place is really beautiful – and the people are very friendly.
“These are exciting times for Indonesian football and I’m happy to be a part of it,” said Odemwingie.
Madural United finished third in the Indonesian Liga 1 last season, and the 2017 campaign starts on April 15, 2017.
About 16 Nigerian Cricket players and officials have departed the country for South Africa, ahead of the International Cricket Council African division one qualifiers.
The Nigeria Senior male Cricket team, the Yellow Greens, in action
The senior men national team has been in camp for over a month in preparation for the qualifiers.
Before their departure, the captain of the team, Chimezie Ewuzurinke, said the team was ready to give the country a good representation in South Africa.
“Mentally, psychologically and physically, we are up to the task right now. For what I have seen, the spirits of the boys in camp have been high. We are sure of getting to the next stage.”
President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation, Emeka Onyeama, is optimistic that the Nigerian team will come out tops from the qualifiers.
“Cricket is about perseverance, and since Team Nigeria is going to a more conducive natural environment, they will make qualification. I wish them luck as I believe the outing will be a beginning to Nigerian Cricket.”
Nigeria will be competing in the African qualifiers against Ghana, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Botswana for a place in the World Cricket League division five.
Over five years after the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recommended that Ogoniland in South-South Nigeria should be cleaned of the last drop of spilled oil, not a single drop has been removed from the beleaguered community.
Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Dr. Godwin Ojo (left); with the ERA/FoEN Head of Media, Philip Jakpor, at the media briefing
Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Dr. Godwin Ojo, disclosed this at a press briefing on the issue on Tuesday, April 4, 2017 in Lagos.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released its Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland in August, 2011. The report, delivered to the Federal Government, recommends to the government, the oil and gas industry, and communities to begin a comprehensive clean-up of Ogoniland, restore polluted environments and put an end to all forms of oil contamination in the region.
The clean-up is expected to last 30 years, from 2011. Initial $1 billion was to be released by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) for the project.
However, no verifiable effort was made in that line until 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari promised to start the implementation of the UNEP report.
“It took exactly five years after the report was submitted to the Federal Government before acceptance of responsibility by Shell Oil Company and the Federal Government. With pressure from civil society groups, the clean-up exercise proper was flagged-off in 2016 in Bodo City, Rivers State, by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
“The expectation that greeted that ceremony, which had the Ogoni people and hundreds of civil society groups in support, has however dimmed barely a year after, as the promised clean-up exercise is still bogged down in bureaucracy and controversies. The plan for the clean-up is still shrouded in secrecy and has not been formally subjected to public scrutiny.”
ERA added that, even with the inauguration of the Governing Council to provide for an institutional framework to drive the process, no verifiable progress has been made as, according to the organisation, “not a drop of oil has been cleaned from Ogoni”.
Again, ERA fears that “Shell is bound to compromise the process, if it continues to be a member of the Governing Council with oversight functions for the clean-up of its own mess”.
While these go on, the environment and people of Ogoni are at the receiving end. They suffer impoverishment and misery, says the activist.
In November 1995, Kenule Saro Wiwa and eight other members of Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), who were fighting against the degradation of Ogoniland, paid the supreme price, when the military government led by General Sani Abacha took them to the gallows. Even till date, people of the area drink benzene-polluted water and farm on hydrocarbon-soaked soil, according to Ojo.
To “add insult to injury”, he adds, “the pre-clean-up emergency relief measures recommended by UNEP such as access to clean water, rather than the benzene-polluted water sources they rely on, has not been addressed. Similarly, healthcare delivery and compensation for lost livelihoods continue to suffer neglect and inaction. Poverty is rife in Ogoni and the life expectancy of the people (reportedly put at 41 years) now considered the shortest in Nigeria.”
ERA said that as the clean-up remains in limbo, damning disclosures of wilful exposure of oil-producing communities to hazards continue to mount against Shell which, says the group, “continues to operate with impunity in the Niger Delta”.
“The most recent is from Kay Holtzman, a leading oil spill expert previously employed by Shell Nigeria. Holtzman revealed that Shell tried to conceal data on the potential health effects of its oil spills on Bodo community. Shell had lied to the court in the Bodo versus Shell case held in London and had no option than to withdraw the case for an out-of-court settlement for $83 million,” Ojo said.
ERA’s demands
In view of the foregoing, the Federal Government and relevant agencies are mandated to, among others:
Draw up and publish firm timelines through a participatory and transparent process, and publicise the step-by-step of the planned implementation of the clean-up process in conjunction with all interested parties.
Abrogate or amend the HYPREP (Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project) gazette to provide the legal backing to the clean-up process. To this end, (they should) establish the Ogoni Environmental Restoration Authority as a means of empowering the Ogoni as recommended by the UNEP report.
Commence emergency relief measures and ensure the clean-up process is comprehensive, including environmental remediation such as biodiversity restoration, and compensation for loss of livelihoods.
Set up a new structure called Technical Partners Unit headed by UNEP and other interested institutions with expertise in complex multi-disciplinary clean-up process.
Empower NOSRA (National Oil Spill Environmental Agency) that currently lacks the capacity to detect spills, to be able to conduct proper clean-up process, or monitor clean-up independently through the joint investigation visits currently dominated by the oil companies.
While the UNEP report had recommended a $1 billion initial restoration fund for Ogoni, ERA/FoEN recommends $100 billion clean-up and restoration fund to cover the entire Niger Delta. This will pave way for conflict resolution in the Niger Delta.
Two young people from Wellington, New Zealand, are cycling across Europe in an epic endeavor to raise awareness for climate action and showcase projects related to the UN’s Climate Neutral Now and Momentum for Change initiatives.
Young climate ambassadors: Inka Vogt and Fabian Beveridge
The climate ambassadors plan to cycle approximately 10,000 km across Europe to show that traveling can be climate neutral, visiting projects and interviewing key people active in climate protection on their way. One stop will be at the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany.
“We’ll be featuring the video interviews they do visiting local champions, and you can follow their climate neutral journey on social media,” says the UNFCCC secretariat in a statement on Tuesday, April 4, 2017.
Inka Vogt and Fabian Beveridge are both 18 years old, and have just completed secondary school. They began their trip in Porto, Portugal and are heading towards Munich, Germany. The trip will take them via Greece and Serbia.
“The most important thing we want to contribute to with our trip is awareness about climate change and climate action, so people know it is possible and affordable to travel like we are”, they say about the project, dubbed “Europe on four wheels”.
“We want everyone to know the true ramifications of their actions when CO2 emissions are concerned, and attempt to provide and use alternatives”.
The carbon emissions from their flights, totaling about six tonnes, have been offset by helping fund a project in Thailand via the UN’s Climate Neutral Now initiative.
The Climate Neutral Now initiative enables individuals, companies and governments to measure their carbon footprints, reduce emissions where possible and offset the rest with UN-certified emission reductions, while at the same time investing in sustainable development projects in developing countries.
As climate ambassadors, Inka and Fabian will be visiting NGOs and Climate Neutral Now participants along their route, as well as Momentum for Change Lighthouse Activities. These are practical, scalable and replicable examples of what people, businesses, governments and industries are doing to tackle climate change. Momentum for Change is an initiative spearheaded by the UN Climate Change secretariat.
Niclas Svenningsen, Manager for the Strategy and Relationship Management at UNFCCC, expects that their trip can bring climate action to people’s attention and inspire them to cut carbon emissions.
“We are proud to have Inka and Fabian as UNFCCC’s Climate Neutral Now and Momentum for Change ambassadors! Their initiative to go around Europe by bike to visit, and tell the world about, good projects, ideas and organisations walking the talk on climate action will hopefully inspire others to follow suit – both to take climate action, and to take the bicycle when they are heading somewhere. I look forward to follow their progress, and to meet them along the way,” said Svenningsen.
The Health Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory has yet to receive any report on outbreak of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis in the area.
Executive Secretary of FCT Primary Health Care Development Board, Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, vaccinating a child
Alice Achu, the Acting Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretariat of the territory, made the remark in Abuja on Monday, April 3, 2017.
Achu denied an earlier report credited to the Executive Secretary of Primary Healthcare Board, Dr. Rilwan Mohammed, that five cases had been recorded.
According to her, for meningitis to be confirmed, a patient has to undergo clinical fluid test through which the disease can be identified.
Achu said: “Most of the diseases like malaria, urinary tract infection and others have the same symptom but the only way is to have laboratory fluid test which those who were reported dead did not go through.
“We had eight suspected cases, six died, and two treated but none underwent the test to confirm that the cases were cerebrospinal meningitis.
“All the said patients went to the clinic late when they were about to die. Those who survived were diagnosed with cerebral malaria.”
Achu called on the residents to adhere strictly to the basic rules of hygiene which included sleeping in ventilated rooms, washing of hands and covering one’s mouth while sneezing.
Achu said there was a concerted effort by the FCTA management to fight the disease, adding that some of the health collaborating agencies have supplied them with vaccines for high risk areas.
The secretary said those areas included prisons, IDP camps and boarding schools to prevent the spread of the disease. She said management had mapped out plans for the control of the disease.
She said: “A committee has been set up and charged with giving out information when necessary.
“The emphasis has been on preventing the disease, having the vaccination is to have immunity which if you do you have acquired defence.
“In 2013, there was a campaign all over Nigeria on Type A of cerebrospinal meningitis which we have already dealt with, whereas now what we have is Type C.
“And you don’t vaccinate everybody but some numbers to curtail it, only from one-year-old child and above as it takes five years in human body.”
The acting secretary announced sources of information to include community leaders, focal and surveillance officers at community, local government and state levels.
Achu said: “People should also know that a disease is suspected disease, probable and then confirmed which we are yet to confirm. What we have at the FCT has been suspected cerebrospinal meningitis but yet to be confirmed.’’
The situation report from the Federal Ministry of Health on Friday showed that 90 local government areas in 16 states of the federation have so far been affected by CSM.
The states include: Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Nasarawa, Jigawa, FCT, Gombe, Taraba, Yobe, Osun, Cross River, Lagos and Plateau.
The ministry said 2,524 people had been affected across the states, 131 samples confirmed in the laboratory with majority as meningitides type C, and 328 deaths recorded so far.
The outbreak started in Zamfara in November, 2016.
The ministry has, however, advised Nigerians to remain calm as the disease is preventable and curable if presented early.
The Arctic Ocean urgently needs protection as melting sea ice is opening up previously inaccessible areas to activities such as shipping, bottom trawl fishing and oil exploration, according to a scientific report launched on Tuesday, April 4, 2017 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in partnership with the US-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre.
Scoresby Sound Polynya Ecoregion, one of the sites identified in the report that could potentially qualify for World Heritage status, supports a stock of the critically endangered bowhead whale
The report identifies seven globally significant marine sites in the Arctic Ocean that warrant protection and could potentially qualify for World Heritage status.
“The Arctic Ocean plays a crucial role in shaping global climate and hosts a diverse range of species, many of them threatened,” says Carl Gustaf Lundin, Director of IUCN’s Global Marine and Polar Programme. “The World Heritage Convention has great potential to increase global recognition and protection of the region’s most exceptional habitats.”
The Arctic Ocean stretches across the northernmost side of the planet, spanning 14 million square kilometers. Its icy waters are home to wildlife found nowhere else on the planet, including bowhead whales, narwhals and walruses. As one of the most pristine oceans on Earth, it provides critical habitat for threatened species, such as polar bears and Atlantic puffins, both assessed as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
However, climate change is posing a serious threat to the Arctic region, which is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Rapidly melting sea ice is opening up previously inaccessible areas to potential new shipping routes, oil and gas development and industrial fishing. These changes increase the urgency of improving mankind’s understanding and effective conservation of the Arctic’s globally unique marine ecosystems.
“Our Arctic Ocean conservation efforts are not keeping pace with the loss of ice and encroaching economic development, and this is putting our shared heritage in jeopardy,” says Lisa Speer of NRDC. “We need to protect the region’s most important ecological hotspots from industrial fishing, offshore oil and gas development and other damaging human activity to give the region’s globally unique wildlife the best possible chance of survival.”
The sites identified in the report that could potentially qualify for World Heritage status include: the Remnant Multi-Year Sea Ice and Northeast Water Polynya Ecoregion, which boasts the oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic and may give polar bears the greatest chance of survival through the 21st century; the Bering Strait Ecoregion, one of the world’s great migration corridors for millions of seabirds and marine mammals; the Northern Baffin Bay Ecoregion, which supports the largest aggregation of a single species of seabird, the little auk; the Scoresby Sound Polynya Ecoregion, the world’s largest fjord system which supports the Critically Endangered Spitsbergen stock of bowhead whale; the High Arctic Archipelagos, which support 85% of the world’s population of ivory gulls; Disko Bay and Store Hellefiskebanke Ecoregion, a critical winter habitat for the West Greenland walrus and hundreds of thousands of king eiders; and the Great Siberian Polynya, where the seasonal formation and melting of ice influences oceanic processes on a large scale.
“The Arctic Ocean’s beauty and bounty are unparalleled,” says Mechtild Rössler, Director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre. “From the sea life superhighway of the Bering Strait to the breath-taking fjords of Scoresby Sound, this region is unlike any other on the planet. This new report highlights seven possible treasures in the Arctic Ocean that need conservation efforts to keep pace with climate change.”
Currently, there are five World Heritage sites within the Arctic Circle, only one of which is listed for its marine values – Russia’s Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve. Inscribed in 2004, it boasts the world’s largest population of Pacific walrus, with up to 100,000 animals congregating in the island’s rookeries, and the highest density of ancestral polar bear dens. Research suggests that some humpback whales from the Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino in Mexico migrate all the way to the waters around Wrangel Island for summer feeding, highlighting the connections between the Arctic Ocean and World Heritage sites in lower latitudes.
Former Nigeria international, Tijani Babangida, says the Super Eagles still have work to do if they must qualify for the Russia 2018 World Cup.
Tijani Babangida
As some Nigerians celebrate the Super Eagles’ impressive run so far and the team’s likelihood to go through to the tournament, Babangida is however having some reservations. He believes that the double header against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon is too crucial an encounter that could decide Nigeria’s fate.
He said: “Cameroon are the African Champions and they are favoured to win both encounter or may secure a draw in Nigeria and then a win in Cameroon.
“But I think that the game would be difficult to predict and would not be an easy one for Nigeria.”
The Super Eagles currently top their qualifying group with six points after two matches, following victories against Zambia and Algeria.
In a related development, coach of Abubakar Bukola Saraki (ABS) Football Club of Ilorin, Henry Makinwa, said he is not disappointed at his side after they lost 0-2 to Abia Warriors in match Week 17 of the Nigerian Professional Football League.
Makinwa, who is confident that his team would bounce back from a recent poor run of form, however agreed that a better side won the game.
“I’m not disappointed, because we have to adapt to the pitch. This is not our kind of game, it has been affecting us, we play a passing game, but when it comes to this kind of pitch, what do you do? You have to change, so it is difficult for us to adapt. It is also hard for them too.
“If we end up in the first 12 on the log, then that will be fantastic for us. We are a small team, we are not Abia Warriors, we are not Enyimba, or Kano Pillars, we are trying our best to be up there,” he concluded.
ABS will play Rivers United on Wednesday, April 5, 2017 in a reschedule match at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Peer-reviewed study shows deforestation drops dramatically the same year land rights are granted to indigenous communities in Peru
Peruvian Amazonian indigenous peoples
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides some of the first rigorous peer-reviewed evidence that giving indigenous communities formal legal title to their land protects tropical forests.
The study was conducted by researchers from Resources for the Future (RFF), the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Carnegie Institution for Science. It focuses on the Peruvian Amazon, one of Latin America’s most rapidly shrinking rainforests, where indigenous communities control more than 10 million of hectares of forest.
Using high-resolution satellite images along with statistical methods that control for factors other than titling that affect forest cover, the authors find that titling reduces clearing by more than three-quarters and forest disturbance by roughly two-thirds in a two-year window spanning the year title is awarded and the year afterward. Data constraints prevented the authors from determining whether titling has longer-term effects.
The findings indicate that titling could have an important role to play in global efforts to slow climate change. Tropical deforestation and disturbance are a leading source of global greenhouse gas emissions, contributing about the same share as the transportation sector. And indigenous and other local communities now control a large share of the world’s forests.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Allen Blackman from the Washington, DC, research institution Resources for the Future, said of the findings: “Granting indigenous and other local communities formal title to the forests that have traditionally sustained them is probably the most important trend in tropical forest policy over the past 30 years. These local communities now manage almost a third of all forests in developing countries, over twice the share currently found in government-run protected areas. Yet we know very little about titling’s effects on forest cover.”
“The clear finding of this new study,” he added, “is that in Peru the overall effect is to protect forests. That implies that titling could be an effective forest conservation and climate strategy in other tropical countries, although additional research is needed to test that hypothesis.”
The other members of the research team are Leonardo Corral and Eirivelthon Lima at the Inter-American Development Bank and Greg Asner at the Carnegie Institution for Science.
The RFF is a Washington, DC-based independent, non-partisan organisation that conducts economic research and analysis to improve environmental and natural resource policy.
The Inter-American Development Bank is a leading multilateral institution fostering economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean in a sustainable and climate-friendly way.
The Carnegie Institution for Science is an independent non-profit organisation headquartered in Washington, DC that encourages the discovery and the application of knowledge to the improvement of humankind.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat and the Gold Standard on Tuesday, April 4, 2017 announced a collaboration to assist organisations, such as corporates, investors, regions, territories and cities, in setting sustainability targets and assessing the sustainable development impacts of their initiatives.
CEO of Gold Standard, Marion Verles
The partnership will build on the standard-setting experience of both organisations in the areas of impact evaluation of climate and sustainable development (SD) actions.
The ultimate objectives of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be achieved only if they are fully recognised as one encompassing agenda. As such, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) need to be tackled in an integrated manner. Moreover, it is also widely recognised that successful implementation can only be achieved by engaging all actors.
Providing all actors with improved ways to easily and cost-effectively analyse, assess and demonstrate their sustainability initiatives is a priority and a key objective of this partnership.
“Governments are central to delivering the SDGs. But the speed and scale of the transformation needed can only happen if supported by all sectors of society,” said James Grabert, Director, UNFCCC secretariat. “Developing those tools and solutions aims at assisting all stakeholders to act concretely towards our common goals, as enshrined in the SDGs,” he added.
“It is clear the achievement of the SDGs is impossible without major participation from the private sector. Business is demonstrating its willingness to ramp up sustainability action, and many companies are already aligning not only their corporate social responsibility policies, but also their core business strategies with the targets defined in the SDGs,” said Gold Standard CEO, Marion Verles.
“What is missing are practical tools to help them contribute in meaningful, measurable and credible ways – and to get recognition for doing so. We hope our new collaboration with the UNFCCC secretariat will encourage and incentivise more ambitious contributions to sustainable development from the private sector,” she concluded.
Specifically, the collaboration will seek to deliver:
A decision-making tool for corporate sustainability impact assessments. The tool will include recommended approaches for the formulation of targets and decision-making pathways based on the individual needs of an organisation to measure and report on the impacts achieved;
Methodologies and approaches to quantify and report on the impacts of sustainable development actions, including methodologies for use in the context of large scale interventions such as supply chain and city scale interventions; and
Technology solutions to reduce the barriers to measuring, quantifying and certifying impacts (including IT based platforms and blockchain based solutions).
A new United Nations-backed report has revealed overwhelming consensus that renewable power will dominate in the future, with many experts saying that even large international corporations are increasingly choosing renewable energy products either from utilities or through direct investment in their own generating capacity.
Christine Lins, the Executive Secretary of Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21)
“(The report) is meant to spur discussion and debate about both the opportunities and challenges of achieving a 100 per cent renewable energy future by mid-century,” said Christine Lins, the Executive Secretary of Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) – a global renewable energy policy multi-stakeholder network hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
“Wishful thinking won’t get us there; only by fully understanding the challenges and engaging in informed debate about how to overcome them, can governments adopt the right policies and financial incentives to accelerate the pace of deployment,” she added.
At a press conference at UN Headquarters on Monday, April 3 2017, Ms. Lins said that 2016 was the third year in a row where the global economy continued to grow, by three per cent, but emissions related to the energy sector decreased. And that was mainly due to renewable energy and efficiency investment in China and in the United States.
“And so, we actually really see that renewables are, on the one hand making their way into the energy systems of many countries, but also we see that we have come a long way. We have a 20 per cent of the world’s final energy consumption nowadays coming from renewables,” she added.
The Renewables Global Futures Report: Great debates towards 100 per cent renewable energy also noted that more than 70 per cent of the experts expressed that a global transition to 100 per cent renewable energy is both feasible and realistic, with European and Australian experts most strongly supporting this view.
The report also found that similar number expected the cost of renewables to continue to fall, beating all fossil fuels within the next 10 years.
Noting some challenges in achieving the 100 per cent transition, the report mentioned that in some regions, most notably Africa, the US and Japan, experts were sceptical about reaching that figure in their own countries or regions by 2050, largely due to the vested interests of the conventional energy industry.
Also, the lack of long-term policy certainty and the absence of a stable climate for investment in energy efficiency and renewables hinder development in most countries, read the report.
“When REN21 was founded in 2004, the future of renewable energy looked very different than it does today,” noted Arthouros Zervos, the Chair of REN21, adding: “at that time, calls for 100 per cent renewable energy were not taken seriously, today the world’s leading energy experts are engaged in rational discussions about its feasibility, and in what time frame.”
The REN21 report is based on interviews with 114 renowned energy experts from all regions of the world.
In addition to governments, REN21 also includes international organisations, industry associations, science and academia and the civil society, as well as UN agencies including the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
