As the sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) approaches, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has alerted African governments on the need to be wary of tobacco industry exaggeration of farmers’ gains.
The undue attention of the tobacco transnational on so-called prosperous farmers is a ploy to weaken the resolve of delegates attending the COP to push through sustainable alternatives to tobacco farming at the talks, alleges the Lagos-based organisation.
ERA/FoEN insists the call had become urgent in view of the increase in tempo of visibility events organised by cigarette makers and leaf buyers through the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA) and its allies in different countries in the last two months which, it said, not only disparage the treaty talks but also serve as platforms for making bogus claims on tobacco farming.
Visibility events have been ongoing in several African countries including Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and Zimbabwe, claims the civil society body.
According to the organisation, the British America Tobacco (BAT) in Nigeria portrays local tobacco farmers as prosperous, but paints a gloomy picture for farmers as endangered species when legislations that will domesticate the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) finally become law.
“Farmers who spoke with ERA/FoEN during a recent industry monitoring visit in South West Nigeria said that media reports portraying them as successful were exaggerated as most of them spend virtually every day tending tobacco leaves and would require soft loans from government,” states the ERA/FoEN Director, Corporate Accountability, Akinbode Oluwafemi.
He adds: “It is extremely vexing to know that ITGA is one of the vehicles that transnationals like BAT consistently use to tie down tobacco farmers who want to transit. The renewed vigour with which the industry is poking legislations that will guarantee healthy environments is not one that should be treated with levity. African governments must act immediately and concertedly.
“Like in Malawi, and countries in East Africa, farmers in Nigeria are now victims of an industry that portrays them as prosperous while in actual fact they are pawns in the web of an industry that deliberately keeps prices of leaves so low that they (the farmers) make almost nothing from tobacco growing.”
Nigeria spokesperson of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT), Philip Jakpor, submits: ‘No one is left in doubt that ITGA presents the face of farmers to the public while in actual fact it is a pawn that was created to do the bidding of the industry only.”
Jakpor notes that ample examples reinforce the position of ERA, NATT and other civil society groups on ITGA’s objectives, including a recent meeting of the group in Harare on July 1, 2014, where its president Francois Van Der Merwe advocated the organisation be given a slot at the COP6.
Similarly, a group of tobacco farmers on the platform of the Uganda Tobacco Growers Association (UTGA) recently wrote to the Ugandan parliament demanding the removal of clauses that prohibit partnerships and endorsements including voluntary contributions, and incentives or privileges that promote tobacco businesses in the Ugandan Anti-Tobacco Bill 2014 – all of which are prescribed by the FCTC, of which Uganda is a member.
Jakpor adds: “African governments must now encourage farmers that are locked down to transit to proven alternatives that are sustainable and environment-friendly. In addition, governments should explore ways to ensure that farmers and farm workers receive fair leaf prices. Collusion over prices among tobacco companies must be stopped.
“Guidelines of Article 5.3 of the FCTC de-normalise treating tobacco companies (and their front groups) as stakeholders in public health policy. It is for this reason that African governments must rise up to the occasion by deploying resources to make it easy for tobacco farmers to transit and embrace alternatives that are safe and sustainable.”
The recently released Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has expressly maintained that human influence is extremely likely the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20th century, and that the warming of the climate system is unequivocal while the reality of the observation is 95% certainty. This is against the previous AR4 that was adjudged very likely with 90% certainty in 2007. The new revelations, as contained in the first segment of the report, Physical Science and released on the 27th September 2013 in Sweden, Stockholm, show that there is evidence of marked increase in the impacts of climate change on both planet Earth and humanity. With this latest assessment of the global climate change situation, it may therefore, not be incorrect to state that the impact of climate change increases on geometric rate while the global effort to stem the tide is on arithmetic progression. This harsh reality is hard to take. The good news is that we still have a chance to avoid the worse consequences of a warming planet – but it’s going to take an epic effort and actions, probably at supersonic progression.
According to Qin Dahe, Co-Chair of first segment, “Our assessment of the science finds that the atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amount of snow and ice has diminished, the global mean sea level has risen and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased”. This however translates into increased temperature and heat waves, sea level rise, ocean warming, decreasing glaciers and ice sheets, which further corroborate what the World Bank in its June 2013 Report (Turn Down The Heat: Why a 4oC Warmer World Must Be Avoided) stated in clear terms that “high temperature extreme appear likely to affect yields of rice, wheat, maize and other crops, adversely affecting food security”, stressing that “promoting economic growth and eradication of poverty and inequality will thus, be an increasingly challenging task”. This means that the effort to achieve the MDGs and the Post-2015 development agenda or the future Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may become more challenging to achieve.
The reality of the latest postulations of the World’s apex body for climate science may however be a great food for thought to the world, especially the developing countries, whose capacity to adapt to the impacts and mitigate the effects of climate change is either weak or non-existent, and yet will be worst hit by the ill-consequences. Alas, its second segment findings and observations, which focused on the Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, and released on 31st March 2014 in Yokohama, Japan, seem more worrisome and devastating going by the realism that the rate of occurrence of climate change impacts has so much dwarfed the hitherto global actions against it. It cataloged both the impacts that are already being observed and the future projections in simplified regional breakdown covering: Africa, Asia, Australia & New Zealand, Europe, North America, Small Islands, and South America.
The global Scientists further admitted that “Observed impacts of climate change are widespread and consequential. Recent changes in climate have caused impacts on natural and human systems on all continents and across the oceans”, while on projection, it states that “Climate change will increase the frequency and severity of many types of extreme weather: In many areas, more frequent intense rainfall events will increase the frequency of flooding. Globally, more people will be exposed to floods and economic losses due to flooding. It’s also likely that presently dry areas will become more severely drought-stricken”. Two of these scenarios are expressly evident in severe proportions in Nigeria, where the Northern part is impacted with drought and desertification (at the rate 600m/year) occasioned by intense temperature and lack of rainfall, while floods and erosion enveloped the Southern part, occasioned by sea level rise and frequent rainfall pattern.
Meanwhile, there is the third aspect of the latest report that focuses on Mitigation of Climate Change and released on the 13th April 2014 in Berlin, Germany, which however provides various low-carbon pathways and green growth actions to be carried out for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the three segments of the report will be synthesized into one by 31st October in Copenhagen, Denmark to give concise, action-packed analysis to all categories of Stakeholders, particularly the policy-makers, law-makers and decision-makers.
In all the three segments of the complete report, one isolating fact is the exigency of climate actions, which has characterized the clarion call for rapid response and firm commitment. It has become imperative for nations big and small, rich and poor, developed and developing to redouble their efforts on geometric progression to combat climate change. There is the dire need for governments, corporate bodies and the civil society Stakeholders to step up actions, separately or/and collectively. The developed countries should scale up their existing support and create new and additional ones, especially in the area of finance, capacity building and technology transfer to the developing countries while also living up to expectation in their commitment regarding binding emissions reduction targets. The developing countries should give priority to climate change mitigation and adaptation and incorporate them into their national development agenda.
Corporate bodies should ensure that their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) package is prioritised for climate action. Businesses all over the world should be regulated or their operations reviewed to statutorily require due climate-friendly actions. Contracts approval should entail commitment to climate action as one of its criteria. Renewable/bioenergy investments should be given incentives. There are also non-food crops such as Jathropha plant that can be cultivated to produce biodiesel at commercial scale if governments provide the necessary agricultural incentives. Donor agencies have a very important role to play in giving funding priority to climate action, while the international civil society organizations should consider promoting national climate actions as one of their focal points, especially in the developing countries. Consequently, the national civil society organisations should ensure that their Strategic Action Plans do give priority to promoting local actions in the area of policy/legislative advocacy, awareness creation and capacity building.
In Nigeria, the Presidential Commitment on Agriculture should encourage the cultivation of non-food energy crops in a commercial scale. The Federal, State and Local Governments should endeavour to respond to climate change impacts through implementation of climate-resilient projects and may however classify or label their completed and ongoing projects as climate change mitigation or adaptation so as to further increase climate change awareness and the exigency of responsive actions to combat it. In his book, “Understanding Climate Change”, Surveyor Efik used Lagos and the South-South States of Nigeria as well as Amuwo Odofin LGA in Lagos State as case study and classified all their projects including that of President Goodluck Jonathan into climate change mitigation and adaptation. In due course, the 36 states and the FCT Abuja will be covered.
While Nigeria is preparing ahead of 2015 elections, the Nigerian civil society under the auspices of the Climate Change Network Nigeria hereby urge all incumbent and prospective politicians, the technocrats, policy/decision makers to incorporate climate change adaptation and mitigation actions into their political manifestoes and national development agenda. We urge President Jonathan, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), all the political parties and all the electorates/citizens of Nigeria to consider climate-friendly commitment as one of the criteria for selecting, adopting or voting candidates into elective offices. The state governors should embellish their states with green growth developments while the Local Government Chairmen should turn their constituencies into green cities. The private sector, including the banks should not relent in their effort to promote climate-friendly investments and sustainable green businesses. The traditional rulers, communities/indigenous peoples, academia, media, faith-based organisations, NGOs, youths, women, children, students and all other civil society bodies and individual citizens should, on their own or collectively, endeavour to take climate actions such as tree planting, replacement of incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights, waste management, forest conservation and unblocking of gutters/erosion routes.
CCN-Nigeria also uses this medium to commend Mr. President and the Federal Executive Council for giving consideration to the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan of Action for Climate Change in Nigeria (NASPA-CCN), which has greatly promoted sectoral response to adaptation. As agriculture is the centrepiece of President Jonathan’s transformation agenda, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture duly emerged the first to produce its sector-based adaptation response and plan of action, under the leadership of Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina as the minster. This has indeed increased the visibility of his government’s commitment, not only to combating climate change but also in responding to the global call for climate actions, which will top the agenda in the forthcoming Ban Ki-moon’s UN Climate Summit 2014 next month.
By Surveyor Efik (National Coordinator, Climate Change Network Nigeria, and Visiting Scholar on Climate Change Governance, Wageningen University, The Netherlands)
(BBC News) – Police in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, have fired live rounds and tear gas during protests after a quarantine was imposed to contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
West Point residents say they need to leave the slum to buy food and go to work
Residents of the capital’s West Point slum area say the barbed wire blockade stops them buying food and working.
Four people are said to have been injured in the clashes.
Liberia has seen the most deaths – 576 – in the world’s worst Ebola outbreak, which has hit West Africa this year.
A total of 1,350 have died in four countries – Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, as well as Liberia.
Hundreds of West Point residents protested on Wednesday after security forces erected blockades around the slum.
One 15-year-old boy was injured in West Point as he tried to cross the barbed-wire barricades erected by the security forces, who fired into the air to disperse the protesters.
“I don’t have any food and we’re scared,” West Point resident Alpha Barry told Reuters news agency.
The authorities said they had delivered some emergency food aid to the area on Wednesday.
Residents of other Monrovia districts said they were unhappy at not being able to buy food in West Point market.
“We go to West Point market to buy food for our children, and since this morning our children have not yet eaten,” Hawa Massally told AP.
West Point is an informal settlement home to 50-100,000 people. The slum lacks almost everything required for livelihood and life has remained unchanged for the impoverished community for decades.
There are no public toilets in the whole township. The zinc shacks in which people reside are almost glued together, making it a health hazard and vulnerable to fire outbreaks. In the absence of regular toilet facilities, West Pointers (as residents proudly call themselves) use makeshift wooden toilets erected over the River Mesurado. The beach on the Atlantic coast is also used as a toilet.
Even though the township is situated close to mainland Monrovia and is densely populated, the only government school there is an elementary school; there is no high or secondary school and there is no assembly hall for residents to meet and discuss issues of common interest.
Analysts have long argued that residents should be moved out of the mosquito-infested township but even though the land they reside on belongs to the government, residents are often reluctant to be relocated.
The BBC‘s Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia says troops are patrolling in West Point, the country’s largest slum which is home to more than 50,000 and sprawls along the Atlantic coast. Ferries have been halted and coast-guard boats are monitoring the coastline.
Our reporter says fear and tension has been growing in the slum for days and residents feel not enough has been done to protect them.
But President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said people were not heeding government warnings.
“We have been unable to control the spread due to continued denials, cultural varying practices, disregard for the advice of health workers and disrespect for the warnings by the government,” she said on Tuesday evening.
Some people have dismissed the Ebola outbreak as a hoax, while others do not trust Western medicine, saying the disease is the result of witchcraft.
Ebola casualties
Up to 18 August
1,350
Total death toll
576 Liberia
396 Guinea
374 Sierra Leone
4 Nigeria
Source: WHO
An American doctor who contracted the dreaded Ebola virus disease by treating victims of the deadly virus in Liberia, has been discharged from a U.S. hospital after receiving treatment.
With an experimental drug, his charity said on Thursday.
The doctor, named Kent Brantly, was one of the two American health workers being trated with ZMapp, a trial drug used on a handful of patients in the West African outbreak and flown to the United States this month.
The charitable organisation Brantly worked for in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse, in a statement, said he was released from Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital today.
President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Kayode Obembe, has said the doctors’ body is ready to bring the industrial action embarked upon by medical doctors across the country to an end.
Obembe is said to have revealed this during a close-door session with Senate President, Senator David Mark on Tuesday night through the early hours.
According to a statement by the chief press secretary to the Senate President, Paul Mumeh on Wednesday, the meeting was also attended by Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan; Senator Tunde Ogbeha, as well as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe.
In the statement, which provides an update on the meeting, Mumeh explained that Obembe said he would not give the exact date and time that the strike would be called off until he reported back to his members But assured that it would be called off soon.
The statement quotes the NMA leader as saying the meeting was “very useful and successful” although he lamented as incorrect “the notion in some quarters that the striking doctors abandoned the nation in this trying times of major heath challenge on account of the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease.”
“Doctors were not unmindful of the health challenges faced by the nation at the moment but needed government to correct some abnormalities in the health sector to make it more effective and responsive to the health care needs of the citizens,” the statement says, as Obembe pledged to convene a stakeholders meeting soon as part of the process to put an end to the current industrial action which is now 51 days old.
In a statement that is bound to shock the entire world in general and Catholic faithful in particular, Pope Francis has said he has only two or three years to live.
While not revealing the reason for the statement, the Pontiff from Argentina, who has been hailed widely as a a breath of fresh air due to his unconventional style and visits to poor neighbourhoods, is of the view that he would not live for more than three years.
The Pope, who hinted that he is troubled by ‘some nerve problems’ which require treatment, said this in a session with journalists aboard his jet as he returned from a trip to South Korea.
According to the Mailonline, Pope Francis also mentioned the possibility of retiring from the Papacy if his health failed to cope with the rigours of his office, a move that opened the way to the Papacy for him as his predecessor, Benedict XVI, also stepped down last year in what is an unprecedented move.
“I see it as the generosity of the people of God. I try to think of my sins, my mistakes, not to become proud. Because I know it will last only a short time,” the pope said, before adding: “Two or three years and then I’ll be off to the Father’s house.”
At 77, Pope Francis is regarded as the most vigorous Pope in years, his energetic visits around the world in a campaign for peace and tolerance accounting for his popularity.
Although reports surfaced at the time of his elevation to the Papacy that Pope Francis had a lung removed when he was a teenager due to an infection, it has not been confirmed by the Vatican.
The Nigerian doctor who attended to Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American with the first Ebola case in Nigeria, is dead.
The late female doctor, Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh was the senior consultant endocrinologist at the Lagos hospital where Sawyer was treated before his death from Ebola.
Adadevoh became infected with the deadly Ebola virus, according to medical authorities, revealing that Adadevoh died in an isolation facility of the Mainland Hospital, Lagos.
Her death brings to five the number of people the highly contagious virus has killed in the country, following the death of Sawyer, two nurses, and an ECOWAS protocol officer who was stationed to attended to Mr. Sawyer as he arrived in Lagos.
Adadevoh’s death was confirmed by the Federal Ministry of Health in a statement late Tuesday.
that a “female Nigerian doctor has died at the Ebola Emergency Treatment Centre in Lagos.”
Signed by Dan Nwomeh, spokesperson for the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, the statement refiraned from mentioning the name of the female doctor, only stating that the victim was one of those who had primary contacts with Mr. Sawyer.
But the manner of saying the decease is the most senior doctor who participated in treating the Liberian points to the fact that Adadevoh is the one to whom reference is being made.
A relative of the late doctor, Kwami Adadevoh, also confirmed the death of the brave medical personnel in a post on social media.
”I’d like to thank you all for your prayers. Sadly my darling cousin has been called home. She has finished her course and now rests with God,” the Twitter message reads.
Five people initially infected with the Ebola have recovered, leading to hopes that the country can contain the scourge but her death also brings to five the number of people who have died from Ebola including Patrick Sawyer.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has called for more accelerated action from governments, international organisations and civil society groups on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), for sustainable development far beyond 2015.
MDGs was adopted by world leaders in the year 2000, as a 15-year roadmap to fight poverty, hunger and disease, protect the environment and expand education, basic health and women’s empowerment.
This was contained in his message on Monday in New York on 500-days to mark the conclusion of the MDGs.
He said it was so unfortunate that there are many fires raging around the world today, which include political turmoil, bloodshed, public health emergencies and human rights abuses.
Ban said there was flame of hope and encouraging progress in the global drive to improve the lives of the world’s poorest through the MDGs.
He said this week marks a milestone on the journey, as the world was now 500 days from the conclusion of the MDGs.
Ban noted that quietly yet cumulatively, against the predictions of cynics, the MDGs have helped unite, inspire and transform.
He said the global poverty has been cut to half.
“More girls are in school, more families have better access to improved water sources, more mothers are surviving child birth and more children are living healthier lives,’’he said.
“We are making huge inroads in fighting malaria, tuberculosis and other killer diseases, I have met many individuals who owe their survival to this campaign,’’he added.
Ban said in spite of this, millions are still struggling against extreme poverty and inequality.
“Too many communities have no proper sanitation, many families are still being left behind, and our world faces the clear and present danger of climate change,’’ he said.
Ban said now is the time for MDG momentum, as the ideas and inspiration of young people would be especially critical in this effort and their role must grow even more.
That is why I will mark the 500-day MDGs moment at UN headquarters with education advocate, Malala Yousafzai and 500 young people.
Ban said action in four areas can help fuel progress, and it includes making strategic investments in health, education, energy and sanitation, with a special focus on empowering women and girls, which boosts results across the board.
He said focusing on the poorest and most vulnerable countries, communities and social groups that have the toughest road to progress despite their best efforts.
Ban added that keeping financial promises has become imperative, even though this was a difficult budgetary times.
“But budgets should never be balanced on the backs of society’s weakest individuals,’’ he said.
He also advocated deepening cooperation among governments, civil society, the private sector and other networks around the world.
Ban said this would assist in making the MDGs the most successful global anti-poverty push in history.
He said even though the challenges are daunting, yet the action would save lives, build a solid foundation for sustainable development far beyond 2015 and help lay the groundwork for lasting peace and human dignity.
“We have 500 days to accelerate MDG action, let’s make every day count,’’he said. (Xinhua)
The cheering news continues for Nigeria as four more Lagos residents who had been held at the Lagos Treatment Centre have been released after being certified as free from the dreaded disease.
Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, said this in a statement released on Monday.
Chukwu, in the statement signed by his special assistant on Media and Communication, Dan Nwomeh, said that the four discharged persons are made up of two male medical doctors, a female nurse as well as a female patient.
Chukwu explained that the three medical personnel had participated in the treatment of Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American, who was the first person to die of the disease in Nigeria. He added that the fourth person happened to be at First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, Lagos where Patrick Sawyer was brought to from the airport.
“The Minister of Health has announced that four additional confirmed cases of EVD who have been managed successfully and are now disease free have been discharged today(Monday).
“They include two male medical doctors and one female nurse. The three participated in the treatment of the index case(Sawyer) while the fourth person was a female patient at the time the index case was on admission.
“This brings to five, the total number of patients diagnosed with EVD who have now been discharged from hospital.”
An announcement by the minister on Saturday had indicated that a female doctor, the first Nigerian to be diagnosed of EVD, had been discharged .
He added further that Nigeria recorded 12 cases of EVD in all, along with four deaths including that of Patrick Sawyer, although he revealed that 195 Nigerians remain under surveillance in Lagos and Enugu.
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) had faulted a British Newspaper report that Nigerian government committed war crimes by terrorising some of its citizens in the war against insurgency.
This is contained in a statement posted on the Defence Headquarters official website www.defence info.mil.ng on Tuesday in Abuja.
“The report credited to the British Newspaper, Daily Independent, UK, in which it claimed that Nigerian government `committed war crimes by terrorising some of its citizens in the war against insurgency’.
“Is to say the least, unduly judgmental and quite consistent with the disdain and bias with which a section of the western media reports Africa,’’ it said.
The statement said that the newspaper did not lay claim to any sense of professionalism in coming out with that grossly unsubstantiated and bogus allegation against the Nigerian government.
“ No credible independent source or government official was contacted to ascertain the veracity of those wild claims yet the sanctimonious and all-knowing newspaper could not exercise any restraint to be sure of its story.
“Is it not preposterous to even suggest that `4000 people have died in military custody…’ when it is on record that suspected terrorists are held in various facilities while being processed for prosecution?
“At what point then did 4000 people die in military custody?
“This ludicrous report did not come as a surprise to anybody since this biased mindset against Nigerian government has always characterised this newspaper even before the commencement of the ongoing counter-terrorist operation,’’ it emphasised.
The statement said that the newspaper and its ilk should be reminded that the Nigerian military and by extension the government cannot be intimidated by this patterned bias and supremacist mindset in reporting Africa.
It said having adopted this kind of judgmental posture, “we will not be surprised by any phantom video they will release to support their wild claim.
“We therefore urge the general public to discountenance this obviously jaundiced report or whatever phantom video as it is all aimed at tarnishing the image of Nigerian military.
“The preposterous interrogative posture of Daily Independent since the inception of the war on terror in Nigeria clearly questions the integrity of the said documentary.
“And is therefore an indication of frantic effort at tarnishing the Nigerian military and ultimately the Nigerian nation.
“The so called documentary should therefore be taken with a pinch of the salt,’’ it advised.
