By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Politics Editor
Sam Onuigbo,House of Representatives Climate Change Committee chairman, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure Nigeria takes more practical and verifiable actions in the campaign against climate change.
He told TheNichein an interview in Lagos that there is an urgent need to raise the bar on massive awareness campaign given the danger posed by climate change.
He praised the federal government for being a signatory to the Paris agreement on climate change, but urged Buhari to tell his ministers to walk the talk.
Onuigbo, who represents Ikwuano-Umuahia North/South Federal Constituency in Abia State, said the national Assembly (NASS) is united to produce a robust legislative framework on climate change governance.
He reiterated that most countries are going green and Nigeria should do all within its power to checkmate environmental pollution.
His words: “The government should raise the bar of awareness level. The president has been leading a good crusade so I want him to now bring it up at the cabinet level, draw his ministers closer and tell them, ‘look we have gone to sign the agreement, that’s one segment.’
‘“But the most important segment of this encounter is for you to take practical and verifiable actions at the national level to match all that Nigeria has been able to achieve at the global level.’
“For us in the legislative arm of government we are working, the leadership of the National Assembly, represented by Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, are united in their resolve to ensure that there is a robust legislative framework on climate change governance.
“If you check what is happening, how the Sahara desert is resting down, how drought and all other problems are making us to lose grazing areas, how Lake Chad dried up from 25,000 sq. metres to 2.5, when you check all that, you know that there is a problem coming.”
Onuigbo said part of the problem in the North East is heightened by the drying up of Lake Chad that has produced easy prey for armed militia.
“If you also add the facts that the herdsmen who no longer see grazing areas, and because they want to feed their cattle are heading down South not just as ordinary people but like people who are armed, so you experience clashes between herdsmen leading to loss of lives and then their cattle also eat up the crops of farmers.
“These are obvious signs, clear warning shots coming from climate change that unless we take immediate and serious action we run a big risk.”
Onuigbo noted that the devastating effect of climate change has contributed immensely to the destruction in the North East because Lake Chad, which previously provided a means of livelihood for over five million people, dried up.
He said fishermen and other people who depended on the lake with their cattle poured into the city without skill and quickly became murder weapons.
“So we are not looking for the devastating effects of climate change because they are here with us.”
