By Laide Akinboade

ABUJA – Experts on environmental issues have blamed the three tiers of government in Nigeria for not doing enough to create awareness on the impact of Climate change, which has resulted into flooding in some parts of the country.

Rising from a two-day symposium on Building Nigeria’s Response to Climate Change organized by Nigeria Environment Study\Action Team (NEST), in Abuja, the experts said there is nothing on ground to show that the country is ready to fight climate change.

Among the experts that spoke at the symposium were, former Chairman House Committee on Environment, Hon. Eziuche Ubani, Head of Special Climate Change Unit of Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr. Jare Adejumo and Chief Executive Office of NEST, Prof. Chinedu Nwajiuba.

Ubani blamed the Federal, State and Local government for not doing enough because the nation according to him is supposed to have moved from where it is on issues pertaining to climate change.

In his contribution, Prof. Adejumo identified the increase in flooding, cyclone and hurricane as parts of the impacts of climate change.

“There is much more frequency of the evidences of climate change, frequencies of systems like cyclone hurricane and flood. there is no way we can eliminate flooding from the issue of climate change, it is part of the impacts of climate change.

“t is part of what is resulting from the altered global circulation that lead to much rainfall in some areas and lead to little in some other areas, leads to small rainfall in some years and little rainfall in some other years. These are the kind of effects in climate change.”

He noted that, the magnitude can also be affected by individuals in terms of the activities, infrastructural development, in terms of disposal of waste. The flood is part of climate change but it is being aggravated by our own activities.

He stressed, “The issue of climate change has gone beyond what the Federal, State or local governments can single handedly do. It is you and me, don’t let us blame government for everything.

He therefore urged the government to create more awareness on the impacts of climate change, “we need to create more awareness on the effects of climate change, I believe government should do more in this regard.

There are so many so many ways we can create awareness, through giggles, workshop, leaflets and design programs that can be translated into different languages.”

Prof. Nwajiuba stated that whether Nigeria likes it or not, global climate change is having and will continue to have a strong impact on the country, particularly in the areas of agriculture, health and sanitation, land use, energy, water and coastal resources.

Others are forestry, human settlements, migration and security, gender, disaster management, infrastructure, and livelihoods.

“It is clear that an organized, systematic approach at the national level is needed to address the climate change problem.

Over and above this, the core challenge for Nigeria is to develop the framework and capacity at various levels to assess and respond to vulnerability of sectors and humans in light of predicted climate change impacts. This involves the development, assessment and implementation of adaptation options and strategies.” he said.