By Rotimi Ajayi
At every change of government at the Federal level in Nigeria, it is common these days to hear that the business of governance would be carried out in an unprecedented manner that would bring about positive change in the country.

The slogans could come in different ways such as “government business will now not be business as usual”, “leadership will be servant leadership”, “government will focus on transformational policies”.

Giving bite to these slogans demands changing the psyche of territoriality that pervades the federal civil service to the effect that the workers would begin to understand that the States are very critical to the development of the country. There is no sector that this is more imperative than in combating the challenges posed to the country today by Climate Change.

Climate Change is a major environmental challenge which extreme events would not respect territory, boundaries and levels of government. And in a country such as Nigeria, the impacts may not respect the class distinctions as the separators of classes in Nigeria would not be strong enough to withstand the negative impacts.

This realization informed the carrying philosophy of the past Minister of Environment, John Odey and it may have been the driving force of the present, Hajia, Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia, who both made collaborations-with-stakeholders their major policy driver.

Since the engagement of the States by the former Minister started, only five States have shown different levels of commitment to fighting climate change. Leading the visionary states is Delta, under the governorship of Emmanuel Uduaghan, who has not only been speaking to problems and dangers ahead but has set up full complement of state institution to take on the problems.

The interest of Delta is closely trailed by Lagos, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Taraba State, which is the only State in the North to show interest so far in climate change.

Addressing the gathering at the Ecological 2011 Fair in Abuja during the week, the Minister of Environment again harped on the need for states to come on board as major drivers of environmental challenges especially climate change.

She pointed out that since the States occupy the largest area of Nigeria, there is no other public institution that could be best suited for the work at hand than the states. She urged the states to drive the national afforestation program effectively in order to give Nigeria enough mileage in its climate change mitigation efforts.

Other than in the areas of Afforestation, States should also be sufficiently engaged to buy into the Nigeria-REDD program which promises even additional development resource to the people at the rural areas apart from being a major mechanism to sequestrate carbon which accounts for global warming.

There is also the need for states such as Lagos, Rivers and Kano which have good quantity of the private sector establishment to begin to propel businesses towards green economy financing. The States also have a lot to gain by being at the driving seat of the international negotiations on climate change.

Deducing from the submissions of experts on climate change, there must be symbiotic relationship between the Federal Government and the States and among the States themselves on the second hand, if Nigeria is to make positive achievement in the fight against climate change.

The situation as it is now, even though improved from the point where Odey met it as Minister, needs to be significantly moved further in the interest of Nigerians, who would be worse victims of the impacts of Climate Change.

When Madam Mailafia came on board, it was commendable that she immediately put together modalities for the meeting of the National Council on Environment which held in Kaduna, where she promised intensive collaboration with the States.

She would need extra will to be able to implement this as other distracting pressures in her office would certainly compel otherwise. Just as the United Nations Development Programme actively supported the process leading to the approval of the Nigeria-REDD programme, the development Agency has also signified its readiness to make Nigeria States key into the climate change adaptation and mitigation governance.

All that needs to be done at the moment is for the Federal Ministry of Environment to expand its sensitization programme as real implementation of climate change policies can only be in the states.