BY LAIDE AKINBOADE

Director General of  Nigerian Meteorological Agency NIMET, Dr. Anthony Anuforom has  identified extreme weather conditions as  the the reason for Nigeria’s underdevelopment.

But he was quick to point out that the extreme weather condition being experienced in some parts of the country especially in the northern parts, is normal.

Anuforom made the disclosures  Abuja, at the commemoration of the 2012 World Meteorological Day. He explained Nigeria will set to setup a framework for the nation’s own climate framework.

Said he: “The dusts and dry harmattan are natural phenomena and we had already predicted it on our rainfall predictions that was presented on the 1st of March 2012. That there would be a late rain in the Northern part of the country and in the absence of rain this dust comes in.

“How does this happen, we discover that the condition is generated from Chad and some parts of Niger, it is one of the areas we call the source region, it is one of the greatest source regions we have in the world. We now found out that those areas have become active again and these dusts were enshrine into the atmosphere and the wind direction didn’t favour the dusts coming.”

He noted that “socio-economic development could be jeopardized and indeed impeded by extreme weather and climate phenomena. We are all familiar with Millennium Development Goals, we are only three years away but a lot still need to be done.

Even United Nations have expressed concern over extreme weather events which has resulted into global warming and  have continued to constitute an impediment to the realization of MDGs.”

He stated thast “In the last 50years, about 90 per cent of natural disasters are directly related to weather, climate and water hazards. It is also a known fact that climate is a resource that can be harnessed to power sustainable development.”

He assured Nigerians that as the nation faces the challenges of climate change, NIMET will remain committed to providing weather and climate services for sustainable development in Nigeria.