Nigerian civil society groups will storm Abuja today to brainstorm on the country’s preparations for the United Nations conference on sustainable development slated by June 2012 in Brazil. The conference is often called Rio+20.

The United Nations resolution 64/236 of December 2009 paved the way for broad national consultations to prepare for the conference. A publication by the Nigeria Climate Change Network, NigeriaCan, regretted that less than a year to the global event, little consultation has been carried out among key national stakeholders in Nigeria.

“Rio+20 seeks to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development; assess the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development and address new and emerging challenges.

It has two main themes. They include the emergence of a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication and global environmental governance for sustainable development”, the report stated.

To ensure a successful global summit, the UN Secretary General set up a high level panel on global sustainability co-chaired by the presidents of Finland and South Africa. Nigeria’s Amina Az-Zubair sits on this very important panel.

This should create an additional impetus to embark on a national re-assessment of the state of sustainable development in Nigeria and the deepening challenges of poverty and environmental decline. A number of key issues on the Rio+20 agenda are particularly important to us.

First, despite an unprecedented high level of income from export of crude oil, 102 million people – a fifth of the poor in Africa are Nigerians. A majority of Nigeria’s poor are farmers. Today, climate change poses the greatest threat to Nigeria’s rain-fed agriculture and the livelihood of the poor. Secondly, Northern Nigeria is at the epicentre of desertification and climate crisis – two central themes of Rio in 1992. Poverty in the region only deepens this vulnerability.