BY LAJU ARENYEKA

If you thought climate change was some distant phenomenon happening in a far away country, think again. Prof. Emmanuel Oladipo, once thought so too.

“When I was a young post-graduate student at the University of Toronto in 1975,” he said, “we started talking about climate change. It never occurred to me that the same challenges we faced there were being faced back home; this was because in my mind’s eye, the yams and fruits were still as big as ever.

“However, five or six years later, I returned home and found out how much things had changed. The yams were not as big as before, and the soil in my father’s cocoa farm could no longer produce; negative results were beginning to evolve from the land’s reduced ability to develop.”

Oladipo, who is a Professor of Geography at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, spoke at a training on knowledge management and capacity building for Non Governmental Organizations, themed: Understanding and negotiating Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) for sustainable development.

Prof. Emmanuel Oladipo

The training, which was organised by the Global Environmental Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP), in association with the Legal Research and Resource Development Center (LRRDC), witnessed the presence of various environmentally- based NGOs.

Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, the Executive Director, LRRDC, speaking on the rationale behind the training, said; “NGOs must understand that negotiation skills are not just necessary at the international level but are also relevant at the most basic levels.

“The data gathering done at the community levels goes a long way in influencing policies and government decisions at the national levels.

“Mrs. Ibironke Olubamishe, the National Director,  (GEF-SGP)  added that the training was set up so that NGOs can replicate their results at a higher level, and foster advocacy that can be used either at the local government or state level.

“Many of these NGOs have had good results and have won national and international awards. The question is, how do we translate these results to build advocacy in Nigeria?”

Oladipo said that the country still has a long way to go in securing the environment as environmental issues are still not taken as a very serious challenge within our development framework.

“Nigeria is a country that practises what I refer to as “fire brigade” approach. When something happens, then we try to address it. A typical example is the flood of last year.

“What is important is to see environment as our only means of livelihood, and if we do not use it well, it can also be a means of our perishing. We must take environment into cognizance and give it the recognition it requires, whether in the area of budgeting, or in management.

“If care is not taken, young ones may not have the opportunity to enjoy a good global environment. The world we are living in is dear to everyone; we must nurture it in such a way that it plays its role of giving us air, water and food.

“We need to take the sustainable development approach; as much as we want to ride good cars, and get oil from the ground, we must balance the art of living well with protecting the environment. We must balance the demand for our natural resources from the developed world with protecting our future.”

Proffering solutions on achieving environmental integrity in the outcome of climate change, he said: “The first step is to accept the reality that climate change is real, and that we are not talking of long-term changes, we are talking of short-term extreme events that could affect us.

“If we accept this, it means that we must agree to deal with it. So the only way to achieve integrity in this area is to mainstream climate change as part of our development process.

“For instance, you can see what Lagos State is doing, that every year, even before the rains come, they are already anticipating that there will be flood. By anticipating this, the next step is to make sure that all the drains are already cleared before it starts to rain.”

Oladipo, who is one of Nigeria’s foremost negotiators on environmental issues, said that negotiations are attempts by the world to reach a common consensus or agreement on certain issues that affect the world.

“These are what you call multilateral agreements. Agreements that have been signed at one time or the other by different countries, but because they are not laws, they are not binding on the different countries involved.”

So the idea is to continue to dialogue on these issues and keep the issue of environment at the forefront of discussions. The recent one is the United Nations convention on climate change which is talking about how the world can manage the challenge of climate change successfully to reduce its impact on our development.”

Mr. Adetayo Okunlola, the project manager, Lekki Conservation Centre, was also a facilitator at the training. While speaking to Vanguard Learning, he said: Nigeria is making some efforts, but we still have a long way to go, because there are so many things that are not in place in protecting the environment. We have a lot of acts that have been signed, but the implementation is not done as it should be. If we are going to make any progress, we have to put our best foot forward in implementation. Government agencies that are in charge of protected areas need to work more to ensure that those places are protected.