Kwara sensitises populace on climate change
Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has reiterates that his administration’s commitment to collaborating with relevant organisations to tackle the challenges of climate change and encourage community acceptance for the options so adopted.
Governor AbdulRazaq stated this in Ilorin, the state capital, at a stakeholders engagement and sensitization on climate change policy and action plan for the state, organized by the state Ministry of Environment.
“The reality of climate change, though global, is now a part of our days and livelihood, especially because of unchecked negative human interference on the environment through activities that encourage greenhouse gas emission as it occurs with felling of trees and burning them for charcoal production, refuse burning and indiscriminate waste disposal into water channels and drainages, amongst many of such acts,” the Governor said.
AbdulRazaq, who spoke through his Senior Adviser and Counsellor, Alhaji Sa’adu Salau, said most people do not know that the consequences of climate change go beyond unkempt, unsafe, and unhygienic community outlook, which promotes diseases and deters progress in all ramifications.
He said that poor management of the environment also affects farm yields, crop production, and food security on account of erratic rainfall patterns and eventually the overall well-being of everyone.
“It is for these reasons that our government has been giving approval to proposals, which aim at tackling some of its immediate and remote effects,” the Governor said.
“You would recall that as a state we are supporting the use of clean energy in the form of compressed natural gas. We paid relevant counterpart funds to key into the World Bank Supported Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscape (ACRESAL) Project through which climate specific interventions are being undertaken to combat afforestation, reclaim degraded lands, support agricultural development and environmental friendly initiatives.”
The Governor said the stakeholders’ engagement and sensitization meeting was organized to align the state with Goal-13 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
He assured that his administration remains committed to elevating the status of the communities, their infrastructure and the people living there.
The event, which was themed: “Fostering a Healthier Environment through Action on Pollution and Climate Resilience for Sustainable Living”, was attended by the relevant stakeholders in the environmental sector including members of the state executive council, the media practitioners, environmental experts, religious leaders of both faith, marketers and transporters, amongst others.
Commissioner for Environment, Hon Nafisat Musa Buge, in her opening remarks, said the programme was part of the concluding phase of additional efforts that the ministry was putting to engage the public and organized groups that are directly or indirectly related to the environmental sector in the state.
She said the apparent increase in population within the state, especially the metropolis, calls for necessary actions, plans, and eventually the adoption of effective strategies to address the inevitable challenges that are being encountered and that will be encountered.
“There is a need for the stakeholders to be alive to their responsibilities on issues related to waste management, noise pollution, proper water channelization, availability of adequate trees and vegetation to support the carbon sink or absorb the carbon dioxide that we exhale, and other emergent environmental issues,” Buge said.
Prof Emmanuel Oladipo, a climate change specialist from University of Lagos and keynote speaker, said the functioning of ecosystems and the delivery of ecosystem services are both impacted by biodiversity loss.
He blamed the biodiversity loss crisis on human activities like land-use changes, pollution, and deforestation, which he noted have reduced the variety of animal and plant species and destroyed natural habitats.
“Meaningful and sustainable economic development and environmental degradation must be attacked simultaneously within a well defined State agenda that leverages from global and national agenda and based on a comprehensive and well integrated policy framework, using climate change as an entry point,” he submitted.
Other speakers at the event included Grand Khadi of Kwara State Justice Abdullateef Kamaldeen who spoke through Justice Abdulraheem Sayi; Prof L. T. Ajibade of the Department of Geography, University of Ilorin; Prof Yusuf ‘Lanre Badmus of the University of Ilorin; Pastor Moses Ademola Popoola of CSMC District Headquarters, Ilorin; and Dr Mahmud ‘Yinka of Federal Neuro-Physiatric Budo Egba; and among others.