Crunch Times News

By Otobong Gabriel, Abuja

As the world is frequently faced with intense drought, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans,  threatening the essential ingredients of good health such as clean air, safe drinking water and other things necessary for  people's livelihoods in communities, the Development of Educational Action Network ( DEAN) has prescribed innovative climate education design as the best short and long-term measure to fight climate change.

The Executive Director, DEAN Semiye Micheal made the call on Wednesday during a press conference in Abuja, adding that there is no other excellent tool to change the world than education.

According to him, the mandate of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Paris Agreement), to which Nigeria is a signatory to, listed six areas that should be utilized to engage the public in climate change solutions; of which education is the first mechanism mentioned in article 6, he said, adding that the IPCC reports have also supported climate education as a climate response to strengthen societal responses to climate change.

Michael said climate education should be mainstream in our educational curriculum to enable students understand that climate is not just a threat but a reality resulting in social, economic and environmental instability in a country that is already vulnerable. " Our contextualized resources for the classroom include all these issues and possible solutions so that future generation in Nigeria can be climate champions"

He however applauded the federal government through the ministry of environment for implementing various initiatives in tackling the climate change crisis as demonstrated in their ambitious plan in the NDC and called on ministries of education and environment to forge a beneficial collaboration on this subject for the common good of mankind.

"The federal government should draft a review process that will include climate education in relevant subjects across primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, environmental and green clubs should function across schools which will be duly regularized and finally students should participate in extracurricular activities that will equip them with the knowledge of nature, biodiversity, climate change and environmental stewardship, including environmental and climate literature as part of approved reading literature for pupils and students across schools in Nigeria", he said.

Bayelsa Flood: FG Delivers More Humanitarian Aid To Victims

By Blessing Bature, Abuja

The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has confirmed the second despatch of food and non-food items by its operations agency, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to Bayelsa state. 

In its latest update on the recent status of flood relief interventions  to Bayelsa  in a statement made available to newsmen by the S.A Media, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, said the Ministry has confirmed  the ongoing airlifting of relief materials by the Nigerian AirForce which commenced on Tuesday 25th October 2022 carries additional relief items which include;

1,000 pieces of mosquito nets, 600 cartons of bath soap, 2,500 pieces of guinea brocade; 1,000 pieces of children's wear, 1000 pieces women's wear, 1,000 pieces of men's wear, 1000 pieces of nylon mats. And

Food items which include; 1,000 bags (10kg) of rice, 1,000 bags (10kg) of beans, 1,000 bags (10kg) of maize, 75 bags (20kg) of iodized salt, 150 cartons of seasoning cube, 75 kegs (20L) of Veg oil, 75 cartons of tin tomato  

According to the statement, these items are in addition to an earlier consignment delivered on Oct 8, 2022 which include; 400 bags of 10 kg rice,  400 bags of 10kg maize, 300 bags of 10kg garri,  50 kegs vegetable.oil,  200 cartons of tin tomato,  200 cartons of indomie,  200 bundles of roofing sheets, 200 bags of cement,  40 bags of 3"nails and 50 sheets of zinc 

NEMA,  through the South South zonal office,  delivered  assorted relief materials comprising food and non-food items for immediate distribution in Otegwe and Ibelebiri communities of Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa.

Following heavy flooding  of the East West Road linking to the state, the Nigerian Airforce intervened in airlifting operations of relief items from Benin Airport to Port Harcourt International Airport and the subsequent use of helicopters to move the items to the Helipad in Yenagoa, the state capital.

NEMA has equally procured more relief items for a third intervention in less than a month to be delivered to the state as follows: 1,000 bags (10kg) of rice,  1,000 bags (10kg) of beans,  1,000 bags (10kg) of garri,  300 bags (20kg) of iodized salt, 200 cartons of seasoning, 100 kegs (20L) of vegetable oil, 1,000 pieces of foam mattresses,  1,500 pieces of nylon mats , 1,000 pieces of blankets,  2,000 pieces of mosquito treated net,  800 pieces of Guinea brocade, 1,500 pieces of children's wear, 500 pieces of wax prints. 

Despite heavy flooded routes along Kogi State and other locations on the way to Bayelsa State,  delivery of the third consignment of relief items to Bayelsa state is in progress.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya  Umar Farouq had directed NEMA’s intervention team which is presently in the state to collaborate  with the State Emergency Management Agency, the Nigerian Navy  in Bayelsa State, NNS Pathfinder in Rivers State, Nigerian Red Cross and Local Volunteers to carry out an in-depth assessment of the damage by the flood,  for further assistance by the federal government. 

Minister Umar Farouq while sympathizing with the government and good people of Bayelsa state and 

assured the victims of government’s support always. 

By Blessing Otobong-Gabriel 

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has announced measures being put in place to solve extreme climate change outcomes in Nigeria.

The Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq made this known at a Side Event at Cop27 on Wednesday,  held in Sharm El Shiek Egypt where world stakeholders are meeting to profer solutions to mitigate extreme climate changes.

Farouq said that climate change-induced hydro-meteorological events were causing devastating humanitarian crises in Nigeria hence the urgent need to scale up climate change adaptation efforts.

In a statement through the SA media to the Minister, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, “The Nigerian Government through the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development is scaling up climate change adaptation efforts in Nigeria so as to build community resilience and adaptation practices to mitigate and reduce the consequence of climate change.

“The reason we are here is to harness and discuss good practices, programs and strategies that other countries are using to reduce vulnerabilities of Climate Change. We want to know how to build adaptive capacities and resilience in line with national and international policies and commitments in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation. 

“Specifically, we want to know how to identify and map out climate change risks better and generate political will to implement and finance national adaptation projects, as we harmonize inputs and launch a people-centered climate change adaptation in coordination with key partners like the Ministry of Environment and other relevant MDAs. 

 

“We will work with the Nigerian National Adaptation Plan which seeks to reduce vulnerability of communities to the impacts of climate change by building adaptive capacity and resilience. The Plan also advocates the integration of climate change adaptation into relevant new and existing policies, programs and activities as well as in development planning processes and strategies”, the Minister said. 

Recent large scale displacements, infrastructural damage and loss of farmlands following extreme flooding have led to disruption of livelihoods, increased risk of hunger as farmers are unable to grow crops as well as heightened fear of the outbreak of malaria, cholera, diarrhea and other waterborne diseases.

Among the panelists who discussed Scaling Up of Climate Change Adaptation Efforts in Nigeria were Amjad Abbashar, Chief of United Nations Office For Disaster Risk Reduction UNDRR, Regional Office For Africa, Sylvia Wabbes agronomist with the Food and Agriculture Organization FAO, on emergency and resilience for agriculture and food- based livelihoods systems, 

Dr. Pasang Dolma Sherpa, Executive Director of Center for Indigenous Peoples' Research and Development CIPRED, Halima Bawa-Bwari, Director Federal Ministry of Environment and Head of Vulnerability & Adaptation Division in the Department of Climate Change and  

Dr. Abubakar A. Suleiman, Deputy Director, Disaster Management, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.