A coastal community in Nigeria fears extinction

As a child growing up in Akodo-Ise, Kadiri Malik would pass a boulevard of coconut trees on his way down to the shore with his father to start the fishing day.

The two would walk, sometimes hand in hand, past lush vegetation before settling down to gather a bountiful harvest of fish. But that’s now a distant memory in the coastal village in Nigeria’s Lagos.

“This place used to be very beautiful,” the 40-year-old fisherman laments, sitting on the verandah of his house from where he can see the ocean in its blue, choppy glory. “[Now] all the coconut trees are no more, they have been taken by the water. The ocean used to be very far away, but now it is just a stone’s throw from us.”

The coconut belt used to be part of a scenic shoreline that brought economic gains for the fishing community and served as a natural buffer against the weather and natural disasters. But now, thousands of trees have been swallowed by the ocean.

Globally, coastal communities are grappling with the consequences of rising sea levels brought on by worsening climate change. Villages along Nigeria’s 853km (530-mile) coastline are no different, battling extreme weather events and accelerated sea level rise. Among the worst hit is Akodo-Ise, as it loses land to ocean encroachment.

Every day, Malik carries a heavy thought in his mind – that it is only a matter of time before the ocean surges and coastal erosion destroys everyone’s homes, handicaps the economy and washes away important community landmarks for good.

‘We do not have rest of mind’

The fishermen suffer the most.

Most of the violent ocean surges happen at night while people are asleep. The morning after, fisherfolk often find their boats and nets are gone.

“We the fishermen in this area do not have rest of mind at all … Before we know it, we have lost some properties like our net, our engine, boat,” says Malik, who has taken to dragging his boat close to the house and keeping his engine indoors. “It is always too late before we’d wake up to try and save our net and boat engines.”

In the past year, the community has lost more than 30 boats, 25 boat engines, and 50 bundles of net.

“This is our only source of income,” says Malik, whose family includes his wife, two children, two brothers and an aged mother – all of whom he must support. “If we don’t go to sea, how can we feed our family?”

Last year, he had made more than 500,000 naira ($300) in monthly profits by September, but he says this year his income has depleted as he has been making fewer trips to reduce the chances of losing his boat.

Finding a fair catch also takes more effort nowadays.

In the past, fishermen could fish nearby; now, with the rougher seas, they must travel further, consuming more fuel.

“In the past, we could use five to 10 litres [2.64 gallons] for a round trip, but now we use 35 to 40 litres [9.3 to 10.6 gallons],” Malik says.

Fuel is also more costly than it used to be since President Bola Tinubu removed a petrol subsidy upon taking office last year. A litre (0.26 gallons) of petrol that used to cost 165 naira ($0.10) last May now sells for 1100 naira ($0.65).
 

‘Beyond repair’

Standing by the shore, Johnson Igbokoyi helps his friends who have been out fishing pull in their boats, though he has not been to sea in more than three weeks as he bides time for a calmer ocean.

“You can fish today and tomorrow – then the day after that, your boat is destroyed. Then you start looking for money to buy a new one or mend it if it is not beyond repair,” says the 49-year-old father of two.

He has lost more than five boats to the ocean, most recently in July. Every time he has lost a boat, he has been able to find money for a new one, but now, he has no savings left.

For assistance, he took to a cooperative society – an organised monetary contribution scheme popular among working-class people in Nigeria – to borrow 3 million naira ($1,772) for a boat and a pre-owned engine. Every week, he must pay 10,000 naira ($6) to the cooperative until he repays the loan.

Rising inflation, currently at 32.7 percent, has also compounded his woes; previously, the same engine cost 700,000 naira ($414) but is now 2.5 million naira ($1,477). Brand new ones go for as high as 3.8 million naira ($2,245). Fishing nets also cost 85,000 naira ($50), up from 30,000 naira ($18).

“I do not have money should something happen,” Igbokoyi laments, saying his wife has also been struggling to adjust as she is unable to buy many of the things the family needs. “After the loan has been repaid, we can go back to the way we were living,” he says.

Like most fishermen in Akodo-Ise, Igbokoyi feels he cannot change careers. “This is the job passed down to me by my ancestors so I cannot just leave it for something else now. I did not even go to school at all; what career can I start now?” he asks.

Some 80 percent of African coastal communities depend on nature for their livelihoods, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Meanwhile, other local fishermen, like Kadiri Suluka, have faced more than just financial disaster. Last year, he and a coworker were out at sea when waves slammed against his boat and broke it into pieces. He feared he was going to die as the boat sank quickly.

“[We] could have died but we were spared. We swam back to shore because we had not gone very far,” says Suluka.

Now, with Suluka unable to work and his savings depleted, his family survives on charity. Sometimes colleagues give him fish or money and he also buys food on credit.

“The only thing it has not taken from me is my life,” he says with a sigh.
 

Development accelerating climate change?

On the road leading to Akodo-Ise, once-full mangrove forests are also depleting quickly – more evidence of the escalating climate disaster.

Less than 30 minutes up the road, there is the Lekki free trade zone, the Dangote oil refinery – the seventh-largest in the world – and the Lekki deep sea port, all grand economic ventures that signal the bubbling economic pulse of the area. But some of these projects have been accused of accelerating the climate challenges in nearby communities.

Lateef Shittu, the village chieftain, told Al Jazeera many problems started at about the time construction of the Dangote refinery began in 2004, and that dredging activities have forced water to push against their village.

Experts say the claims from Akodo-Ise about the effect of dredging and large-scale developments on its coastline are grounded in scientific evidence and observable impacts.

These projects “disrupt sediment flow along the coast, destabilising the shoreline and making it more vulnerable to erosion”, Adenike Adesemolu, the director of The Green Institute, a Lagos-based sustainability think tank, told Al Jazeera.

Dredging, in particular, can be highly destructive to coastal stability, she explained. By removing large amounts of sand and sediment from the seabed, dredging prevents the natural replenishment of beaches. When waves strike the shore, they need that sand as a barrier to dissipate their energy. Without it, waves hit the coastline harder, leading to faster erosion and violent sea incursions. This leaves the community defenceless against the sea’s natural force.

Large construction also alters the natural landscape by creating imbalances in water flow and wave patterns. Construction along the coast redirects waves which causes sediments to pile up, unevenly amplifying the risk of flooding, intensified erosion and violent sea incursions in nearby communities.

“We cannot ask them to stop developmental activities but they must have known it could have this kind of effect and they should have made provisions to cushion its impact on us,” Chieftain Shittu says.

Al Jazeera reached out to the Dangote refinery and the commissioner for waterfront communities to respond to the claims, but did not receive a reply.

Jenty Ibrahim, vice chairman of the local youth association, said young people – who make up the bulk of the fishermen – have tried to write letters to the authorities and have met with the Dangote refinery and the deep sea port to no avail. They have also held protests that have yet to yield any change.

With the future of fishing uncertain, many are turning to bricklaying or carpentry as professions out of desperation, Ibrahim says,” to make some money so they can feed [their families]”.

Chukwumerije Okereke, the director of the Centre for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, told Al Jazeera that “the government has to learn to rise up and protect the livelihoods of these people and put up measures that can help to cushion the impact of the erosion on the local people.”
 

‘Heartbreaking’

Forty-five-year-old Oluwaseyi Obadiya and her family have been in dire straits recently. An ocean surge in September destroyed their wooden home, spoiled her fisherman husband’s boat, ruined her kitchen and nearly drowned her daughter.

To earn money, her husband would catch fish and she would smoke some of it to sell at the weekly market. But since her husband cannot work, she has been out of business too.

With their home also gone, she found a room in a nearby house to rent until the family could figure out their next steps while living off meagre savings.

“We eat so little in a day and I no longer ask the children if they are satisfied, I only make sure they have eaten something however small,” she says. “They [children] complain of stomach ache but it is because they are hungry, not because they are sick.”

Shittu, the village chieftain, was another victim of the ocean surge in September, which cracked open half his house. He was out of town and someone called him in the middle of the night to inform him. He begged them to break down his door and salvage his essentials, but half the appliances, as well as vital documents, were destroyed by the water.

Now he and his wife can no longer live in their home and are temporarily staying in a room in Malik’s house.

“It is really heartbreaking for me. I used to be a homeowner and now I am living in somebody else’s house,” the chieftain says. “When issues happen in the community, they bring it to me to settle and now I don’t have a home to entertain the issues any more.

“Our people cannot sleep with both eyes closed; they are always anxious [that] something might happen.”

Not even the dead have been spared in Akodo-Ise. The coastal erosion washed away some of the graves in the village, leaving relatives without a memorial to honour their deceased.

Many have since started reburying their dead in locations safe from erosion. However, culturally, it is a delicate and sometimes costly process. According to Yoruba traditions, the family must kill an animal as part of a sacrifice and reburying ceremony.

In most cases, the family buys a ram or goat to be used in the reburying ritual. But many cannot afford it – with some buying sweets and biscuits as substitutes.

Chieftain Shittu is one of those who has had to rebury the remains of a relative.

“My grandfather died in 1956, I was not even born then but I have had to dig his grave and rebury him,” he says. “With which mouth will we say we can no longer find the graves of our forefathers?”
 

Future ‘in jeopardy’

Though resilient, the community is helpless in the face of an ocean coming very quickly to take everything they know and love, said Doyinsola Ogunye, a coastal restoration expert who has been working to highlight the community’s plight.

“The future of this community, if nothing is done to support and help to rebuild, is in jeopardy. I don’t think the children will have anywhere to live or learn. The school is being overturned by the encroachment of the sea,” she said.

The school building, shared with four nearby communities, has leaky roofs, the floors are damaged and there is discolouration on the parts more exposed to the water.

Meanwhile, Akodo-Ise’s plight is spreading across Lagos, with different parts of the city battling climate disasters such as flooding. In October, the government said Lagos is sinking and might be uninhabitable by the end of this century as experts warned that the sea level may rise faster than earlier said.

Okereke of the Centre for Climate Change and Development said the climate issues Lagos faces are due to bad planning, mismanagement, lack of efficient drainage systems and human refusal to respect the ocean.

Adesemolu of The Green Institute believes “it’s the result of unchecked development that overlooks the vulnerability of communities dependent on these lands.”

According to the World Bank, up to 70 percent of the world’s sandy beaches are expected to erode significantly by 2100 if current coastal practices continue, and 100 million people worldwide may face displacement by 2050 due to climate-related erosion.

Experts say reversing this damage requires urgent action: strategic environmental management, better regulation of dredging activities, and development that protects – rather than harms – coastal ecosystems.

Local-based approaches, such as mangrove restoration and planting, should be prioritised by the government, Okereke feels.

Akinsemolu agrees, adding that climate education sessions should be held for people in coastal areas, and the government should invest in community-specific early warning systems and emergency preparedness to help people safeguard their homes.
 

‘Are we going to become strangers?’

At his house overlooking the encroaching ocean, Malik sits mending a fishing net.

He is overwhelmed by sadness over his inability to help the community and can only watch as things erode day by day, concerned that if nothing is done, in a few years, the community may not exist at all.

“In two years’ time, are we going to be able to remain in this community or are we going to relocate to another community to become strangers? That is going to be a bad history,” he says.

He worries that his grandchildren will not have a place to point to as their grandfather’s homeland.

“This is my father’s burial ground,” Malik says sombrely, pointing in the direction of a grave. “Where am I going to take him to? Am I going to leave him to get washed away by the ocean surge?

“The government should come to our aid,” he adds quietly, “because we do not have the power to stop it.”

By Pelumi Salako, Al Jazeera

Cows obstruct Nigeria’s capital as climate change and development leave herders with nowhere to go

At an intersection seven miles from the presidential villa, frustrated drivers honk as a herd of cattle feeds on the grass beautifying the median strip and slowly marches across the road, their hooves clattering against the asphalt. For the teenage herder guiding them, Ismail Abubakar, it is just another day, and for most drivers stuck in the traffic, it’s a familiar scene unfolding in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.

Abubakar and his cattle’s presence in the city center is not out of choice but of necessity. His family are originally from Katsina State in northern Nigeria, where a changing climate turned grazing lands into barren desert. He moved to Idu — a rural, bushy and less developed part of Abuja — many years ago. But it now hosts housing estates, a vast railway complex and various industries.

“Our settlement at Idu was destroyed and the bush we used for grazing our cattle cut down to pave the way for new houses,” Abubakar said in a smattering of Pidgin English. It forced his family to settle on a hill in the city’s periphery and roam the main streets for pasture.

Fulani herders like Abubakar are traditionally nomadic and dominate West Africa’s cattle industry. They normally rely on wild countryside to graze their cattle with free pasture, but the pressures of modernization, the need for land for housing and crop farming and human-caused climate change are challenging their way of life. To keep cattle off of Abuja’s major roads and gardens, some suggest that herders need to start acquiring private land and operating like other businesses. But to do that, they’d need money and government incentives.

“It’s disheartening,” said Baba Ngelzarma, the president of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, a Fulani pastoralists’ advocacy group. “Nigeria is presented as an unorganized people. The herders take the cattle wherever they can find green grasses and water at least for the cows to survive, not minding whether it is the city or somebody’s land.”

He added that part of the problem is the government’s failure to harness the potential of the livestock industry by offering incentives such as infrastructure like water sources and vet services at designated grazing reserves and providing subsidies.

For its part, the government has said it will address the issue, previously promising fenced-off reserves for cattle herders. President Bola Tinubu announced in July a new livestock development ministry, which Ngelzarma said would help revive the abandoned grazing reserves. No minister has been appointed.
 

Fewer places to go

Nigeria is home to over 20 million cows, mostly owned by Fulani herders. It has the fourth largest cattle population in Africa, and its dairy market is valued at $1.5 billion. But despite its size, almost 90% of local demand is met through imports, according to the US International Trade Administration. It’s a sign of the industry’s inefficiency, Ngelzarma said, as cows stressed from constant moving and poor diets can’t produce milk.

For Abuja, the city’s environment bears the consequence, and so do businesses when traffic grinds to a halt because cows are crossing busy roads. And in other parts of Nigeria, herders are often involved in violence with farmers over access to land, especially in central and southern Nigeria where the two industries overlap with religious and ethnic divisions.

There are four designated grazing reserves in rural areas surrounding Abuja, but they lack the needed infrastructure and have been encroached on by other farmers and illegal settlers, according to both Ngelzarma and Festus Adebayo, who’s executive secretary of the Housing Development Advocacy Network.

With those reserves not functioning, herders set up settlements anywhere and stay for as long as they can before legitimate owners claim it or the government builds on it.

Mohammed Abbas, 67, has repeatedly had to move locations over the years. Most of his current settlement in the city’s Life Camp neighborhood has been taken over by a newly constructed petrol station, and he is aware that the remaining land will soon be claimed by another owner.

As a smallholder pastoralist, he said he could not afford to buy land in Abuja for a permanent settlement and ranching. To afford one, “I have to sell all my cows and that means nothing will be left to put on the land,” he said in Hausa, sitting outside his hut.

Other pastoralists would rather resist.

“We are not going anywhere again,” said Hassan Mohammed, whose family now occupies a strip on the edge of a new estate near the Idu train station. Once a vast bush, the area has been swallowed by infrastructure and housing projects. Mohammed now also drives a lorry on the side because of the shrinking resources needed to keep cattle.

Despite repeated orders from the owners to vacate, Mohammed said that his family would stay put, using the dwindling strip as their home base while taking their cattle elsewhere each day for pasture. The landowners have repeatedly urged the government to resettle Mohammed’s family, but the government has yet to take action.

“Many don’t have anywhere to call home, so they just find somewhere to sleep at night with the cattle,” said Mohammed, in Hausa. “But for us, we are not leaving except there is a new place within Abuja.”
 

Making room for development and cows

Folawiyo Daniel, an Abuja-based real estate developer who has endured difficulties with pastoralists that affect his project development, said the issue is a failure of urban planning.

“Real estate development is not the problem,” he said, and the government should revive grazing reserves in the city for pastoralists.

Adebayo, from the Housing Development Advocacy Network, agreed, saying “it is time” for Abuja’s minister Nyesom Wike to take action and prove that “the problem of open grazing in the city of Abuja is solvable.”

Herders have to be moved to the place designated for their work or restricted to defined private property, he said.

The official responsible for animal husbandry in the agriculture ministry said they could not comment on a major policy issue without authorization, while the spokesperson for the ministry in charge of Abuja declined a request for an interview.

But in March, after the Belgian ambassador to Nigeria raised concerns to Wike about cattle roaming Abuja’s streets, he replied that efforts were in progress to stop the indiscriminate grazing without disclosing specific details.

Herders say they are not opposed to a restricted form of herding or practicing like a normal business that buys their own feedstock instead of using free pasture and water wherever they find them.

The problem, according to cattle association chief Ngelzarma, is that the government has neglected the sector and does not provide incentives as it does other businesses, giving the examples of irrigation systems for crop farmers and airports for private airline operators paid for by the government.

“The government should revive the gazetted grazing reserves fitted with the infrastructure for water and fodder production, training and veterinary services and generate jobs and revenues,” Ngelzarma said.

“Then, you can say stop roaming about for free pasture,” he said.

By Taiwo Adebayo, AP

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Lagos state bans single-use plastics

Nigeria’s Lagos State has announced a ban on the usage and distribution of styrofoam and other single-use plastics with immediate effect.

The Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab announced on Sunday, January 21 adding that the decision was reached, following the menace which the single-use plastics, especially the non-biodegradable Styrofoam, were causing on the environment.

He said most drainage channels in the state were daily clogged up by styrofoam through indiscriminate distribution and usage, despite the regular cleaning and evacuation of the drains.

Commissioner Wahab directed the State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, and the Kick Against Indiscipline, KAI, to immediately commence implementation of the ban.

He asked the two agencies to clamp down on all the production companies and distribution outlets for styrofoam in the state to prevent further distribution.

The commissioner advised producers, distributors, and end-users of styrofoam packs to take the ban seriously and find alternatives or risk heavy fines, and other penalties, including sealing of their premises.

He warned that they could also be made to bear the costs of the daily cleanup of their products from roads and drainage channels which runs into tens of millions of naira daily.

“Our state cannot be held hostage to the economic interests of a few wealthy business owners, compared to the millions of Lagosians suffering the consequences of indiscriminate dumping of single-use plastics and other types of waste,” he stated.

He advised consumers and residents to boycott styrofoam packs and single-use plastics and imbibe the practice of using reusable food containers and water bottles for their food and drinks. 

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Women in Nigeria lead drive to upcycle plastics

 For years, Maryam Lawani was really pained when it rained. She lived in the Oshodi Isolo area of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, where canals often overflow messily into the streets during downpours.

Additionally, she was always struck by the huge amount of plastic waste on the streets after the rains receded and how this in turn affected mobility or even made the roads deteriorate. After even a little rain in Lagos, the streets get muddy and potholes brimming by the side with broken plastics, gin sachets, pure water nylons, used diapers and other items.

“I felt a strong need to prevent climate crises as a response to a personal pain point,” she told Al Jazeera. So she began to research the recurring problem and then discovered that plastic pollution was a global issue.

According to the United Nations, on average, the world produces 430 million tonnes of plastic every year; wrappers for chocolate bars, packets and plastic utensils. And there are consequences; every day, the equivalent of over 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into water bodies. As a result, plastic pollution is set to triple by 2060 if no action is taken.

UN reports also say that Nigeria generates about 2.5 million metric tonnes of plastic waste annually. Of that, over 130,000 tonnes of plastic make their way into water bodies, putting the country among the top 20 contributors to marine debris globally.

And while Nigeria has several dumping sites for waste, those in the environmental sector like Olumide Idowu, executive director for International Climate Change Initiative, say there is no exact data on their number or capacity to handle large volumes of waste sufficiently.

So waste has visibly caused blocked drainages and pollution, even as climate shocks like floods hit parts of sub-Saharan Africa. This is most obvious in Lagos, the country’s most populated city, with an estimated 24 million people.
 

Challenges

Compared to other developing countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, which have banned single-use plastics or are gradually eliminating them, Nigeria hasn’t done much to combat plastic pollution, experts say.

In 2020, the Ministry of Environment launched the Nigeria Circular Economy Policy to help transition the country to a circular economy and promote sustainable waste management. But Idowu says proper waste collection and recycling facilities are still needed for Nigeria to tackle plastic pollution effectively.

“Nigeria may also need to strengthen existing regulations or introduce new ones to address plastic pollution,” he says, adding that the country’s large population could also be a challenge in enforcing them. ”[But] economic constraints and lack of alternative packaging options may hinder the transition away from single-use plastics.”

“As more individuals, businesses, and the government recognize the value of upcycling, it is likely that the sector will grow and contribute to a more sustainable and circular economy in Nigeria,” Idowu says.

Climate Lead’s Oladosu says there is a need to involve as many people as possible in the movement for a cleaner, greener Nigeria.

“We need to make people understand that climate change is real, and it will affect everyone regardless of where they live, Ajegunle or Lekki,” she said. “We can all feel the heat of the sun, the impact of flooding, etc. There are different angles to mitigating climate change and recycling is just one. Another is responsible consumption. There is a need for everyone to be climate and environmentally conscious.”
 

The recycling mission

During her research, Lawani discovered she could recycle plastics to help clean up the neighbourhood mess. So in 2015, she founded Greenhill Recycling which now recovers an average of 100-200 tonnes of waste monthly, she says.

Her business also provides a means of supplemental income for people around her, by paying them around 100-150 naira ($0.1265) for every kilogramme of trash collected.

“We encourage and sensitise people not to thrash waste but to bag them neatly in their homes,” she told Al Jazeera. “We pick up from their doorstep, their homes and not in dump sites.”

“Waste is a currency to address other issues around poverty, unemployment and the environment. People are able to exchange waste for profitable things like school fees, clothes and even food,” Lawani added.

Like Lawani’s Greenhill Recycling, several other women-led upcycling and recycling companies have sprung up in Africa’s largest economy, in addition to the well-known Wecyclers social enterprise.

In coastal Lagos, RESWAYE (Recycling Scheme for Women and Youth Empowerment) works in communities with women and young girls who are trained to go into schools and estates to retrieve plastics. Their collections go to a sorting hub and from there to upscalers.

Doyinsola Ogunye, founder of RESWAYE told Al Jazeera that it has reached 4000 women in 41 coastal communities in Lagos, while also giving personal hygiene kits to them and providing scholarships for children.

There is also the nonprofit Foundation for A Better Nigeria (FABE) founded by Temitope Okunnu in 2006 to create awareness about climate change in schools. It operates across three states.

“We visit primary, secondary schools and universities to sensitise young children about climate issues,” she said. “Behavioural change is still a big issue in this part of the country which is why we are focused on young children.”

Through an initiative called EcoSchoolsNg, it teaches students skills such as sustainable waste management – by recycling, upcycling or composting – and sustainable gardening.

FABE says it promotes plastic upscaling because according to Okunnu, “plastic is money but only a few people know this”, she told Al Jazeera.

The increasing awareness about recycling plastic into usable products can also be great for keeping youth engaged, says Adenike Titilope Oladosu, founder of ILead Climate, a climate justice advocacy.
 

The need for more work

Despite the work of these women and numerous non-profits to educate Nigerians on the adverse effects of climate change, ignorance is still widespread.

Passengers in moving vehicles still casually fling sachets and bottles onto the streets just like others sweep household waste into canals.

For Lawani and Okunnu, this is more evidence of the need to ingrain awareness of the environment and related consequences in their fellow Nigerians at all income cadres, from a young age.

“Exposed and enlightened young children are well aware but less privileged children whose concern is how to get the next meal may not be concerned about this so we need to direct our attention to them, sensitise people, help people find a link,” Lawani said. “People can easily relate to blocked drainages so teach people at their level. Help them see these links and connections and how it affects them too.”

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COP28 'Transition Away' From Fossil Fuels deal brings Mixed Reaction in Nigeria

A deal struck at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to “transition away” from fossil fuels received a less-than-hearty welcome Wednesday in Nigeria, which depends on crude oil sales for most of its budget.

Nigerian leaders said that their nation needs funding if the world wants it to move away from the production and use of fossil fuels.

The United Nations’ COP28 summit closed Wednesday with the signing of a deal to transition away from oil, gas and coal in what the text called a "just, orderly and equitable manner" in hopes of reducing carbon emissions and ease global warming.

It is the first such agreement to move away from fossil fuels since the annual conferences began nearly three decades ago.

The deal also seeks to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2030 and promote carbon capture technologies that can clean up hard-to-decarbonize industries.

The president of the COP28, the UAE’s Sultan al-Jaber, praised the deal but said its success would be measured by how well it is implemented.

Peter Tarfa, former climate change director at Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Environment, agreed, saying, “This is not the first time that decisions have been taken in climate change discussions ... that they have not been fully implemented. It is actually in the best interest of the climate that all hands should be on deck."

Others are not so pleased with the deal. Members of the OPEC oil-producing countries, including Nigeria, initially resisted calls by more than 100 nations for stronger measures, such as a complete “phase out” of fossil fuels.

Salisu Dahiru, director of Nigeria's National Council on Climate Change, attended a plenary session in Dubai on Wednesday.

"There's no fairness, justice, equity” in asking developing countries to “start ditching fossil fuels,” Dahiru said.

“These fossil fuels are necessary for developing countries to taste the goodness of development,” he said. “What we've always stood for is decarbonizing the oil and gas so that we get cleaner fuels.”

Critics argue that decarbonizing technology is expensive and a diversionary tactic by countries so that they can continue to produce fossil fuels.

Oil accounts for 95% of Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings. Tarfa said authorities must begin to look elsewhere to grow Nigeria's economy.

"There's a lot of investment now going on toward the green economy pathway,” he said. “For Nigeria, we cannot act in isolation. … The phaseout or phase down of fuel consumption will definitely impact the economy, but now the time has come for the government to start diversifying to other sources."

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, writing a column for CNN published Wednesday, said that Nigeria had initiated programs to transition from fossil fuels but that the country needs $10 billion every year until 2060 to achieve its transition plan.

Tinubu also criticized developed nations for failing to honor a pledge to give $100 billion to poorer countries to mitigate the effects of climate change.

By Timothy Obiezu, VOA

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President Tinubu says Nigeria needs quick US funding for energy transition

Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu said on Monday the United States should help with more funding to help Africa's leading oil producer accelerate its energy transition plans as he pledged to meet the country's climate change goals.

Oil remains Nigeria's biggest foreign exchange earner and like many African nations, Nigeria argues that it still needs to exploit its hydrocarbons to help provide power to millions of citizens without electricity.

In a meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, Geoffrey Praytt, Nigeria's president said the U.S. should speed up funding to help the West African nation achieve its energy transition goals.

"There are bottlenecks that must be unbottled in terms of how the U.S. bureaucracy responds to our needs. Help must be given when it is needed. Please take it home that we need help and very quickly too," Tinubu said.

"I want to assure you that Nigeria will honour her obligations on climate change and renewables," he said.

Nigeria's previous junior petroleum minister told U.S. climate envoy John Kerry last September that there was "some moral basis" for Nigeria to get funding from rich nations to meet its climate change goals.

Under Tinubu's economic plans, Nigeria would ramp up oil production to 4 million barrels per day, from an average 1.4 million bpd, which has raised questions on whether the country is still committed to its climate change goals.

By Felix Onuah, Reuters

Video - Rising sea waters in Nigeria threaten coastal communities

One such community dealing with the impact of rising sea levels is Ayetoro in the southwest Ordo state. A substantial part of the land has now been washed away. Scientists say climate change is primarily responsible.

CGTN

Displaced by devastating floods, Nigerians are forced to use floodwater despite cholera risk

Nigeria’s southern Bayelsa state is officially nicknamed the ‘glory of all lands.’ But much of it is now a river that has driven entire communities away from their homes.

Desperate to survive, many locals fleeing raging floods which have wrecked their homes and livelihoods are also forced to depend on floodwater for sustenance.

For displaced inhabitants of northern Bayelsa’s Odi town, who have found new homes in roadside shacks and tent shelters with no access to running water, stagnant floodwaters are the only available alternatives for drinking, cooking and bathing.

As she rinses her uncooked fish in dirty floodwater next to her neighbor doing his laundry, local trader Chigozie Uzo shares her fears of catching a waterborne disease.

“I’ve heard of cholera,” she told CNN, “but I don’t have a choice than to use this water.”

Meters away from Uzo, a young girl aged no more than five years old squats to urinate in the same floodwater she had rinsed her pot and plates in.

Humanitarian agencies fear the floods will contribute to a health disaster and Nigeria has already seen a rise in cholera infections as floods ravage many parts of the country.

According to UNICEF, “more than 2.5 million people in Nigeria are in need of humanitarian assistance – 60 per cent of which are children – and are at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the most severe flooding in the past decade.”

A rise in cholera infections could be devastating for the country as the World Health Organization warns of a “strained global supply of cholera vaccines.”

Bayelsa and 30 other Nigerian states have reported thousands of suspected cholera cases, the country’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said in a recent report.

Bayelsa is among 33 of 36 Nigerian states grappling with the devastation of the country’s worst flooding in a decade. More than 600 lives have been lost in floods across the West African country, its government says, and almost 1.5 million people have been displaced, according to the country’s humanitarian ministry.

Aniso Handy, 56, has remained in his house in Odi, which has been overrun by water.

“I still live here,” he told CNN as he paddled his canoe into his flooded living room before making his way to a dry room upstairs.

“My family doesn’t stay here because of the flood and for their safety … but I know how to swim,” he said.

For some in the community, such as 27-year-old Igbomiye Zibokere, this is not the first time they have experienced the devastating effects of flooding.

During the last major flooding in 2012, her sick mother drowned in her room when water engulfed their home, she told CNN.

“My mum was ill when the floods came in 2012. The water level was high and my sister and I couldn’t carry her. All we could do was cry as she drowned in her room,” Zibokere said.

Zibokere, who is a petty trader, said she returned from the bush near her home in early October to find it taken over by water. The water level rose to her neck and they were forced to leave the house.

She and her young children are now homeless and living rough in a makeshift tent by the roadside.

“We are in a canopy. If it rains, the canopy would be blown away by the wind and we’ll be beaten by the rain. I’m suffering now. No food to eat or water to drink,” the mother-of-five said.
 

Displacing the living and the dead

In Bayelsa’s capital Yenagoa, located 28 kilometers (17 miles) from Odi, floods have displaced not just the living but also the dead.

In Yenagoa’s Azikoro village, residents said bodies have been seen floating in floodwaters around a local cemetery.

Adjusting to life wading through the stench of the stagnant water isn’t the only worry for residents of Azikoro as the cost-of-living skyrockets in Bayelsa due to the floods.

With major highways underwater, Bayelsa has been cut off from the rest of the country. Boats have become the only way to get around much of its environment.

To get to Bayelsa, travelers pay around 2,000 Naira (less than $5) to get on a packed tipper truck to cross flooded roads.

Those unable to afford the fee can be seen wading through the water carrying what little possessions they can.

Nigeria’s current flooding has been attributed to above-average rainfall and an overflowing dam in neighboring Cameroon. But the situation has also been exacerbated by poor drainage infrastructure, environmentalists have said.

With a warmer climate causing more intense rainfall, authorities also blame climate change for the floods. In the meantime, the country aims to tackle one of the major causes of its flood problems by holding bilateral talks with Cameroon on the periodic opening of its dam, Nigeria’s humanitarian ministry said.

“We must initiate a bilateral discussion with authorities in Cameroon next month (November 2022) on the periodic opening of the Lagdo dam,” a statement by the ministry said last week.

Complaints leveled at authorities

But weeks since the flooding began, Nigeria’s government has yet to declare the flood a national emergency.

Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, told local media last week: “It’s certainly an emergency situation but it all depends on what you mean by the declaring state of emergency. We have not reached a situation in my view where the relevant emergency management authorities have not been able to deal with this situation.”

Handy isn’t pleased with the government’s response.

“Nigerians are used to managing. If not, we would have all died,” he said. “Nigerians care for themselves, we’re more like infants that have no father or mother.”

Authorities in Bayelsa say they are racing to provide relief items for the thousands displaced.

According to the local government, around 20,000 people now live in displacement camps, where they are provided “two meals daily” along with “medical services, potable water and other emergency aids.”

But for Zibokere, government efforts are rarely felt in her community.

“When relief items are sent to the community by the government, individuals handling them distribute most of it to their relatives. The rest of us are left in hunger,” she said.

Bayelsa government spokesperson Daniel Alabrah said the government was aware of these complaints.

“We hear some of those complaints but we cannot verify them because while some claim not to have gotten the relief materials, others say they got it,” Alabrah told CNN. “These reports help us to monitor the process to see that relief materials get to the persons they are intended for,” he added.

With the rains still coming and more expected through November, more intense flooding is imminent, the Nigerian government warns.

By Nimi Princewill and Larry Madowo

CNN 

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Nigeria’s Buhari orders formulation of action plan to prevent flood disasters

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has directed relevant government agencies to develop an action plan for the prevention of flood disasters in the West African country.

According to the president’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, Buhari directed the Minister of Water Resources to lead and coordinate with the Ministries of Environment and Transportation as well as State Governments to develop a comprehensive plan of action for preventing flood disasters in Nigeria.

Nigeria has been hit by perennial floods that caused the loss of hundreds of lives and massive destruction of property.

Currently, more than 2.5 million people in the country are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.

Flooding has affected 34 out of the 36 states in the country this year, killing more than 600 people and displacing 1.3 million people.

The UN says the country has recorded a rise in cases of diarrhoea and water-borne diseases, respiratory infection, and skin diseases.

Shehu noted that President Buhari is regularly receiving updates on the flooding situation and is committed to addressing the challenges caused by the disaster in the country.

By Jerry Omondi

CGTN 

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Video - Aid workers struggling to reach victims of floods in Nigeria

 

 

 

 

Video - Nigeria floods cause food, fuel shortages for over a million people

In Nigeria’s oil-rich Bayelsa state, nearly one and a half million people have been affected by severe flooding. The government is promising emergency supplies to deal with severe shortages of food and fuel. Ahmed Idris reports from Yenagoa.

Al Jazeera 

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Nigeria's flooding spreads to the Delta, upending lives and livelihoods

People wade through fast-flowing water, holding one another to avoid being swept away, balancing suitcases, clothing and food on their heads.

The torrent was, until recently, the East-West Road in Nigeria's Rivers state, the gateway to the nation's oil and gas.

Now parts of Rivers, along with large swathes of 32 other states, are inundated by the worst flooding in 12 years.

"We cannot access Ahoada West anymore," local government chairman Hope Ikiriko said of the area he represents. He said 30 boats were helping to move people to camps built to accommodate the area's 150,000 displaced.

"We are going to rescue people who hitherto never wanted to quit," he added.

Nigerian authorities said Rivers, Anambra, Delta, Cross River and Bayelsa states remain at risk of flooding until the end of November.

The flooding has killed more than 600 people, displaced around 1.4 million and damaged or destroyed 440,000 hectares of farmland. Health officials warn it could worsen an ongoing cholera outbreak, and even natural gas exports are at risk.

Authorities blame heavy rains and a water release from the Lagdo dam in Cameroon. Experts say global warming, and poor planning, worsened the disaster.

"Climate change is playing a big role in this," said Hiba Baroud, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University. "But the other component is...the vulnerability of the infrastructure. This is how we end up in a disaster like this one."

The 2021 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index ranked Nigeria among the bottom 20 nations in its readiness to adapt to climate change.

Baroud said a Nigerian dam meant to backstop Cameroon's Lagdo was planned, but never completed. A lack of zoning allows houses in flood zones and poor irrigation places farmers at the edge of rivers that can inundate their fields.

"It's going to have cascading effects on diseases, on food security and so on," Baroud said.

By Angela Ukomadu

Reuters

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Nigeria LNG declares force majeure as flooding disrupts gas supply

Nigeria LNG has declared force majeure because of widespread flooding that has disrupted supply, a spokesman for the company said on Monday.

The declaration could worsen Nigeria's cash crunch and will curtail global gas supply as Europe and others struggle to replace Russian exports due to the invasion of Ukraine in February.

NLNG said all of its upstream gas suppliers had declared force majeure, forcing it to make the declaration as well.

"The notice by the gas suppliers was a result of high floodwater levels in their operational areas, leading to a shut-in of gas production which has caused significant disruption of gas supply to NLNG," spokesperson Andy Odeh said.

Odeh said NLNG was determining the extent of the disruption and would try to mitigate the impact of the force majeure.

Flooding in Nigeria has killed more than 600 people, displaced 1.4 million and destroyed roads and farmland. Officials have warned that the flooding, caused by unusually heavy rains and the release of water from a dam in Cameroon, could continue into November.

NLNG's supply had already been limited due to prolific oil theft that has slashed output from what is typically Africa's largest exporter. NLNG had exported roughly 18 cargoes in September, according to Refinitiv data.

Nigeria relies on fossil fuel exports for 90% of its foreign exchange and roughly half its budget. Crude oil exports fell below 1 million barrels per day (bpd) on average in August, the lowest level since the 1980s, due to theft that has exceeded 80% on certain pipelines.

Crushing fuel subsidy costs have also kept Africa's most populous nation from benefiting from this year's surge in oil prices. 

By Libby George

Reuters

Related stories: Video - Aid workers struggling to reach victims of floods in Nigeria

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Video - Aid workers struggling to reach victims of floods in Nigeria

Aid workers in Nigeria are struggling to reach hundreds of thousands of people displaced by floods. Floodwaters have hit the country’s oil-producing region in the south, after devastating northern, central and eastern parts of the country. Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris reports from Atani, one of the worst-hit areas in southern Nigeria.

Al Jazeera 

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Video - Nigeria floods kills more than 300 and submerges homes, roads

Nigeria is battling some of its worst floods in a decade. Heavy rains have affected the south for weeks. More than 300 people have died and many houses have been destroyed by flood, causing many to ask whether the flood disaster is natural or manmade. Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker reports.

Al Jazeera 

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Nigeria Flooding Leaves More Than 500 Dead, 1.4 Million Displaced

Nigerian officials say at least 500 people have been killed and 1.4 million displaced in the worst flooding in a decade. Officials say floods have affected nearly all of Nigeria's states and 90,000 homes have been partially or completely destroyed.

The permanent secretary of Nigeria's ministry of humanitarian affairs and disaster management, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, announced the latest figures during a media briefing Tuesday in Abuja.

He said more than 1,500 people were injured and that the disaster had an impact on farmland across all but five of Nigeria's 36 states.

It is the worst flooding to be recorded in the West African nation since 2012. Authorities say heavier than normal rainfall and the release of water from a dam in Cameroon are to blame and have promised to help communities cope with the impact.

Isah Garba, who heads a community of farmers and fishers in Agabroko, in Central Kogi State, said the floods wreaked havoc on his people. He said his village was completely submerged, destroying farms of rice, corn, and even animals. He added that about 20 people died, mostly kids.

Thousands of people from Garba's area and neighboring villages are taking refuge on dry land several kilometers away from their homes. But there's limited access to basic amenities there, and the government's aid has yet to reach them.

Sani-Gwarzo said authorities have approved emergency action to mitigate the impact of the flood nationwide. He said a national emergency response plan will take into account other communities not directly hit by flooding.

Thirty-eight-year-old Fatima Adamu, who lost her livestock, is among those who say they need help. She said she lost 15 goats, and those that remain are falling sick.

The National Emergency Management Agency says that so far, it has reached some 300,000 people.

Meanwhile, Nigerian weather forecasters have warned that more flooding could be in store.

By Timothy Obiezu

VOA

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Flooding remains a major climate change concern in Nigeria. Over the years, irregular rainfall patterns have left many displaced from their homes and farmlands destroyed. One Nigerian entrepreneur is however changing the narrative with a newly adopted solution to flooding.

CGTN Africa

Nigerian coastal communities may be submerged in a few years

Coastal communities in Lagos are facing the grim prospect of being wiped out as a result of Ocean surge and erosion. The city's long stretch of shoreline is fast eroding with some coastal communities badly affected. Environmentalists are blaming the situation on climate change and human activities and are warning that if attitudes don't change and something done, Coastal communities in Lagos could be completely submerged in a few years time.