President Jonathan, where is the National Climate Change Bill?

On 9 December 2010 the harmonised version of the National Climate Change Commission Bill was forwarded to President Goodluck Jonathan for assent. It was received on his behalf by his Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters Dr. Cairo Ojougboh. It is now more than eight months since the transmission and there is still no word from the presidency on the fate of this very important bill. More than 30 such bills addressing several critical areas of our national life are currently lying on the same table gathering dust. This is incontrovertible evidence that we either have a president who is out of touch with the people or a presidency that has no capacity to do its job.

More than one fifth of the Africa’s poor, about 102 million people, live in Nigeria. They predominantly depend on rain-fed agriculture, as over 90 per cent of them are rain dependent, peasant farmers. Lack of irrigation facilities owing to few dams means that it is difficult to provide adequately for the water needs of most crops, thereby adversely affecting yield. Today, rainfall in Nigeria has become very irregular (intense in some areas and very sparse in others) and the agricultural base of the desperately poor is severely threatened. The situation places at risk more that 42 per cent of our GDP and increases the vulnerability of those in dire need of the dividends of democracy. The distant drought we were used to is increasingly spreading closer to the Guinea Savanna towards Kaduna and Niger states. Floods have devastated many parts of Nigeria leading to a loss of more than 150 billion naira (about $1 billion) in Lagos State alone and causing the displacement of more 1,800 people in Bauchi State. The erosion menace is a frightening reality throughout the entire South East. There are those within the government who still see climate change through the regrettable not-in-my-backyard lens or consider it as a problem of the future; the time has come for them to rise from their cold conceit, wake up to their responsibility and repent from inaction. The absence of an agency for the coordination of informed policy response to the issues of climate change has cost us beyond what can be calculated and has paved the way for ad hoc reactionary approaches that lack depth and are prone to capture. A full-fledged commission that has both the technical competence and regulatory teeth will indicate that we are ready as a nation to ameliorate the adverse effects of climate change (before it catches up with us) while innovatively tapping into the opportunities it offers.

The oil industry (our chief foreign exchange earner) draws intense criticism from development experts due to its huge contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. We are comfortably lagging behind because our government has always found one reason or the other to continue mindless gas flaring in the Niger Delta region. One third of all greenhouse emissions in Africa still come from just one single source - the oil industry. It is depressing that there is neither any clear understanding nor leadership nor courage on matters of climate change within any governmental institution in Nigeria. Vested interests are having a field day and have found 'innovative' ways of sedating our policy makers to keep shifting the goal post to the detriment of the population that they pretend to be catering for. How can we continue to close our eyes as the gas that could power our economy is turned to flames daily? How do we intend to feed the power plants that will give us the megawatts of the electricity we require to turn our economy around? When will the celebrated gas master plan go beyond media propaganda?

Many countries are building thriving low carbon economies that are creating new 'green' jobs for their population. Why are we always lagging behind only to tick the box as if such issues are sacred matters of international obligation? President Goodluck Jonathan carries the burden of the environmental despoliation and ecological catastrophe in the Niger Delta region in particular and in other parts of Nigeria. He needs to demonstrate leadership now.

On a lighter note, I saw a beautiful poster of our president a few days ago along a popular expressway in Abuja, with his eyes carefully plucked out. Could this be a subtle response from an increasingly frustrated ordinary Nigerian to the president's pace and style?

Those whose livelihoods are shaped daily by the caprices of climate change and who voted him into power in April 2011 deserve a better deal. Luck has offered Goodluck an important opportunity. He should append his signature to the National Climate Change Commission Bill and the many others also awaiting it.

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* Uche Igwe writes from the Africa Program, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC via ucheigwe[at">gmail.com.
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